Full Citation

Title: Changing Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the United States: A Review Essay

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2016

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2016.00113.x

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Abstract: The issue of race has long plagued the United States. Slavery caused the Civil War, a conflict that narrowly averted the break-up of the Union (McPherson 2015), and its cessation ushered in Jim Crow laws just as destructive as slavery itself (Woodward 1995). Today, its legacies endure in the form of institutional and cultural practices that sustain the disproportionate incarceration of black males and allow people tacitly to condone the occurrence of black-targeted violence (Alexander 2012). Recent police killings of blacks in several US cities suggest that racism toward blacks remains strong. However strong it is, revisionist writings about slavery over the past half-century have sought to avoid the mistakes of earlier narratives that underestimated the negative effects of racism toward blacks (Faust 2015). The desire not to reproduce such distortions today may ironically contribute to exaggerations of the extent to which harsh treatment and prejudice characterize the contemporary experiences of non-white US immigrant groups. While any such tendencies may seem to follow from clear-cut instances of the historical mistreatment of such groups, evidence suggests such treatment has now considerably waned (Foley 2015; Lee 2015).

Url: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2016.00113.x

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Authors: Bean, Frank, D

Periodical (Full): Population and Development Review

Issue: 1

Volume: 42

Pages: 135-142

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration, Race and Ethnicity

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