The history of migration and immigration in the United States is one of the dominant forces shaping our experience of race relations today. For many immigrants, racism is learned in America.
For many immigrants, the United holds a universal promise of the American Dream. But for many to attain this promise, many immigrants quickly learn the unspoken roles of society.
For some immigrants, their first knowledge of anti-black racism is derived mainly from their other immigrant communities, as they adopt the prevailing racist sentiments of the white power structure and false narrative in the United States, which clearly holds African-Americans as inferior and as such their lives are not as worthy as Whites.
In many cases, new immigrants are presented with two choices — fight for inclusion into the white race (white power structure) or align with people of color, who they knew fared even worse than them. One Serbian immigrant worker once said, “You soon know something about this country. … Negroes never get a fair chance.”
In the past, white power structure based their evidence of whiteness on the actions and affiliations of immigrants. In most cases, new immigrants chose whiteness and sought to demonstrate their cultural and biological fitness to appease the white structure. They soon learned, though, when whites said “prove yourself,” helping protect and expand white supremacy was considered convincing evidence.
Italians, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, Slavs, and other European groups had to overcome prejudice over many years by proving themselves as whites in other to continue to benefit from the white power structure.
Perhaps the Asian immigrant’s cozy relationship and high rate of Republican membership best exemplify this complex race- and politics relationship as it becomes an issue on contemporary American society. Many viewed Asian American immigrants as the best case of affiliation with the white power structure, and as such has enjoyed praises from white power structure as they commonly referred to them as “Model Immigrant”
Many new immigrants watched whites abuse blacks, police brutality, and in a short time, mimicked whatever they saw and whiteness — the carrot they had long reached for — slowly came closer to their grasp, as they tend to become even more racist to prove their loyalty to the white power structure.
In the early 60s, New immigrants’ participation in the widespread use of racially restrictive covenants, an integral tool in achieving residential segregation, was most crucial in their proving themselves.
The recent demonstrations have been the most inclusive in America’s history. Its sign of the changing times, when the old traditional alliance and order is put to test.
Source: Afro World News
