Lise Funderburg's The Changing Face Of America

I don’t really know many multiracial people, so it's hard for me to kind of get into this. Personally it doesn’t seem like I have a racial problem, but then again, I don't see that many black people around. When I go to big cities in different states, I see them more than I do here. Walking down the street while i'm here, I try to smile to everyone just to try to make their day better. While I'm in a big city, I try and do the same, but in a bigger city it seems like people aren't even paying attention as much as I am. Some people seem dark or angry or something. So eventually, I give up until someone smiles at me first. Lise Funderburg, author of the article, The Changing Face of America, has talked to several different racial people. One
in particular is Celeste Seda, she has a Dominican-Korean background, but she doesn’t tell people right away, she lets them guess. Seda said in Lise Funderburg’s article, “The attention she gets for her unusual looks can be both flattering and exhausting. “It’s a gift and a curse” (Funderburg). .America is so much better compared to what it use to be. Some of the ways it has changed for the better: people can have interracial marriages, people don’t have to just pick one race on the census, and there are more laws to obtain citizenship in the United States. (Anecdote) First of all, interracial marriages is a marriage between different races. About 50 years ago, when the Civil Rights Act was coming out not many people approved of the interracial marriages. Over time, it has reached an all time high of 77% of public approval. Sandra Williams in particular grew up in a time when people just believed in a black-white society. She was born to parents that had black and white ancestors. By the time she was born in 1966, 17 states still had laws against interracial marriage (Funderburg 1).
Secondly, people have more freedom if they have more than just a black or white option. What I mean by this, is that back in the day, the census use to have only white or black under the race section. According to Funderburg, “the U.S. Census Bureau has collected detailed data on multiracial people only since 2000, when it first allowed respondents to check off more than one race, and 6.8 million people chose to do so. Ten years later that number jumped by 32 percent, making it one of the fastest growing categories” (Funderburg). People didn’t really have a choice on what race they want to be. Like in the Sandra Williams's case, who Lise interviewed, she didn't really get a choice other than black or white, when this girl looked Asian because her parents were different colors. “Williams’s western Virginia hometown, there was only one Asian child in her school. To link her own fair skin and hair to her white ancestry, Williams says, would have been seen by blacks as a rejection. And so, though she views race as a social construction, she checks black on the census. “It’s what my parents checked,” she says” (Funderburg).
Thirdly, is the way laws have changed immigration and the way America treats them.
In 1790 the first immigration law was made. It is called the Naturalization Act. This act was only for white people who weren’t born in the U.S. but wanted to become a U.S. citizen. In order to consider even applying for this, you had to live in the U.S. for two years without getting in trouble. This act was repealed and replaced with the Naturalization Act in 1795. This new one states that a person had to be in the U.S. for five years instead of two. Then once again in 1798 the Naturalization Act was changed and passed. Now an immigrant had to be in the U.S. for 5 to 14 years. This act was later repealed in 1802. Since then there was more laws passed, but the most recent law passed was the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act in 2013. This act helps kids who have lived most of their lives in the U.S. but they aren’t citizens and neither are their parents. It helps those kids keep both of their parents in the U.S. and help those kids move on with their education. The National Immigration Law Center Website states, “The DREAM Act would enact two major changes in current law: The DREAM Act would permit certain immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and to eventually obtain permanent legal status and become eligible for U.S. citizenship if they go to college or serve in the U.S. military; and eliminate a federal provision
that penalizes states that provide in-state tuition without regard to immigration status” (nilc.org). In conclusion America has changed in many ways, and especially for immigrants. People can get married to whoever they want. Any race they want. Any sex they want. People now get a chance to pick a race other than white or black. They get a choice of Asian, Latino, Indian or even Hawaiian. Those are just crazy specific races, but some people get offended if they weren’t white or black and had to only pick out of the two.