Institutionalized Discrimination toward Mexicans in America from Essay

Institutionalized Discrimination toward Mexicans in America from 1900-1950 - Essay Example Mexican Americans have been present in the Americas long before that fateful day on the 4th of July when history took a turn like no other. However, as the 20th century drew closer, the implications of the Mexican American War began to come forth in the form of prejudice against racial hatred against the Mexican Americans who chose to enter America and those who were residing the part of Mexico that fell within US borders at the end of the Mexican American War. The influx of Mexican immigrants into America continued to increase over time and there came a point at the beginning of the 20th century where it became clear that Mexican Americans desired to become a fully functioning part of American society. However, the difference between the two societies did not allow Mexican Americans to settle in America with ease. The Anglo Americans refused to accept the Mexican Americans and the racial hatred and prejudice that had been lying low for the last few decades began to become evident in the treatment to which Anglo Americans subjected the Mexican Americans. After World War II, Mexican Americans began to take an active stance against racism and prejudice on the grounds of ethnicity. This was because they began to worry about the well-being of their future generations and desired them to have significantly better lives (Divide, 2008). The Mexican American parents did not want their children to go through the same difficulties that they had gone through in coal mines and assembly plants. In order to build a better future for their children, Mexican Americans began to make use the justice system to acquire the rights that they had been refused in the past (Terriquez, 2010). An example of institutionalized discrimination against Mexican Americans can be found in the fact that the California school districts made it mandatory