Models Of American Ethnic Relations

From big, overwhelming institutions setting regulations for a large amount of people to a small
“everyday” family of 4, governments are almost always to blame for any and all outcomes. So many of
America’s founding fathers had bad ideas and moral compasses pointed in the wrong direction, and now we as a people have to speak out on the injustices done to all of our people. Whether it’s in unpopular books and poems or in “cult-classic” films, many Americans have tried to speak out or bring the truth to light, the truth being how racist, sexist and unfair leaders and protectors have been to minorities. Even after movies like “Crash” with the exposed (but not unfamiliar) unjustified acts, how does a society continue to move in such an ugly direction?

Minorities have a lot more in common than some might think.
Ethnic Hierarchy, one way assimilation, cultural pluralism, and group separatism are the four models of ethnic relations discussed in George M. Frederickson’s “Models of American Ethnic Relations:
A Historical Perspective”. Ethnic Hierarchy, “A dominant group…has claimed rights and privileges not to be fully shared with outsiders’…who have been characterized as unfit or unready for equal rights and full citizenship.”(Frederickson 634) is very apparent in Truer’s writing. The Native American Indians were here long before the “new” Americans but were told to leave behind their own culture for the new
America’s culture simply because they will not be accepted. America practically forced the Indian children to attend boarding schools through coercion “Some parents…could not afford to feed their children, and while their Indianness was under assault at these boarding schools at least their children would have something to eat.” (Truer 658) It is also apparent in Crash when you realize that Officer John
Ryan is assaulting African American women both physically and verbally because he feels that there is only one true way to be at the top and that is to be a white

So many people not only want to enforce the
“American way”, some hold it to be true and use it as an excuse as to why minorities are doing so poorly in our country and will actually blame minorities for their own failures. Any and all minorities needed and need to be Americanized according to our government, starting with the children. “The students had their hair cut short. Their names were changed. They were forbidden to speak their Native languages. No Indian religions were allowed at the school…” (Truer 658) In Crash, Cameron (the rich
African American) is trying to show another character, Anthony, that just because he is Black and lives in a bad neighborhood, he does not have to conform to the rules of the street by being a thief. He could be like him, a “normal” American. Throughout the film, you see the younger generation of a minority family try to explain to their elders how to be an American and vice versa. There is confusion in each family