Chapter 5 discusses the power struggle and tensions between the Protestants, Catholics and also how they discriminated against African Americans. I think that it is obvious that over the centuries and more recent decades, discrimination against African Americans has significantly declined. And yes I know that discrimination still exists today are that there are some very racist people, it is nothing like what it was before. It takes a lot of time to see a significant change and everyday now we are still progressing forward. But what I thought was also interesting was the discrimination against the Irish immigrants. The “drunken Irishmen” scared the Anglo-Protestants because they thought the Irish were going to kill the American Dream.
This tension between the Irish and Anglo’s lead to a lot of tension between Catholics and Protestants. In the common schools, there was not much diversity in them. The only common thing was that Protestant values were the ones taught in this school. This is what caused catholic schools to open. The Government felt to take matters in their own hands and tried to push their own religious values on others by making the pledge of Allegiance a mandatory part of every school morning. I am catholic, I was raised catholic and I received all of my sacraments, but what I wanted to know was if there will ever be equality between the religions. Before President Obama, most of the other presidents were all White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Do these religious differences still exists today? Many people turn to religion as a means to explain things they do not know and many like believing in the idea of a higher power. But does having a belief like this make you better then someone who does not?
