AOTL Series On Race - Part VII Why The Race Discussion Is Primarily Black And White

The Age of Discovery was marked by an aggressive agenda of the highly inspired and innovative Europeans to procure new natural resources, herbs and spices. Their Machiavellian grasp was not accented with much civility and decorum. In short, it was bloody. Europeans fought each other, they fought Indians, and they introduced slavery in the name of pursing their interests.

What resulted here in America was an Establishment that was initially created by and for the male descendants of Europeans. Since then American history has been peppered with various movements to expand the definition of who is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The most conspicuous of these movements was the Civil Rights Movement in which Blacks sought the end of the system that relegated their well-being to the whim of the Establishment. At that time, Blacks had been the largest racial minority group. This all made relations between Whites and Blacks most conspicuous.

While it is the struggle of black Americans that has been of such a high profile, other groups who weathered the repugnance of the American Establishment became beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Movement as well. Chinese immigrants arrived in the U.S. in the 19^th century to build railroads until they became the only nationality to be prohibited from immigrating to the U.S. Other laws had been established limit Chinese participation in American life such as those written to prohibit Chinese men from marrying white women (what is it with these people and their marriage bans?). And as with Blacks, shades of past indignities remain for Asians. In spite of their success in the workplace, Asians are absent as managers and executives, a phenomenon known as the bamboo ceiling. No it’s not a joke.

The wages of “not fitting the Establishment profile” have been similar for Hispanics as well. Hispanics are currently under the microscope as they have surpassed blacks as the second largest minority group in the U.S. and are slated to outnumber whites as a racial group in a number of years. This brings up an important fact that though minority groups have all struggled against the white Establishment for equal protection under the Constitution, America’s racial minorities have literally battled each other for mostly petty reasons. Blacks and Latinos have historically been at odds as if they were competitors on "America's Next Top Minority Group."

This timely article here chronicles the struggles of Vietnamese immigrants in a majority black Philadelphia school where some black students resent the fact that the new Asian students who want to learn and move on get school facilities and attention suited for students who want to learn and move on. So some black students have been dealing with it by pummeling the Asian students. I cringed while reading it, but if I were more of an optimist I would say that one day these Vietnamese students will be sitting in their offices beneath their bamboo ceilings after looking back on the abuse they took in high school and then realize they don’t have it so bad.