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Roman Catholic And Mexican Immigrants Essay

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Since the United States was created, immigrant groups have been discriminated against due to their religious, ethnic, and/or national origin backgrounds. Possessive investment in whiteness has operated throughout all this time by keeping privileges and resources to certain groups and defining whiteness through the exclusion of others (Lipsitz 4). Through this process of exclusion negative discursive formations have been created around immigrant groups and impacted their levels of assimilation. As a result, there have been many discriminatory practices against immigrants throughout history with variations in how that discrimination is carried out (Dinnerstein and Reimers 104). The two main immigrant groups I am going to focus on are Roman Catholic and Mexican immigrants. In the beginning of American history (and throughout), there has existed a sentiment against Roman Catholic immigrants. Dinnerstein and Reimers give the example of John Adams’ letter to his wife reflecting his negative perceptions of Roman Catholics and their practices, these same thoughts were shared by many other Americans at the time (17-18). As a result of these perceptions, Roman Catholics were discriminated against and often kept from exercising their right to vote during colonial America. Not being allowed to vote and consequently, not being able to be heard in society intentionally keeps immigrant groups from assimilating into the dominant culture because they are not able to contribute or

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