The thing that is refreshing about this chapter (and this book) is that it isn’t sugar-coated. I remember in one of the student’s blogs, she mentioned the same thing. About how American history textbooks always made America look less worse than they really were . In this chapter, it talked about the mistreatment, segregation, and exclusion of Asians, Mexicans, Native Americans and Africans. It was a bit shocking to read some of the Anglos’ perspective during that time, and their rationale on why they thought it was right for them to exclude / reject other nationalities. I felt that Anglos were very ignorant during that time and the use of deculturalization was a dangerous thing. If they were successful in destroying people’s cultures during that time, America wouldn’t be this unique country that it is now.
Some questions/points that came to mind :
— The book mentioned this statement, “U.S republic could survive only with a white population”. It made me wonder if it weren’t for Mexicans, Asians, and Africans, would America have been able to develop into this industrialized country that it is today?
–I mean “white” Americans were reluctant to take on menial jobs, work long hours, and accept a low paying job. So if it weren’t for these Asians, Africans, and Mexicans (who built bridges, grew crops, ..etc), how would America look today? How would have made an impact to the development?The immigrants at that time contributed greatly to “building up” America, yet they were mistreated and segregated.
— Do we still see racism, segregation, or favoritism (to a particular race) today ? In a subtle and in an indirect way? For example, getting hired, acceptance to a college, or just daily interactions in society.
— Reading this chapter made me think about how radically America has changed from that time to now. It is amazing how a homogenous country who rejected and excluded other nationalities/cultures at one point became a complete melting pot. America is known as the country that is made up of numerous cultures/colors. It makes me wonder how they went from one extreme to another extreme.