Throughout history, many immigrants have come to America and faced harsh discrimination. However, most of these immigrant groups assimilate fairly quickly and are accepted as Americans within a couple of generations. For Asian Americans and Latino Americans, though, it has been a different story. There are a few different reasons as to why Asian and Latino immigrants may have been and continue to be treated differently; these include, discrimination because of the color of their skin, their willingness to do hard work for low wages, nativism, and the strong community and ethnic bonds of Latino and Asian communities.
Not unlike other immigrant groups, Latinos and Asian Americans faced harsh and brutal discrimination from white Americans. However, many immigrants were later accepted to a greater extent than Asian and Latino Americans ever got to be. This is because many other immigrant were white. Although all foreigners were looked down on, whites were generally regarded as superior. Of course, the judges of this superiority were white protestant lawmakers. These lawmakers debated about who would be considered white, and therefore be granted all rights. After some controversy, it was finally decided that Catholics and Jews would be considered white. Latinos and Asians were very clearly white, though, and that was not up for debate. …show more content…
Chicanos and Cubans were classified as lazy, whereas Chinese were classified as drug addicts and part of the inferior "yellow race." This inspired many Americans to see foreigners as a serious danger to their own society and culture, a phenomenon called nativism. This rise in anti-immigrant sentiment from many native-born Americans reinforced the status of Asian Americans and Latino Americans as strangers and aliens, thus making it even more difficult to
Not unlike other immigrant groups, Latinos and Asian Americans faced harsh and brutal discrimination from white Americans. However, many immigrants were later accepted to a greater extent than Asian and Latino Americans ever got to be. This is because many other immigrant were white. Although all foreigners were looked down on, whites were generally regarded as superior. Of course, the judges of this superiority were white protestant lawmakers. These lawmakers debated about who would be considered white, and therefore be granted all rights. After some controversy, it was finally decided that Catholics and Jews would be considered white. Latinos and Asians were very clearly white, though, and that was not up for debate. …show more content…
Chicanos and Cubans were classified as lazy, whereas Chinese were classified as drug addicts and part of the inferior "yellow race." This inspired many Americans to see foreigners as a serious danger to their own society and culture, a phenomenon called nativism. This rise in anti-immigrant sentiment from many native-born Americans reinforced the status of Asian Americans and Latino Americans as strangers and aliens, thus making it even more difficult to