Prejudice against the Poor

My first submission to Suite 101 (I want to be a writer when/if I grow up) is The Art of Culture:  Part I. Chicano Identity. I hope you have the opportunity to read this online. If you do, that means I made it baby, I got published!


The important thing, however, is the message. Mexico’s proximity to the U.S has resulted in legal and illegal immigration. But being a U.S. citizen does not offer protection against discrimination when someone is labeled a Mexican. Ask Arizona. Well, it really is a bigger issue than that. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty we are talking about prejudice against the poor. The vicious cycle of poverty and oppression is not the fault of the oppressed, it is imposed and perpetuated by the oppressor. 


Don't believe me, and don't get me started on how not having health insurance for everyone is the biggest atrocity of all. Visit records that bear out the facts: wartime casualties, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and find out why a great deal of we whito Americanos go bankrupt..


With the black civil rights movement of the 1960s other minorities followed, and the War on Poverty proclaimed by President Johnson offered new job opportunities and encouraged employers to hire minorities. This increased the number of Chicanos in the middle-class and intellectual segments, but the discrepancy between Chicanos in places of power and the overrepresentation in Viet Nam war casualties remained (p. 187). 


Technological advances have redefined the work of all Americans, including Chicanos, from agriculture to urban areas, modernizing and homogenizing along the way. I don't know about you, but I like, really like, variety. The differences, the array of experiences we bring to each other, what we can learn from each other. I don't want you to be like me. Heaven forbid! I want you to be you, and I don't care if you are green with purple polka dots with orange x-ray vision eyes. Like my daughter said when I was being worked to death dealing with college students asking where the bathroom was, "Just be nice."

References Cited

Cornell, Stephen, and Douglas Hartmann 

1998 Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.

Vigil, James Diego

1980 From Indians To Chicanos, The dynamics of Mexican American Culture. Prospect Heights, IL: C.V. Mosby Co., 1984 reissued by Waveland Press, Inc.