Racially Inferior Character Analysis

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a new wave of immigration hit the United States. These new immigrants typically came from different cultural backgrounds than the “original” immigrants to the United States (the English, Dutch, French, etc). American nativist groups vehemently opposed free, unrestricted immigration because they viewed new immigrants as an inferior race, a threat to American culture, and the root of most of society’s problems. New immigrants were viewed as inferior because the majority of them hailed from non-anglo-saxon countries, and many were of a different denomination or different religion altogether. Nativists also viewed these new immigrants as a threat to American culture because of their lack of English-speaking skills and different cultural practices brought from their homelands. Another

Joseph Healey’s “From Immigrants to White Ethnics” is a generalized comparison between the varying groups of individuals that accompanied the colossal waves of immigration to the United States from Europe in the nineteenth century. Immigration to this country resulted from a number of reason such as religious persecution, individuals seeking to find employment after industrialization in their home countries limited their livelihood, and political oppositions to name a few. On arrival the immigrants knew immediately they were of the subordinate group and faced “discrimination and prejudice” (Healey, 2012, p. 54), although some more so than others. Among the first immigrants to arrive in the United States were Northern and Western European citizens. Unlike the immigrants from Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe that chose the United States for their new homeland these individuals were probably the most accepted by the majority, even if considered just nominally superior to the others. Included in this group were the “English, Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Welsh, French, Dutch and Danes” (Healey, 2012, p. 56). This acceptance was due in part to the similarities that the dominate group held as ideals such as their religion, along with cultural values and characteristics. If the Northern and Western Europeans found acceptance difficult, individuals from Ireland and the Europeans from the south and east had an even more traumatic experience. Whereas the more accepted group had

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) have been at the top of the social hierarchy ever since they arrived to America in the 1600s. The first wave of immigration consisted of the Germans, Irish and Chinese. The WASPs created a way to measure the success of each immigrant group. They acknowledged four factors of success that would show them whether an immigrant group was successful or not. The first factor of success was how much money an immigrant had when they came to America. The more money they came to America with, the more successful they were. Another factor of an immigrant’s success was how large the group they came with was. The larger the group, the less respect and

While this cartoon is based in America the prejudice against Irish natives and immigrants had long been in issue. Over the centuries Ireland has dealt with conquerors, loss of culture, poverty, hunger and political strife. The emerald isle was entirely conquered and colonized by the British in the second part of the sixteenth century. After the colonization Ireland’s inhabitants

In the 1850s, many Chinese workers migrated to America by starting in the gold mines to agricultural jobs to factory work to garment industry. Chinese immigrants were instrumental in building the railroads in the West. As the Chinese laborers increased, so did the anti-Chinese sentiment among workers in the American economy. In result, passing legislation that limited future Chinese laborers in the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act was formed from the unsettling of economic competition. Most Chinese labors sent money back to China to support their families as well as pay of loans to those who paid for their trip to America. The pressures left them to work for whatever wages they could get. However, white laborers required higher wages.

The Irish Immigrants that came to the United States after the potato crop failure were not greeted with a warm reception. In fact, they migrated at a time when the U.S. was experiencing anti-immigrant movements, consequently leading to acts of violence and harsh words against them. A major contributing factor to the oppression they faced was the fact that they were so far off from meeting the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant criteria that was present in society. Surprisingly, the Irish were at one point treated and viewed worst than the African Americans because they would not accept their mistreatment in silence. Essentially, their resistance to the mistreatment that they endured made the White American consider them to be “out of place” therefore they were a problem, much like that of the Native American Indian, whom the British settlers feared during the early colonization of America. Similarly, the Irish were separated by employers and mixed with other immigrant groups to prevent revolts just as they did with the African slaves and Native American Indians during the colonial days. Notably, the Catholic Irish received the worst treatment for a period of time as their customs were considered unusual and were not tolerated. Unfortunately, the intolerance that persisted in society led to the burning of Catholic homes and a convent, destruction of churches, murders, as well as death (pg. 120). In an effort to save their selves, the Irish noticed the need to assimilate with

In 1850, the Congress created the Foreign Miners License Law where the Foreign immigrants were to pay $20 a month in order to mine. The Sidewalk Ordinance of 1870, banned the Chinese to carry vegetables and their laundry on a pole which was part of their culture in China. The Queue Ordinance of 1873 did not allow Chinese men to wear long braids which was a Chinese custom. As the years went, immigrants started to become less and less respected and was very limited to certain things. Immigrants were now not allowed to work for the federal state, and local governments, and were no longer able to educate their children in Public Schools. This led the American Dream for the Chinese to shut in 1882 when the Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which was a restriction of free labor in the United States and also excluded the Chinese Laborers from the Country under penalty of imprisonment and rusticate to China. The Chinese began to see themselves cipher and that their dream to strike rich was

