United States and U.s. History

Associate Program Material

Racial Diversity: Historical Worksheet

Answer the following questions in 100 to 250 words each. Provide citations for all the sources you use.

Throughout most of U.S. history, in most locations, what race has been in the majority? What is the common ancestral background of most members of this group?
I think that the majority race has been the white race throughout most of U.S. history. They were the majority race that chose to settle in the U.S. and capitalize here. The common ancestral background of most members in this group, comes from European descent. The white race decided to turn the U.S. into their own profit, and they were in control for a long time, setting social standards and turning this country into a form of profit in order to capitalize here. The white race has built this country to become what it is today, however in my opinion, it was the slaves (African Americans) that the whit race kept that should get credit for the work that they put in, because they did all the work.

What are some of the larger racial minorities in U.S. history? What have been the common ancestral backgrounds of each of these groups? When did each become a significant or notable minority group?
There are several larger minorities in U.S. history, mainly the African American and the Latino race.
Their common racial backgrounds are Africa, America, Puerto Rico, the Islands, and Mexico to name a few. In 1928, the African American race became a significant minority when the last state ended slavery.
Latinos became a larger minority when they started to triple in size between the 1990’s and the early 2000’s. They started to grow as a minority group. Mrlincolnandfreedom.org, 2013

In what ways have laws been used to enforce discrimination? Provide examples. These laws were intended against which racial minorities?
Based on my research, I have found that the most popular law, was the Jim Crow Law.
This law was found and practiced in the South shortly after the slavery ended. This law was creating obstacles for African Americans by preventing them to gain equality in the U.S. This law was made out of prejudice and discrimination, and was only meant to create hardships for African Americans, because slavery had ended. The Jim Crow law started the segregation, for example, African Americans could not go to the same schools, restaurants, or even drink from the same water fountain.

In what ways have laws been used to eliminate discrimination? Provide examples. Did the laws work to eliminate discrimination?
There have been laws made in order to prevent discrimination after political protests, and people standing up for their rights. In today’s society, one can not be mistreated or denied housing, sexual orientation, jobs, government assistance, etc. because there are illegal consequences to doing so. Majority of these laws do not only consider the race anymore, they consider the sex, the age, religion etc., and I think that this is justified. The affirmative action of the courts and prison systems which have discriminated against African American’s and Hispanics by giving them 20% longer sentences, is one example of a law that eliminated discrimination. To this day, discrimination is still present. But some of these laws have tried to create equality for everyone. Schaefer 2012/ www.Justice.gov