Influence Of Race As It Relates To The Mexican

Introduction

            Scientifically a subspecies (race) is a distinct evolutionary lineage within a species and each of the subspecies is genetically differentiated due to barriers to genetic exchange that have persisted for long periods of time; and therefore the subspecies must have historical continuity in addition to current genetic differentiation, Templeton (1998). This term of racial group (race) is reserved for any community minorities and the corresponding majorities that are socially separated from each other because of obvious cultural diversities and physical differences. A community on the other hand refers to a group of people who either live in the same area and share the same culture, or shares some similar religious beliefs, or are in the same economic status, or have similar Skin color. Research has shown that race do not have any biological significance as the gene coding form is not linked with other human character trait such as physical ability, the type of individual personality, intelligence or even hair/eye color as man shares about 99.9% of their genetic material.

Race thus has only political and social effects in the community, leading to the social scientists referring it to a “social construct” due to its invention by the human beings. Racism, a term that is used to refer to the act of discrimination of people from different races, basically roots from the belief that people should be treated differently because of a few phenotypic features such as the skin color. Influences of racial differences have been a very burning issue to many communities of the world, for a long period of time. This virtue has been manifested in our community as individual or group acts and attitudes or institutionalized processes that lead to disparities seen in the modern community. In this paper I am going to give you an idea of what my community, its social and cultural diversity and the problems that it is facing when it comes to race relations. In America history shows that racial groups granted access to the community and state resources and power to the majority “whites” excluding the “others” , the people referred as other color socially, legally, economically and politically.

 Racism and its influences to my local community

            In the state of Ohio, my original community of Mexican Americans has a small number of minority groups but the number has been growing as we continue to watch more Mexicans arrive from Mexico to work in the farmlands. The issues that are held by the population here lies in groups of people who are from the same race, but different in who they are, or different in their moral values. On observation of the community in our neighborhood which is mostly comprised of the Whites and Mexican Americans, there is a very big difference between the two races of people. Majority of the white Americans often reside in nicer and bigger homes, are seen going to the popular churches on Sunday, owns and drive modest cars, and usually socializes with other White Americans in the community. The Mexican Americans on the other hand are mostly found driving relatively nice vehicles, owning and living in trailer houses, attending mass in the Catholic Church down the street and often associated with the seasonal celebrations in honor of holidays and cultural festivities such as Christmas in the eve season. Since we are living in the same community and there must be common interest for the development of the community, we have to be united despite these social and cultural differences. As there are other ethnic groups in this community, each ethnic group in my population interacts and lives in its different culture but we enhance the general respect for one another and consider the importance of each other’s diverse lifestyle.

Despite all this diverse differences, many members in my farmland (Ohio community) bear a resemblance to each other, such as the color of our skin.  In my town the population includes the old and young, tall and short the common features found in any society. The U.S Census Bureau in the year 2000 showed that of the entire population of my little town of about 12,576, the white people comprised of 11,844 thus are considered the majority but the other minorities in this location comprised of 27 African Americans, 29 Asians, and 789 Hispanics of any race. (U.S. Census, 2000) Due to a high population of the white people in the streets of my town, these people look at you differently when walking along the streets, or buying something in a restaurant a thing that makes us feel out of place  at times. I consider members of the community who are really different from me in phenotypic appearance as members of a different race. Taking into account small details, my character traits are significantly different than those of other members of ethnic minorities in the community. Contrary to all these social and cultural differences seen above, the majority of people in my community go to church, work hard to make a living, and raise families plus other similarities like traditions, religious beliefs, customs and passions.

The leaders in our community who are mostly composed of the whites, usually gives different attention to the population depending on their races. For example on resource allocation and distribution they give first priorities to their white counterparts a factor which makes me feel not accepted in my own community. But the other minorities are similarly treated or even more coarsely handled especially in terms of governance and matters of crime investigations. This is well seen when the youths are inclined to crimes that they have not committed due to the simple fact that they are associated with the color of economic challenges (minor) making them socioeconomic ally disadvantaged and politically isolated. The same treatment is shown by other members of the community most specifically the white people, who generally treat the minorities as less privileged and poor.  This has even created a social hierarchy, where the political and leadership decisions can not be made by the non-white groups and depending on this there is allocation of opportunities like occupational areas, residential places and even to the available educational facilities.

            My local members, especially the whites have been treated kindly as compared to the other part of the community in so many ways, such as access to good educational facilities, have access to decent jobs and fair wages, have accumulated retirement benefits through laid company programs, union membership, and are liable to social security, plus a lot of benefits from home ownership policies and programs that allows them to buy property in the rising neighborhoods. But in contrast the minorities have been subjected to labor exploitation, are limited to de facto segregation, allocated odd and low paying jobs such as domestic labor, agricultural and manual works, work fields that do not accumulate savings and have no retirement benefits and even restricted from accessing the lending institutions thus unable to own modern homes by following redlining and other policies. This leads to the people living in this community regarding and putting others in different class of hierarchy.

            Work manuals and texts contain information about the Mexican Americans, discussing their challenges as they try to cope with the life in the present community of Ohio. They indicates that in the present world of racism, there is developed racial stratification which is seen in our society, which led to continued dispossessions through the concessions of industries and through land sub-division legislation such as the Allotment Act. But there local media have instituted campaigns aimed at representing us in the information and the entertainment networks as they contribute to alleviating the acts of this social change and reinforcement. Television and print media have shown a strong influence on the culture in the state of Ohio, and they are both contributing to negative generalizations about people of color perpetuating various characteristics. The people who are in leadership are different from me in many ways although at times we share the same kind of life.

       Firstly from the old times due to the majority advantage, the leaders have been coming from the larger groups especially the white; this is because of many factors as they are accessible to the vote and thus the common people in the community lacks essential representation in terms of community policing and resource utilization. The leaders are from rich individuals and they use the advantage of color to enter into the areas of leadership where as the minorities groups’ interests are not well represented in the society.  Due to this disparity in community the minority groups often are not given identical treatment since some groups are too small or indistinct as compared to the majority or they identify themselves as a separate nation but are ignored by the majority because of the costs or some aspects which gives or provide  preferences. For example, a member of a particularly small ethnic group might be forced to check others on a checklist of different backgrounds, and consequently might receive fewer privileges than a member of a higher group in the societal hierarchy. Many of the leaders assume that the people they rule in a given community belong to the same nationality rather than separate ones based on ethnicity.

       From this inequalities exemplified above within my local community, I would say that the main ideas of solving them is through the change of the way people look at each other and dropping the culture of social hierarchy in the modern community. I can resolve the inequalities by; first imposing one of the controversial issues such as affirmative action in the governance institutions. This can be done by use of programs to provide immigrant or minority groups who usually speak a marginalized language with their large communication in the majority language, so that they are equally able to compete for places at university and jobs. It will be largely necessary because the minority group in question is socially disadvantaged in many aspects in the community. Also by use of affirmative action in quotas, where a certain percentage of places at university, or in employment opportunities in public services, are set aside for minority groups because a court has found that there has been a high development of exclusion as it pertains to minority groups in certain sectors of society.

References 

Aspen Institute roundtable on Community Change, Structural racism and Community Building, USA Publishers, Maryland (June 2004), Retrieved on February 24, 2009, from

               http://www.kintera.com/atf/cf/%7BDEB6F227-659B-4EC8-8F84-8DF23CA704F5%7D/aspen_structural_racism2.pdf

Judith Vandenberg. Cultural diversity ETH/125, Axia College of University of Phoenix (2009), retrieved on February 24, 2009, from

               http://www.allfreeessays.com/topics/race-and-your-community/0