Racial Prejudice in Cuba Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Racial Prejudice in Cuba - Essay Example The idea race was used to reconcile the ideology â€Å"All men were created equal but sanctioned slavery† because, at the time, most of the American slaves were African who supplied labor to the superior whites. In this case, the word race was constructed to explain why one group (African) labeled the inferior group was destined to slavery against one group (whites) labeled the superior group.2 Response to Question 3 The distinction between the races was initially created by the European when they conquered the new world and the American slave system. Thomas Jefferson (the man known to be the apostle of freedom) who was a slaveholder was famously known for being the first ever American public figure to justify between races through articulating the theory that supported the natural Africans’ inferiority (California Newsreel, episode3). Following the establishment of racial hierarchy in the American society the ethnics of the Jews, Italians, and other Europeans immensely benefited from the Federal policies and funding. It is noted that the real estate practices, as well as the regulations of the Federal government, gave directions that so white homeowners benefit from government-guaranteed loans. This made them increase in equity and wealth following increased wealth in their homes. Additionally, the white race enjoyed the services of the black slaves who worked on their coffee firms as laborious and home guards. The white race, as well enjoyed all the freedom, liberty, freedom, and democracy at the expense of the slaves who were predominantly of other inferior race. The distinction between races brought about both individual and institutional discrimination. In this respect, the unmarked race â€Å"white race† had accrued benefits not necessarily because of their merit or hard work, but because the laws, customs, courts and housing were all racial based. The Congress came up with laws that discriminated persons of an inferior race. For inst ance, the 1790 Naturalization Act, which made naturalization of citizenship mean free white heavily, discriminated against other groups destined not to be whites. Additionally, the Courts being institutions of justice were also discriminative. For instance, the Supreme Court discriminated against the Japanese when they acted against the naturalization act when it ruled that the Japanese was not white basing their ruling on science that classified the Japanese as Mongoloid but not Caucasian. It was the very court that had contradicted itself the year before, by ruling that the Asian Indians were not whites, even when according to science they were in the Caucasian category. There are various notable instances where individual discrimination was practiced. The first instance happened when Cherokee families were evicted from their own homes in Georgia which is to the west of Mississippi. This made one person out of the four evictees to die a long way. This showed clearly showed that pr esident Andrew Jackson as a representative of the executive discriminates against individuals since he defended the move claiming that it not the white settler’s greed that brought about the policy but the fate of the inferior race that was established midst the superior race. The ruling made by the Supreme Court in 1922 in Takawa Ozawa against the Japanese immigrant was also a clear demonstration of individual discrimination. There were various racial policies that were created to perpetuate white supremacy. One such dominant is the 1790 Naturali