Difference Between Political And Economic Disempowerment And Apartheid

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History has experienced a distinct separation between the minorities (Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and African-Americans) and the majority (the whites) in the United States of America. This separation has been brought about by the several models of the exclusion of the minority; these two models are: political and economic disempowerment and apartheid (Forum 2, 1). Apartheid involves the separation of a certain group of people from other parts of the society through legal, political and economic discrimination (Denton 2). Whereas political and economic disempowerment is reducing drastically or taking away the rights previously held by a group, they are taken away to minimize the power of the minorities in the society. Apartheid …show more content…

Their enslavement was a form of apartheid while the denial of their rights was part of political and economic disempowerment. This was until they formed their civil rights movement of 1960s (DeSipio Lecture Three 2). The Asian Americans formed the large chunk of their labor but because of immigration issues they were restricted due to xenophobia and culture change. They were also discriminated against because they took over the jobs for the whites. Because they were not permitted to own land, this formed part of political and economic disempowerment. The Internment of the Japanese during the World War II was a form of apartheid (DeSipio Lecture Four 2). The fear of job losses and also loss of other opportunities by the white majority motivated all the measures intended to safeguard their interests against those rights of people seen as …show more content…

The extreme scenario of apartheid was the internment of Japanese through executive order number 9066 of 1942. The Japanese lost their land because of the activities of the Pearl Harbor. Their land was sold very quickly. The denial of their rights for the Chinese and the Asians was also the highest height of apartheid. This was marked by segregated schools in California and the West, their eligibility for naturalization was also narrowed while random violence was meted against them. As aliens, they were ineligible for citizenship. The exclusion of the Asians was due to the restrictions imposed by the National Origin Quotas of 1921 and 1924. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1982 was another notable form of economic and political disempowerment. This Act suspended all forms of Chinese immigration and the Chinese who were in the United States fought their ways to evade the labor and immigration restrictions (DeSipio Lecture One 3). The formation of various rights and freedoms movements by the minorities was a form of nationalism and it was aimed at the fight for independence by the minorities. Through the nationalism movements, the minorities got an opportunity to fight for their self-determination and equality with their white majority population. The political movements took the form of racial, ethnic and religious shapes. There were nationalism movements for the African-Americans, Latinos and

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