Experiences of Racial Inequality and Oppressions of Mexican Americans

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Mexican American Separation
Race and racial inequality has contributed to the shape of the American history from its beginning. The Americans tend to talk about the founding colonies, later as a country which is driven by the desire for freedom which in the beginning focused on religion but later expanded to include political and economic liberties. Yet from the beginning, the American society was also founded on brutal forms of oppression, domination and inequality where the slaves were denied their freedom. This forms the greatest paradox of the nation’s history. This paper attempts to explore the nature of racial inequalities the Mexican Americans were subjected to, to ensure that they remained separated and unequal in the American society. The paper will primarily focus on the experiences of racial inequality of Mexican Americans, moreover, more focus will be on the forms of racial oppressions of Mexican Americans. This focus on the Mexican Americans does not imply that the forms of oppressions other minority groups were subjected to were any less real. The nature of racial domination that was exercised on these other minority groups have an impact on the contemporary American society.
The American society had laws that separated people from each other based on their ethnic and social custom backgrounds. These attitudes that encouraged segregation in the American society had arrived in the country during the 1820s accompanied by the “peculiar institution” slavery. After the Texas Revolution, the segregation was extended to Mexican Americans as a social control custom. After the Civil War, segregation emerged to be a method of group control. Segregation became evident for minority groups and it existed in churches, residential areas, schools and public places such as barber shops. In later years, institutionalized segregation extended to places with black populations and to the Mexicans. Most of the cities had Mexican quarters and were barred from mixing with the Anglo-Americans.
Despite the law considering them White, they did not have the privileges of the Whites in the country. Instead, it reinforced the previous relationship of White domination over Mexicans. The Mexicans received lower wages as compared to their White American counterparts and worked on menial jobs. The Anglo Americans restricted the Mexicans in all aspects of life where they prohibited them from utilizing public facilities, purchasing or occupying property, serving as jurists, being in charge of stores and restaurants (p.67-68).
The above sentiments by Garcia and Yosso demonstrates that despite the fact that the Mexican Americans were white in color, they were subjected to utmost mistreatment from their white American counterparts. The History of Mexican American segregation is much of the same as that of other minority groups. However, there was a law that stated that the Mexican Americans were not to be segregated but the American society was divided along the ethnic lines. There were questions on the ancestral origins of the Mexicans and it was alleged that they were of African origin hence they were not white. This categorization as not being black accelerated their segregation in most parts ...