African American Conflicts

Throughout history, the United States of America has been involved in numerous conflicts. These conflicts have involved cultures all over the world and as a result we often see prejudice in our own country. This prejudice is often directed towards the citizens that have cultural ties to the perceived enemy. Having such a diverse culture within the U.S. is considered to be a good thing, but during times of war it can trigger harsh and negative treatment towards individuals that are looked at as “them”. There have been countless times where America has mistreated its own citizens because they were thought to be in correlation with the enemy. One of the times where American’s were treated as “them” was when European settlers came to North America …show more content…
This period of time was full of turmoil and at the time African Americans were slaves and thought of as lesser people. “The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states” (McPherson, 2014).
Once the Civil War was over and the North had won, it still did not give African Americans equal rights. This lead to the civil rights movement and people all over the U.S. labeled African Americans as “them.” They faced many violent protests and hate crimes and they stuck through it and have become U.S. citizens with equal rights. America is made up with a variety of ethnicities and they have all had to face some type of discrimination when first coming to America. This is the case for most of the first Irish people to come to the U.S. “The Irish American people faced much prejudice, racism and discrimination after their immigration to the United States because they were poor, uneducated, less skilled, considered disruptive and were Catholics in a land of Protestant dominance” (Muturi, 2015). There seems to be a common them that when new culture comes to America it is looked as at as a lesser and I think that relates to a fear of the unknown. These types of conditions are perfect for prejudices to starts developing and in this …show more content…
Ever since the 9/11 attacks on the world trade centers in New York, there has been prejudice and hate towards those from the Middle East. “A decade after Sept. 11, 2001, the survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, shows that a majority of Muslims say the terrorist attacks made it more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States. Many said that they had been singled out by airport security officers and that people had acted suspicious of them or called them offensive names” (Washington Post). It’s clear that some American’s still label Middle Easterners as terrorists and refer to them as “them” because they are still in