Racial diversity (Essay Sample)

Racial Diversity
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Racial diversity
The term race can be defined as groups of people who share some similarities and possess some differences from any other groups. In biological traits, it is deemed by the society to be of social significance, meaning that people of similar race will treat other people differently just because of their similarities and differences (Edward, 1992). For example, while similarities and differences in eye color have always not been considered as socially significant, though similarities and differences in skin color have.
Although many scholars have attempted to set up many racial groupings for United States people, some have suggested at least four racial groupings. Examples of racial groupings in the US according to 1920 census include the white, Asian or Mongoloid, Black American, Chinese and the Japanese.
The majority of the racial population in the United States of America is of European ancestry, with the largest groups having their ancestry traceable to Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom. According to the latest Census, it was estimated that the whites comprised 75.1% of the US population. While other racial categories comprised the remaining. The indigenous American societies survived warfare with white settlers and retained their tribal cultures. Their survival, though, has been on the fringes of the North American society, especially because of the implementation of the national policy of resettling indigenous American societies on reservations. In 1890, there was an estimation of 248,253 Native Americans, however this number increased tremendously in subsequent census. Groups of the Native Americans are mostly found in the southwestern states of Arizona, Oklahoma, California and New Mexico. The 1960s and 1970s saw fruitful court battles by Native Americans in Maine, Alaska, and South Dakota to regain tribal lands or to receive a reward for the lands that were taken from them during the early 1800s (Adams, 2000).
The major Racial minority groups in the US comprise blacks (either of African, US, or Caribbean parentage), Filipino, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese and Mexicans. The black population in the 2000 census was estimated to be 34,658,190, with the many still staying in the South, a region that captivated most of the slaves brought from Africa. Two very important regional migrations of the black’s minority have taken place in the United States: one of it being the Great Migration to the North, which began in around 1915 while the second was a small but then extraordinary westward movement commencing in 1940. Both migrations were caused by wartime demands for labor and by job opportunities in western and northern urban centers. About three out of four black-Americans reside in metropolitan regions, particularly in Washington D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Newark, New Orleans, Baltimore and New York City, which held the highest number of black residents (Allain, 2012).
Also included in the US racial minority population are a substantial number of people whose lineage can be traced to pacific and Asian nationalities, primarily Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese and Korean. The Chinese population is greatly urbanized and concentrated chiefly in cities of about 100,000 population, mostly in West Coast and the New York City. The Japanese population has increased steadily since 1910. Hawaii City has been the major popular attraction of the Japanese. Most Japanese in the City of California were farmers until the World War II, when they were confined and deprived of their lands. After the war, most of the Japanese entered the professions and other urban jobs (Allain, 2012).
Hispanics also is one of the largest racial groups in the United States. In 2003, according to the census, it comprised the highest number of the minority group in the US. Although the Mexicans in the 21st century were still many in the Southwest, they have established themselves throughout the United States. Mexico recorded the largest source nation for immigration in into the US in 2002. Spanish-speaking race referred as Puerto Ricans, who represent a combination of racial strains, have greatly settled in the New York area. Since 1959, many Cubans have established themselves in Florida and other eastern states in the US (Carlson, 1999).
Laws have been used in the past to perpetrate race discrimination in the United States of America. The most popular among them is the Plessy v. Ferguson law which was passed in 1896. This was a revolutionary US Supreme Court decision in the keeping of the constitutionality of laws of the state requiring racial discrimination in public facilities within the doctrine of ‘separate but equal.’ (Creason, 2001)
The ruling was handed down by a vote of a majority of 7 to 1 with an opinion written by Justice Henry Brown Billings and the dissention written by Justice John Harlan Marshall. Separate but equal doctrine remained a standard doctrine in United States law until its refusal in the 1954 Supreme Court ruling by Brown v. Board of Education (Creason, 2001).
Likewise, various laws have also been instituted to eliminate discrimination in the United States. These laws include the 1964 law which was enforced by US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This law illegalized discrimination against someone on the basis of color, race, color, religion or even national origin. The law also made i...