Dear Ms. Morrison,

I wanted to thank you on your article “The New Face of America: On the Backs of Blacks.” It is interesting for me to read your argument regarding the consistent alienation of blacks in America. Race talk, as you so adequately put it, always tends to put blacks in the bottom tier of the social strata, rendering blacks as “noncitizens.” Race talk creates solidarity among those who fit the idea of the Anglo-Saxon American while othering everyone else.

I find that your analysis is correct, even regarding Mexican American immigration. While your article focused primarily on the white-black binary, I would like to add to your argument that the othering of immigrants has been happening as well. However, it just appears on a superficial level that immigrants are assimilable. This is because no matter how well one may speak English, how align with American values one may be, which was encouraged in various Americanization programs of the 1900s, one is never quite American, if one is not white.

In Mexican American history, folks often scorned Mexican immigrants for being too “black” or too “Indian” and therefore undesirable. While the immigrants are constantly being compared to blacks, I do not think that blacks are the sole, most alienated race. Please tell me if you disagree with me, but I strongly believe that even though Mexican Americans are encouraged to be more Americanized, this is just a facade. No matter how Americanized Mexican Americans are, they will be viewed on the same level as blacks in race talk. Ultimately, Mexican Americans will deal with similar race talk, constantly being “othered” and never fully accepted. Blacks just happen to be the standard that newly arrived immigrants are held up against.

While it is frustrating that you and I will never be true Americans, I think it will only be a matter of time until white is no longer the norm. However, I would like to ask you a question. Do you think that whites not being the norm will change the meaning of what it means to be American? I sure hope so. If not, then history has a stronger hold over us than we thought.

Sincerely,
George

Questions:

1) How do you think efforts at Americanization has continued beyond the 1930s, which is where George J. Sanchez finishes his narrative? How do you think Americanization has reconciled assimilating newcomers with making them “whiter”?

2) How does the background history of Mexican migration to the U.S. complicate matters of undocumented immigration? How has U.S. involvement in Mexico’s political and economic fabric served as a catalyst for Mexican migration? Should being without papers hold the same social stigma that it carries today given the historical context of U.S. colonialism/imperialism?