Race, Ethnicity 1

Running Head: Race, Ethnicity

Race, Ethnicity, Instructional Systems, Advocacy, and Coalition Building

Nancy Muiz
Pacific Oaks College

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Race, Ethnicity, Institutional Systems, Advocacy and Coalition Building
On the first day of class I thought to myself what did I get myself into. Little did I
know that this class would be empowering to who I am. Manifest destiny is everywhere
you look. This class has impacted my in the way that I notice things before they are even
said. I learned that there is a white supremacy and that racism still happens know and it
has never ended.
The first day of class I remember you ask the class what Manifest destiny and I
remember answering to that question something that is taken. I didnt realize how
affected the the whole world is by this world. Manifest Destiny mean The God given
right to rule from sea to shining sea. I always heard that word but didnt really knew what
it meant. This class has really taught me a lot and got the other side of history that is not
being taught at the schools.
I really thought that this country was done with racism but I was wrong because
people of color are always going to be treated differently no matter what they do. I didnt
realize how many times I have been attack by racism. People assume by the color of your
skin. This just happen to me last week I went to Food for Less to buy ground cinnamon
and this white lady was in front of me and asked me are you making bunuelos with all
the cinnamon? I then responded no. Then she asked oh you are making churros? I
then replied no, Im a preschool teacher and Im going to use the cinnamon to make
ornaments for the parents for christmas. She then replied oh wow teachers do get
creative. I looked at her and smiled. She assumed that just because I was mexican I was
going to use the cinnamon for bunuelos or churros.

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People still stereotype in this world. I learned a lot and it actually open my eyes to
see the different scenarios that we go through in life. Prior to this class I would oversee
these issues. Now it is impossible to oversee these things that other parties in history try
to fight for. Example of those parties are the black panthers and the freedom riders.
An overview of the Black Panther Party which was know as a very aggressive movement
and actually accomplish a few things that I would thank them. this party wanted freedom,
full employment, end to robbery of black communities, decent housing fit for the shelter
of human beings, education for the people, free health care, end to police brutality and
murder of black people and other people of color and oppressed people, end to all wars
and aggression, freedom for all political prisoners, and land, bread, housing, education,
clothing, justice, peace and community control of modern industry. Out of all of these
points they accomplished free lunch programs, free clinics, and low income clinics. they
also wanted the black people to be exempted from the military. During this era it was bad
to mention the Black Panther Party. They dressed in a way to intimate the white people.
They also accomplished blacks being freed due to unfair laws.
Thanks to this party we now have free lunch in school, free clinics, and low
income clinics. We all should be thankful for what this party did and completed for all the
people of color. An event that is going on now that I can relate the Black Panther Party to
is to the people protesting for police brutality. It is sad to see how police just shoot their
guns at people of color because they know they can get away with it. An example of this
always comes out in the news every day. Police killing people of color and they do not
only shoot once they shoot people of color more than once. For example people in
Chicago a policeman shot a teen sixteen times. To me there was no necessary reason to

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shoot anybody sixteen times no matter what they do. The main reason why I bring this
issue up is because all of the people getting shot are people of color by white police.
In the documentary of Freedom Riders it shows have unfair the white community
was towards the color community. The white people would not let the color people use
the same restroom and sit to dine in the same area as white. There were far more
restroom, restaurants, schools and bus stops for the white community. On the other hand,
people of color would have to walk a distance to get to the nearest restroom and walk
miles to get to a bus stop for people of color. Not all restaurants would allow people of
color to order and at times they would have to go to a different neighborhood to buy food.
Their was a lady in the documentary that was a person of color but light complication that
was allowed to go to school with white people but her siblings were dark skin so they
would have to go to school ten miles down their house.
Looking at the video was very depressing to me because I could only imagine
what all the color people went through. The color people went through a lot of hardship
and oppression. It is sad to say that unfortunately not a lot has changed. It is sad to see
color people being kicked out of their own communities an example of that is Arizona.
The law that was implemented towards people of color. The police can stop people of
color and ask them for legal status and if the people of color could not provide
documentation they would get arrested and deported. So who is the majority in Arizona?
The White people! There were other events that only benefited the whites.
We will start with the Indian Boarding schools how it relates to Manifest Destiny. Indians
were seen as savages. In this event Indians were taken away from their families and
homes and put into boarding schools. These children had no clue what was going on. All

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they knew was that they were being taken away from their families. These children were
taken away and were taught that being an Indian was no good. In 1879 Pratts goal was to
complete assimilate Indians to make them white. Pratt even made a statement that said
kill the Indian and save the man.
The way that white people thought that they would save the Indians was by
putting them in boarding schools away from their families and culture. Once they enter
the boarding schools the white people would cut their hair and have the Indian change
their clothes into white close. The Indian children were not able to speak their language
and were forced to learn english. They were also forced to wear uniforms and change
their native names to white names. These children were also forced to eat American food
and most important they were converted into Christian. Indian children were sexually
abuse while being in the boarding schools but white people thought that they were not
doing anything wrong. In the Americans eyes they were doing the right thing to convert
Indians to white to make the country better. This event would only benefit the Americans.
Another event was the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act provided land for
American citizens. All American citizens were able to apply for one quarter of public
land. This act open up new opportunities for settlers but there were requirements. The
requirements were: 1) to be a legal citizen of the United States, 2) Being the head of a
family in other words head of household, 3) To be 21 years of age at the time of arrival,
4) Never have borne arms against the United States.
This homestead act was great for the rich and white people. It would not benefit
any other race because they would get paid less and they were immigrants. Mind you
each acre would cost 1.25 or less dollars. Even if the immigrants would save to purchase

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land they would not be able to because they were not American citizens. So basically all
these immigrants would work for the white Americans. Again this event only benefited
for the Americans.
The last event would be the Jim Crow laws. In this event they legalized
segregation between African Americans and Caucasians. During this time caucasians
wanted to exclude African Americans from exercising their rights as citizens of the
United States. The main purpose was to segregate African Americans from White
Americans. This would include schools, transportation, voting, prison, public places,
sports, housing, and workplaces.
The Jim Crow laws were great for white americans because the African American
people would luck out because in reality they would lose their rights. African Americans
were segregated in all ways from White Americans. Reminder that a literacy test was
given to eliminate the black vote but white illiterate people were allowed to be
grandfathered in, in order to allow them to vote. This Grandfather plan would not apply
to African Americans. To me it was not fair that just because they were people of color
they were not allowed to use the same restrooms and were not allowed to vote.
All of these past event actually only benefitted the white american. It left out all
of the people of color. We now do have more privileges for being people of color
compare to what people of color had before. It is sad to say that the government still
commends entitlement events occurring now. I believe that as long as humans live there
will still be entitlement events going on. According to the white americans, people of
color will never be equal to white americans but in reality people of color are equal to the

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white americans if not superior. I believe that we should all have the same rights and be
allow to get away with things that white americans do.
We need to make a change because it the Black Panthers and Freedom Riders can
do it so can we. All we need to do is to get together and stand up for what is justice. I
learned more than in high school and went more into deept. Thank you and I like the way
you taught class because you planted the seed and it was up to us to look more into it.