The Conflict Between Symbolic Ethnic Identity and Socially Enforced Racial Identity

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The Conflict Between Symbolic Ethnic Identity and Socially Enforced Racial Identity Racism and discrimination in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era. Heavy burdens of racism in the country have fallen upon African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Italian Americans, and a host of other ethnicities of color and their descendants. Discrimination against African Americans, Italian Americans, and people of color has been widely acknowledged. Members of every major American ethnic minority have perceived racism in their dealings with people in the majority group. Throughout the history of the United States Italians and other ethnic groups of color did not have the opportunity to celebrate their symbolic identity, but rather had a socially imposed racial identity. Racist attitudes, or prejudice, were held by a substantial portion of the U.S. population when Italians first immigrated to America. When Italians immigrated to the country originally race mattered, and by some Italians were not considered White. Italians have struggled throughout history to identify themselves as being White and have a symbolic identity. According to Richards Italian Americans were a targeted group of immigrated groups regarded as “nonvisibly black and suppressed or tried to suppress multicultural traditions that might try to protest such racism” (Richards, p.13) There have been trends in the current history of the United States to take on an American identity. There has been a rise in ethnic identification throughout history. White Americans have the ability to reclaim ethnic affiliations, joining ethnic clubs and organizations, celebrating ethnic holidays, and researching their ethnic ancestries without social cost for the individual. “These symbolic identifications are essentially leisure-time activities, rooted in nuclear family traditions

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