Prejudice :: essays papers

PrejudiceImmigrants entering our country father al charges experient discriminationdue to many different prejudices. How they would not rent to Negroesor Puerto Ricans. How Negroes and Puerto Ricans were given the pinkslips first at work (Colon 243). Prejudice impacted heterogeneous aspectsof the lives of immigrants including where they lived, their success,and their careers.The lives of immigrants were impacted everyday due to the prejudicesthey encountered. For instance, in the score Blues Aint noMockingbird, a black family was impacted by the torture of whitemen because the black family was assumed to be on welfare, thereforethey were videotaped against their will (Bambara 119-124). An othermore extreme example that Houston illustrates would be the case of theJapanese-Americans who were throw into detention camps during thewar. Their loyalty for the country was questioned and they had toleave many of their possessions behind because of their nationality andthe hatred of the enemy during the war (111-116). These immigrantsencountered prejudices by the way they looked and their race. In theselection To Be a Slave, it is said thatIt is estimated that some fifty million people weretaken from the continent during the years of the slavetrade. These fifty million were, of course, theyoungest, the strongest, those most capable of transportgreat profit, first to the slave trader, and later tothe slave owner. (Lester 84)Lesters illustration shows that many African people were taken becausethey were black indeed. If the people who resided in Africa werewhite, or the same as Americans or Europeans, there probably would nothave been much of a problem.Success was stressed on the lives of immigrants. Immigrantshad to try harder then other people. In the story The Fat ofthe Land, Yezierska points out that success was extremely stressed.Hanneh Breineh, a polish immigrant, stressed the importance of becomingsuccessful. She did not want her children to hav e it as bad as shedid. She desperately cherished them to become American. By the end ofthe story, all of her children are successful and rich in some way(33-49). What did I tell you? In America, children are like moneyin the bank(Yezierska 42). Success is also a key point in the storyTwo Kinds by Amy Tan. In this story, a Chinese mother and daughterimmigrate to California after losing what they had in China. Themother believed you can be anything you wanted to be in America.Therefore, her mother tries to make the little girl a prodigy.