Cultural Racism and Chicanos This paper will dis

Cultural Racism prior to the Second World War

Cultural racism directed at Mexican-Americans actually had its roots in the cultural prejudice directed at Spain by the inhabitants of western European countries. Such prejudice developed prior to the Protestant Reformation of the Sixteenth Century as northwestern Europe began asserting dominance in commercial and scientific arenas. This prejudice was reinforced by the anti-Catholic fervor which arose during the Reformation, especially when Protestant England contested control of world commerce with Catholic Spain. This conflict was transported to the western hemisphere and largely Protestant North America adopted the prejudice against Spanish culture. As Spain was driven out of the western hemisphere, the prejudice was transferred to the inhabitants of the Latin American countries, especially the one in closest proximi

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e clinging to a culture which discouraged education and ambition; thus Mexican-Americans were thought to be disadvantaged largely because they insisted upon speaking Spanish. