America as Post-racial Society: The Stereotypes of Minorities, Segregation in Schools, and Unfair Treatment in Immigration

The United States has been a very multicultural country. Nevertheless, minority groups in the United States are unfortunately often subject to discrimination, examples are from making racist comments/slurs to creating violent hate crimes against others. Factors that are preventing America from becoming a post-racial society are the stereotypes of minorities and segregation in schools and in social media as well as unfair treatment in immigration. The next factor is also immigration because it plays a huge role when people come to the United States. Racism is still a pressing problem in the United States today. Sometimes it’s open or even built into the system, as seen by racial profiling by law enforcement officers who like to target certain people and other government officials around the county, especially African Americans. Secondly, Racism can also play a role at school which is due to the zero-tolerance policies in schools because youths end up being pushed out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems, instead of being given a chance and receiving counseling within the school system.

In a recent news article written by Errin Haines and Juana Summers authors at Associated Press, a quote by former VP Joe Biden stated “There has always been racism in America. White supremacists have always existed, they still exist.” He then added in his administration, it would not be tolerated as a country. Factors that are preventing America from becoming a post-racial society are the stereotypes of minorities and segregation in schools and in social media as well as unfair treatment in immigration.

The first source is in the article “Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Social Divisions?” by Donah Boyd a social media scholar, youth researcher, and media activist who claims a young African American girl in the article asserted “We can’t go to places because of gangs…. We can't go to the mall, can't be a whole bunch of black people together…. I hate having to be careful what color shoes I’m wearing or what color is in my pants or what colors in my hair…. I just hate that. It’s just not right”. This reaffirms that not only do teens today now have to be extra careful in the way they act to the way they dress but also because it might spread stereotypes and portray them as a gang-member to some people. Students could also find themselves in particular classrooms based off of test scores that they took in other grade levels and some people can take offense about being in a classroom with dumb people and it will often correlate with social-economic status. Boyd later emphasizes, “Teens of different races may converse politely in the classroom, but that doesn’t mean they are friends on social media”.

Social media cannot end segregation because everything is right upfront and there’s no way out of it. In effect, it is accepted that there is an unwritten code that established cultures have to stick to their own races. A Hispanic teen in LA quoted from the article “If it comes down to it, we have to stick with our own race... that's the unwritten code of high school”. All that which leads to the next factor that’s preventing America from becoming a post-racial society is immigration because right now the U.S President, Donald Trump, and the U.S Border Patrol are cracking down on illegal Mexican Immigrants that are coming to the U.S Illegally by crossing the border because he wants the country to be safe and not be terrorized by people that are from overseas. Journalists Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Carola Suárez-Orozco, leading experts on immigrant studies, in 'How Immigrants Become 'Other' said that immigrants would have the correct documents upon race but often find themselves in a state of limbo pending an outcome.  The next reason is immigrants usually come to the United States to work and make a living. In fact, both experts claim, 'Unauthorized immigrants have always been called upon to do the jobs on the dark side of the American economy. The Katrina Hurricane is a good example as a job”. 

In particular, Undocumented people take up the jobs that no one wants to do but people still label them as illegal and call other horrible names because they cross the border illegally without any paperwork. Immigrants either don't have time to wait for years for a visa or don't even qualify for a visa. They cross the border illegally because they want to create the opportunity for a better life for themselves and their families as well as often have no other choice but to work small jobs in America. Despite this issue, Americans continue to view immigrants as criminals.

An example is Gustavo Jimenez, an immigrant from Honduras who shares his story, 'I did not come to steal from anyone. I put my all in the jobs I take. And I don't see any of the Americans wanting to do this work'. His experience illustrates how he is not treated equally to the people who are documented. Undocumented people work jobs that are considered horrendous enough for others to not take on. In other words, even though he works these jobs he is treated like a criminal because in a non-post racial society they see immigrants as inferior to the documented population.

Since immigrants are stereotyped as taking jobs from Americans, immigrants have proved that they work just as hard as Americans who are documented, citizens. Poor people work long hours to earn a lot of money and they later become sick and they want to quit but they can’t because they need the money for their needs and wants. The analysis of what it means is that the negative effect this has on immigrants become separated and isolated from each other. 

One other example that is closely related is Sonia Martinez a mother of four children, who become a young widow when her husband was stricken ill on the ranch in rural Southern Mexico. She left her kids behind in the care of her mom and crossed the border without papers.  In other words the case of Sonia Martinez she leave without their children, she thinks it was the right thing to do to leave her kids with her mother and send them money every week but that's not good for her because if she wants a better life for her she could have brought the kids with her, also that's why she decided to cross the border and go find a job in another country so she can send money to her children and mother because she wants what every mother wants their children to have a productive and successful life for her children. These negative connotations create a larger picture, which can essentially humiliate Hispanics. For this reason, we learn that citizens themselves contribute and prevent America from becoming a post-racial society. 

Overall, I think race is still important to the American culture but people just have to take it into consideration and we see it every day. For immigrants, it’s not easy to adapt to the culture and the way that people behave because there are some people trying to make a living and they are coming from out of the country just to work some dirty job we don't want to do as Americans. We see these problems every day like there will be one day that someone is racially profiling another person, calling them names while the person is selling food on the streets, and police are acting as if they are criminals because they don’t have permits to sell. This is a worrying situation that we should not be allowing to happen as a country and the president should take action as soon as he can.

Work Cited

1. Boyd, Danah. Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Social Divisions? , Bedford St Martin’s, 2016.
2. Harris, Cheryl and Devon W. Carbado. Loot or Find: Fact or Frame? , Bedford St Martin’s, 2016.
3. Holtzman, Linda and Leon Sharpe. Theories and Constructs of Race. , Bedford St Martin’s, 2016
4. Suárez-Orozco, Carola and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco. How Immigrants Become Other, Bedford St Martin’s, 2016.
5. Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen, Bonnie Lisle. Rereading America, Bedford St Martin’s, 2016.