Many immigrant groups such as the Irish and the Jew migrated to the United States of America in the 19th century to seize a chance to obtain a better degree of social, education, freedom opportunity ranging from escaping religious oppression to desiring to go the “Promised Land” and food shortage to job employment. However, the moment the immigrant groups arrived to the United States of America, the “Anglo-European”, Americans, or Whites racialized them, inserting each immigrant groups into the lowest position among with Black of the class hierarchy where Whites are at top based on racial formation. Racial, class, class formation, and gender formation are the society’s set of expectation of a particular race detailly constantly constructed

From the Norman Invasion in the late 12th century until the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922, Ireland was either under direct English rule or subject to direct British political involvement. Under British rule, the Irish were stereotyped as stupid, “half-human savages” and later, as lazy, idle drunkards (Judd). Not so much changed in terms of hibernophobia for those who left Ireland for the United States. In fact, several new stereotypes were born. The Irish were again labeled lazy drunkards, an ironic stereotype because of the contradicting occupational stereotypes of the Irish being policemen, lawyers, firefighters, and bartenders which are well-paying, steady jobs that could not be held by lazy drunkards. The Irish were also stereotyped as violent because of the prevalence of usually criminal gangs such as the Dead Rabbits and The Westies and events such as “Bloody

The earliest form of racial discrimination against Asian Americans was encountered during the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush attracted Chinese immigrants who came to California to fill the high demand for laborers. However, as more and more Chinese immigrated to California and the lower-paying labor jobs were filled, the Chinese began filling higher-paying positions typically held by Whites. As a result, an anti-Chinese Movement was formed followed by the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prevented any additional Chinese immigration into the United States. Essentially, Chinese were discriminated against by the Whites due to fear of the Chinese taking over their jobs. After World War II, the federal government ended

Americans viewed Irish as alcoholics due to the drinking that is weaved into their culture and ways of living. Much like our culture does today, Irish drank in several difference social settings, although they did drink alcohol at someone’s wake before the funeral, which may have been what disgusted Americans the most. Americans saw alcohol has ruling over the Irish and they were merely the slaves. One should also note, this was during the time of the ban of alcohol in the United States, so to see one consuming alcohol at such high rates was highly alarming and it would not be long for one to create a bad reputation because of something so simple. Due to this, Americans also stereotyped the Irish to be unskilled and lazy, at times signs were even put into windows stating things such as, “Irish need not apply.” At this point in history, Irish were viewed much similarly to African Americans when it came to respect.

The Irish people have been on the receiving end of many racial stereotypes. When they migrated to America because of lack of jobs, poor living conditions, and many other reasons they were treated as the lowest member of the social class. They were given jobs that were thought to be too unsafe for blacks to carry out because the loss of a slave was an out of pocket expense (Kinsella, 2002). But The Irish were not only discriminated against in America, but in their own country as well, and England. And in the book written by Frank McCourt, he really focuses on the Irish stereotypes. But did it affect Frank when he was growing up, and why were the Irish discriminated so much by the use of these stereotypes?

In 1882, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, outlawing Chinese immigration for 10 years and explicitly denied naturalization rights to the Chinese (Schaefer91). In 1884 there was a 10 year ban on Chinese laborers and in 1992 Congress extended the Exclusion Act another10 years and stipulated that Chinese laborers obtain certificates of residence within a year or face deportation. As Congress closed the door to Chinese immigration, immigration laws turned in new directions (Schaefer 92).

Before 1965, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the main immigration policy that affected Chinese immigration. The Exclusion Act passed in 1882 aimed at preventing the migration of any Chinese laborer into the U.S. in order to preserve the racial hegemony and conserve the Anglo-Saxon “American” (Zhou 2017: Week 2). The Chinese Exclusion Act was originally enacted to last ten years and excluded merchants and their families, business owners, students and diplomats. However, immigration officials asked for proper identification plus documentation approved by the Chinese government that stated the person’s height, weight, official rank, age, and physical peculiarities (“Chinese Exclusion Act” 1882: 77-8). The Exclusion Act was later modified through the Geary Act in 1892 to add more provisions and lengthened the Exclusion an additional ten years (Zhou 2017: Week 2). Additionally, European immigrants also saw Chinese immigrants as a threat since Chinese immigrants worked for the lowest wages and were used as strikebreakers against European immigrants when fighting for minimum wages (Zhou 2017: Week 2). U.S. Congress continued

The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 was an act passed by Congress that stopped Chinese immigrant laborers from coming to the U.S.