White Americans Come First

Improved Essays
White Americans Come First Given that, during World War II, many Jewish people were either currently living in Europe or were themselves European immigrants to the U.S., I assumed they were automatically included in the white majority and received the same privileges. However, Jewish people have an interesting position in America’s demographic makeup, being a minority group that exists within the racial majority. I was surprised and confused by America’s treatment of Jewish people during World War II, specifically those who wished to immigrate to America. I assumed that because these were white immigrants, America would welcome them in as fellow members of the white majority, but this was not the case. When reading about Samuel Dickstein’s …show more content…
I have heard this argument tossed around our family dinner table for several years: “Black people aren’t successful because they don’t work hard enough. They just protest to get more handouts and abuse the system. Asians do it right. They come here (legally), find jobs, send their kids to college, and they don’t complain.” This ridiculous sentiment (shared by almost every male in my family, and I suspect other members of the white majority) echoed in my head as I read Takaki’s discussion of the “model minority” and arguments against affirmative action. First, this argument assumes that because Asians “followed the rules” they did not face discrimination, which Takaki proves is not the case. Chinese immigrants were trapped in a “Chinese ethnic labor market composed mainly of restaurants and laundries” and were not eligible for citizenship until 1943 (Takaki, 2008, pp. 359-361). Both Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in a process eerily similar to the placement of European Jews in ghettos. To argue that Asian immigrants are “comparatively more accepted” because they have worked for it negates the discrimination they have had to overcome (and continue to face). My second issue with the argument of a “model minority” is that it is logically unsound; the idea that …show more content…
Suddenly, as the entire country was under attack, race no longer seemed to matter. America seemed to realize that winning the war would require the effort of the entire country. It was clear that discrimination would continue on American soil, but exceptions would be made for those fighting for America abroad. Minorities were being asked to protect a country that never protected them. Although all minorities were affected by the war, I was especially interested in Takaki’s discussion of America’s treatment of the indigenous population during and after the war. I knew that Native Americans had enlisted to fight for the United States during World War II, but I was unaware of their pivotal role in our success. Takaki (2008) notes the Navajo “code talkers” and their major contributions to the American military’s victory in the battle of Iwo Jima (p. 369). Despite their vital role in the war, once Native American soldiers returned to the United States, they continued to face crippling poverty and poor living conditions. I cannot imagine how it would feel to fight for a nation that had a long history of breaking treaties and killing my own people; I was struck by Native Americans’ insistence on protecting their country, even if it meant fighting for the people that oppressed them. I imagine it was traumatic for them at the conclusion of the war, as Americans continued to treat them as

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Congress held meeting. Humphrey broke away from the stance that everyone took and stated, “Well, we have been carrying on some operations in that area, and we’ve been having some covert operations where we have been going in and knocking out roads and petroleum things, and so forth.” The statement from Humphrey went against what the administration tried to do in the meeting, “President Johnson, Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk were all trying to convince Congress and the American public that the North Vietnamese attacks were unprovoked…” The Gulf of Tonkin started to become something of a mess because of the fact that Humphrey talked about the war plans. American officials who knew of the actual events of those two nights…

    • 2190 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Native Americans Imagine aliens from another planet landing on earth. Imagine if the people of the land accepted them and taught them how to survive on earth, only for the aliens to take away the land. In “Native Americans: Contact and Conflict,” Native Americans wrote down their experiences, letting the reader get a different perspective on events and occurrences that the reader would not get from reading white colonist papers. The writings provide the viewer with understanding and knowledge of Indian beliefs, culture, and feelings towards the white immigrants. At the beginning Indians welcomed the English with hospitality.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lakota Woman Quotes

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the novel Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog, it tells the life story of Mary "Brave Woman" Crow Dog. However, her story shows not only the happiness but the pain her and a lot of others felt. It also revealed he struggle of the Sioux as they waver between embracing the white man's ways and maintaining their ancestral traditions. Mary’s experiences show struggle, pain and determination in hopes of getting the reader to see both sides of the Indian movement. “The fight for our land is at the core of our existence, as it has been for the last two hundred years.…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Discussion 1 The turn of the century in 1900’s, most remaining Native Americans had been forced, to leave their ancestral lands; it was truly a time of cultural assimilation (Assimilation through Education). Some chose to live on the reservations that were created by the U.S. government starting in the 1890s, while others spent their lives hiding from whites whom they feared would kill or capture them. Native Americans world as they new it naturally died out, from progression (Assimilation through Education), they needed to become a part of white society. There Indian language, religion, and art, would become something from the past to be studied or viewed in a museum, but would not be the products of living cultures.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Roundhouse Analysis

