Discussion Module 1 EDF301

Mexican Americans: There was a lot of issues over the Anglo-Saxon ideals and Mexican
Americans due to the fact that the Anglo-Saxon people believed themselves to be the
superior race. This not only caused a conflict... this caused a war that ended up taking
away half of Mexico's territory. After the war and the creation of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 the US made it extremely hard for Mexican Americans. The
war created a strong distrust for obvious reasons; however, this stemmed from the
Mexican government towards the US government. They believed that their people that
were in the areas that were taken over by the US should rightfully be granted US
citizenship... this was not agreed upon by our Senate. At every early turn the Mexican
American people were pushed away and told they were not "white" or that they were
"Indians", which gave their states the power to place them where they deemed them fit
in their living and education. This created a segregation in their "schools, housing, and
discrimination in employment" to become what Mexican American people would come
to know of their new home. We discriminated against the people who stayed in the
conquered land and their descendants for generations... most would say until present
day. The odd part of how the Anglo people treated persons of color was that they would
clump them together. For instance, in the Mexican American's cases they were often
thought of as "Indians" or rather Native Americans. Only a few years after taking up the
US as their new country, they were met with the government trying to eliminate their
native language of Spanish and only teach English in their public schools. So, they were
at a clear disadvantage from very early on. Fortunately, Mexican American parents and
soon leaders would find a way to enter the private sector of Catholic schools and
introduce a bilingual education.  This was hard considering there was such a desire and
influence to move Mexican farmers and laborers to the US and we saw that in their
immigration expansions throughout the 1900s. However, they were influenced to do so
because they were inexpensive laborers to their Anglo counterparts. Seeing that social
control appears so heavily in a lot of our educational history it is no surprise that there
was such a dilemma on allowing Mexican American children to attend school.
The families depended on that income and the farmers wanted their workers; however,
the government wanted to Americanize them and create consumerism in their new
people. 

Asian Americans: Unlikea lot of other immigrants to the US. For the most part, Asian
Americans were not forced to come here. They came on their own accord and paid
their way to join the Goldrush. Of course, when the value decreased in this endeavor, they
were unable to pay their way to return home. Forced to take jobs that were difficult but
also paid them less than it would the white man. It also brought into focus that race had
nothing to do with where people came from but entirely depended on the skin color. So
once again, we clumped a bunch of people together under one umbrella of race and
citizenship. This obviously is taken into consideration when education was brought into
question. The US saw these Asian Americans as a threat to their society especially
when a string of political writings and drawings were presented. The US gave the rights
to principals of the schools to deny any “Mongolian” school aged child from attending
their schools. This also is incorrect since the people they were discriminating against
were not always Mongolian descent. We once again clumped what we saw into one
Discussion Module 1 EDF301

category and told them no. So, we put them into segregated schools all through
California and through WWII.

Native Americans: The original settlers of our land; however, they were not treated as
such. Once again, their ways that differed from the European and Anglo-Saxon
traditions scared the white people. They either had their culture taken away from them
and were forced to adopt the European ways of living or they were not granted
citizenship. That is until 1924 when they were granted their citizenship while Asian
Americans were not; however, I think it goes to show that their fight was a long grueling
road as well. We really see the deculturization in how the US behaved towards Native
Americans because it is so blatantly in our front and back yards. It happened amongst
the other races we cover; however, I think it is harder for us to see because they
brought their beautiful cultures here, but the Native Americans always had it in the land
we took. They were also put in segregated schools, which we have proof of here in
Phoenix. Indian School Rd was the road we made them walk from their reservation to
their new schooling system. I think in this case we see a lot more admittance to trying to
control the Native Americans. The US didn’t understand that these indigenous people
very much so had a culture and an education system that just was different than the
European version they were used to. Therefore, they sought to destroy what they didn’t
know and create something they could try to.

African Americans: In the African American history of education, they were often met
with the backlash of asking for rights. We very much so know that they were not
considered full men and women for far too long. That being said, many people assumed
they lacked morality and empathy. In some instances, they were referred to as the
cattle. They were denied the right to vote even when they were freed from slavery. They
were segregated from everything including bathrooms and water fountains. While they
were allowed to attend school and receive an education, it had to be separately from the
white children. It wasn’t until the 50’s and 60’s that there was a slight change in their
rights. But even if they could attend the schools and vote they were met with extreme
hatred and racism. Unfortunately, that is something that we still have seen a lot of until
present day. In our reading by James Baldwin, I think we see just how uncivilized the
African American people were treated throughout history. He goes on to also mention
that the white people preached the bible, but there was nothing Christian about them. I
think that is an important thing to remember when reading about racism and the
American people.

Puerto Rican: Puerto Rico became a colony of the US in 1898 after the US military
used them as a base in the Spanish-American war. Puerto Rico was torn between
wanting their own independence or wanting to become American citizens. They were
then met with being called US citizens and having to serve in our military; however, they
were not allowed to vote. Once again, we see the US wanting to control the people they
conquered. They wanted loyalty from the Puerto Rican people even though they did
everything they could to deculturize them. Puerto Rican’s were treated poorly even
though they never asked to be a colony of the US. The education system that the US
implemented was an English based schooling instead of what the Spanish speaking
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people were used to. The Puerto Rican people did their best to resist their new
oppressing country because they had been fighting for their independence from Spain
for a long time as well. Under US rule they are forced to participate in all US holidays,
while we eliminated any of theirs. If a person tried to push back the US did what they
could to replace them all together. They have actively been trying to promote
“allegiance” to the US since they took it over. Teachers have since complained about
the dual language approach and how it has had a detrimental effect on their students. I
don’t blame them as we have Spanish Immersion here now but it is a choice not a
forced way of life.