Quota System and the Great Depression: Impact on Ethnic Communities

American Ethnic History
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American Ethnic History
The Great Depression of 1929-1939 marked the deepest and the long-term economic downturn in the history of America and other Western countries. It started with the crash of stock market on October 24th, after it sold total shares worth 12.9 million on a single day, which was thrice the normal daily turnover (Zanger, 2011 p, 14). The depression wiped out millions of investors. Industrial output went down as the consumer spending declined. Levels of unemployment went down drastically leading to a rise in unemployment rate reaching 25% with a reduction in wages by 45% for those who were not retrenched by the companies (Zanger, 2011 p, 31). While the effects of Great Depression were felt and had negative impacts on the entire population in the United States, it had adverse impacts for the ethnic minorities due to discrimination, racism, and the quota system.
While the unemployment rate stood at 25% for the white Americans, it was twice for the minority groups such as the Asian Americans, American Indians, and the Mexican Americans. Racial discrimination played a great deal in this scenario. Minority groups lost jobs more than was lost by the white Americans (Ngai & Gjerde, 2013 p, 367). As the retrenchment was done, minority groups were the first to be considered and kicked out of the workforce. They were denied employment even where the employment opportunities were supposedly reserved for needy citizens (Ngai & Gjerde, 2013 p, 371)African Americans suffered most especially in the North, which called for all businesses to fire all blacks and replace with whites in 1932. Unlike other minority groups, African Americans could easily be identified because of the color and faced the highest degree of discriminations (Ngai &...