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Americans have a well-established tradition of imposing themselves onto other, less powerful peoples. The United States government has perfectly exemplified this when it comes to their treatment of Native Americans. Since their arrival in the fifteenth century, Europeans have exterminated Indian tribes, relocated them, and attacked their cultures. These strategies compounded and advanced well into the modern era, coming into fruition in the American government’s policies of termination in the 1950s, The Dawes Act of 1887, and Richard Pratt’s boarding schools in the late nineteenth century. Sherman Alexie’s…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sand Creek The Morning After In Annette Jaimes, “Sand Creek The Morning After” she first starts by giving a background to the atrocities done to the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho in late 1864 after stating they were at peace. This group of people, after being having countless lives taken, were driven out of their Colorado. She moves forward two decades where the American Indian community celebrate the renaming of Nichols Hall and honoring those who were slaughtered at Sand Creek.…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    INTRODUCTION Even though World War II is seen, from an American perspective, as a heroic war in which the United States fought against fascism and for freedom and equality, the race relations in the United States did not reflect these noble goals. In this essay I aim to deconstruct the ways in which race relations in the United States perpetuated systemic racism and the unequal power systems that had been in place for many years. To discuss these points I specifically highlight the cases of Japanese Internment, Native American relations, and Jewish American relations with the United States government.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Cherokee Removal

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Perdue and Green’s “The Cherokee Removal, A Brief History with Documents” is an introduction to the social and political period surrounding the removal of Cherokee Indians. The authors’ inclusion of many documents, shares with readers, the Indian voices as well as key political figures’ position on sovereign governance. This complex period is successfully outlined by Perdue and Green, with a chronological account of the Indians’ first encounter with Europeans through the inevitable journey, “Trail of Tears”.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Commonly, many use this idea of meritocracy as a way to deny the existence of white privilege by claiming—as Americans—we all have equal rights and equal opportunity to succeed. This idea is flawed however, since one of the main concepts of white privilege is, not that people of color don’t have equal rights, but that a person of color may have to work so much harder for the same opportunity that someone white may have gained access to more readily. This subtle, yet pervasive system of white privilege contributes to the maintenance of existing racial…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Native Americans Historically, Native Americans have participated in military operations since the colonization of America during the 17th century (Nancy,2005). Their involvement expanded during the late 1800’s when they were drafted to serve in segregated units however, they were still not able to claim U.S citizenship. During World War I, Native Americans did not receive equal treatment compared with Caucasian soldiers. The Navajo and Apache “code talkers” were responsible for significant breakthroughs in the Pacific during World War II (Nancy,2005).…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Andrew Jackson And Greed

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This paper was written about a soldier in the 1830s who wanted to share his accord as to how Americans’ are only educated on the good of their country and not necessarily the bad. He believes that America has done an injustice to these Native Americans,’ the Cherokees to be exact. Telling us how by recalling his memories to express the significance of greed, the treatment of Native Americans,’ and how he and others were complacent. Let’s start off with the overall problem in the story, greed, because without it. None of these incidents would have ever taken place.…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Imagine being torn from your house and stripped of your civil rights and liberties because of your race. This is what happened during World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The United States’ citizens and government officials were suspicious of the Japanese-Americans being disloyal to their country. This fear became the reason many people lived in military-style barracks surrounded by barbed wire fences and guards at an internment camp (Interview 2). What was life like to live there for the duration of the war?…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Review of “The Storm That Swept Mexico” The review of the documentary “The Storm That Swept Mexico” will cover two points in this review. The first point of my review will be how this documentary demonstrated how individualistic and collectivistic culture's interaction can lead to events such as a revolution. Secondly, I will attempt to answer the question of what was the effect of revolution on Mexico and its peoples. Individualistic and collectivist cultures in “The Storm That Swept Mexico” demonstrate how views can be used to gain an advantage if one does not have the scruples to morally guide them.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In society now until eternity, women of color are facing oppression in their lives. There are four readings that connect each book together. Within those four readings there three main issues that women of color facing oppression are their racial model minority, gender role, and how the way women are look down. What ties all these main issues is what happened in the 19th century when racism, stereotype, and inequality was exits until now.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Opposition of Affirmative action isn’t just restricted to majority races that feel that an unequal admission process in unfair to them, its opposition has transcend to some minorities as well. Specifically Asian Americans who find “it's in their self-interest to fight affirmative action” on the basis that in the absence of Affirmative Action they have been able to increase their race’s probability of enrollment in educational institutions. Yet Asians “are in the position to leverage their education and financial resources… but other groups like Mexican immigrants remain disadvantaged. Not all groups have… the same type of ethic capital” (NBC News). So despite the fact that Asian may have reached the upper hand in terms of gaining a higher standard…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays