The United States is a very patriotic country that acknowledges people’s rights and freedoms. Over the years it has welcomed a great number of immigrants of different races and ethnic backgrounds. The fact that the US has become so multicultural has unfortunately given way to prejudice towards certain races.
There are those people who are considered to be “immediate immigrants” those how came to the country recently and there are descendants of immigrants that came some time ago and gave birth in the United States. There is a direct relationship between how people are viewed based on the time they have spent in the US. If they are born overseas and have recently come to North America, the chance for any prejudice and discrimination is very high. But for people who were born here, the levels are much lower since they grew up in the culture and have assimilated. The language that is spoken and the views play a great role in the perception of a person by others and so if a person speaks “perfectly” in English and is immersed in the culture and its tradition then that person is considered to be native to the country they live in. The population in the US was predominantly English and one of the first immigrants to arrive were Germans. Since they were of different cultures and spoke a language people could not understand, they were not trusted and considered outsiders. Then the African slaves followed and even though there were about 10% of the population of African American’s who were considered free, the discrimination was very obvious and severe.
Even though there are more white people sometimes situations arise when a white person is discriminated against. This could happen in a division where a certain group of people are of common background and make up the dominant part of the population, so a person representing any authority from the American government would be more suited to the area if they were also of the same background. It would only be wise to have a French-speaking police officer in an area where the majority of people speak only French. As immigration was on the rise before the strict laws were put forth, there was the interesting fact that African-Americans are the oldest immigrant group in the United States. From the very beginning of the immigration, the African slaves would be mixing with Native Americans and later with whites, which demonstrates how much racial mixing was taking place.
Over a long time, all the immigrants coming to the US were discriminated against—Germans, Africans, Russians, Irish, Italian, Jews, and many others. Every stereotype and prejudice comes from a lack of knowledge and understanding and that is why in some form or other it exists in almost every part of the world. The interesting thing is that the genetic difference between races is that not significant, whereas the difference amongst individuals within the same race is much more noticeable. Today the views have become more lenient as a person who looks white is considered as such. The world is becoming ever multicultural, mixing all the races as the prejudices slowly dissolve away. But it does not mean that there are no people and groups who feel threatened by other cultures and feel the need to discriminate and degrade fellow human beings.