in+America



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Race has been a very important issue in the U.S. for a long time since the people that live here are from all over the world and look different. Of course the first people to settle here were the English, but before them, there were Native Americans living on what is now U.S. territory. Throughout the history of our country, many different people from all over the world have come to live and start a life in the U.S. for many different reasons. This is why race is such a big issue in the U.S.; there are so many races including, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanic, and much more. So my question is, when did the idea of race start in America? And I have done plenty of research to answer that. The first races to be identified in the U.S. are [|Native Americans], [|African Americans], and [|European Americans]. People were classified under each of those races based on their appearance, ancestry, and social circle. Early in U.S. history, the Europeans shipped Africans over to become slaves and this is when discrimination started to happen. In the late 18th century, [|slavery] was well established and running firmly in the U.S. Most slaves worked in the farm with the famous [|cotton gin]which required intensive labor and the need for more and more slaves. The debate of whether or not slavery should be allowed started with the [|Louisiana Purchase]. Eventually slaves weren’t allowed in the North, but in the South they were which lead to the [|Civil War]. The reason why I have explained slavery is because this is what leads to a lot of the discrimination we have today. In the U.S. we aren’t as racist to Indians or Asians or other races as we are to the African Americans. The reason why we are so racist and think differently about them is because we treated them very badly in our history with the whole thing with slavery. After slavery was banned, the Americans had a hard time dealing with black people in their community, especially with the fact that their children had to go to school with them. Many cases like [|Brown vs. Board of Education], [|Rosa Parks], etc were looked at. African Americans have had to deal with a lot of discrimination all throughout U.S. history. This is what started the idea of race in America. ======



====Another thing that has expanded the idea of race in the U.S. is [|illegal immigration]. The majority of the illegal immigrants that come into our country are Hispanic and come from Latin America. Why do they cross our border? Good question. Since many countries in Latin America are third world countries, many families there don’t make enough money to support themselves. They see America as a great opportunity to get a better paying job. This has lead us Americans to make many mean assumptions about them, especially Mexicans like all Mexicans are poor, all Mexicans are either construction workers or cleaning people, etc. What boosted the Americans to be racist towards Latin Americans are the illegal immigration issues we have had to deal with up until today. ====



Many other things have happened in U.S. history that have lead to the many ideas Americans have towards other races, or even vice versa. I have only given two examples of how I think the idea of discrimination came to be towards African Americans and Latin Americans. There is discrimination towards Indian Americans, Chinese Americans, etc. The idea of race in the U.S. started with the idea of slavery in my opinion because the idea of race in America is just as old as America itself. It started before the settlers even got there because the idea of race in the world started before that. Us Americans have only expanded the idea of race and discrimination in many ways than any other country has which is why there is such big controversies over race today.



**Where I plan to go next:**
Now that I know about the history of how the idea of race started in the U.S., I would like to know what assumptions Americans have made about different races and how they have changed over time because of things like the Civil Rights movement. What do African Americans think of European Americans? How does everyone else view Asian Americans? Indian Americans? Also since the U.S. is racist about other countries and their people, I would like to know what other countries think about us. It would be interesting to know if we are discriminated, and if so, how and why?

AnnBibOchoa