Discrimination Towards African Americans

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Ethnic Groups & Discrimination Nikkole Carroll Axia College You always hear about how the African Americans or the Mexican Americans have been treated throughout the decades. What they went through and how they survived to be what they are today, but what about the Japanese Americans? People have been leaving their countries and traveling to America for years, in search of a better life. Some that come are welcomed with open arms, and others are not welcomed at all. Japanese have been coming to the United States since the early 1800’s. They can for a better life, better jobs, and many other freedoms that were not available in Japan. They did face many damaging challenges when coming to the States; they faced the racism…show more content…
Japanese Americans would go to grocery stores and be asked to leave or denied services at the checkout. Other problems were reverse discrimination towards the Japanese Americans. People would discriminate Japanese over African Americans. They would use the racial groups against one another in all aspects of social life. The only jobs that the Japanese could get at the time of WW2 were the “blue collar jobs,” they would work long and hard hours and be paid less than the other races there. They worked in mills, factories and farms. It’s a prime example of a dual labor market. As stated by the Webster Dictionary, it is a theory that divides the economy into two parts such as primary and secondary or superior and inferior. It means that there were jobs that were classified as superior jobs that paid more and high skill levels, and then there were the jobs that were the “blue collar” jobs with the lower level skills. Many who had the higher skills to work a primary job were placed in secondary jobs due to their race. The internment camps were the worst that had happen to Japanese Americans. They were taken from their daily lives and forced into a camp, where they had to live their lives. It was all because the United States and its people were afraid of a homeland internal attack. “Faced with a hostile press…show more content…
They forced them into camps, discriminated them for jobs, and from society. The camps that the government put them into were over populated, unclean, guarded and to the people being held there, they were a prison. From an unidentified victim from the camps wrote this,” At Gila, there were 7,700 people crowded into space designed for 5,000. They were housed in mess halls, recreation halls, and even latrines. As many as 25 persons lived in a space intended for four, but when we first arrived at Minidoka, everyone was forced to use outhouses since the sewer system had not been built. For about a year, the residents had to brave the cold and the stench of these accommodations."(PBS 1999) The camps were almost like the concentration camps that were Germany. The only difference was the United States was not killing anyone in the camps intentionally. Through all the suffering and the racial discrimination that the government put the Japanese Americans through, years later the government gave a letter of apology to the victims of the camps. Written and signed by former President Bill Clinton himself. The government also rewarded $20,000 to the internment camp victims. (PBS 1999) The apology followed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Today the racism is still there but not as thick as it was in the 1940’s. Today our society has moved on and has come together for the most
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