Our entire semester so far has included a lot of reading regarding race and community. Even the books I personally chose to read for honors have to do about race and community. These new readings by Natalie Molina spoke to me in a new way that I have yet to think about.
Most of the beginning of the article Caught Between Discourses of Disease, Health, and Nation talks about the immigration of certain races, which is a new topic to our class. It also mentioned that in the beginning of the 20th century races had a certain ranking the government gave them. This ranking depended on a lot of things such as, wealthiest, where the race primarily lived, and one that really struck me—the degree to which they resembled the English.
I know that it is a different time, but this thoroughly upsets me. However I had to hold back the immediate reaction of rage felt toward the government for ranking races based on how Caucasian they are, to realize where this came from.
White people have always been the “best” in the United States. Is that racist, yes. Is it the hard truth that many people won’t admit to themselves, yes as well. Why is this though my mind wonders? I have an idea that it could be because white people immigrated to the United States before anybody else. They immediately saw the darker skin of the Native Americans, and what did they do? Killed them and drove them away. Starting generations to come of whites feeling supremacy based on skin color. But what if darker skinned races had come to America first? Would whites still be on top of the food chain? Would Native Americans still be here? Unfortunately we never can answers these questions, but they can generate a rich thought in all of us.
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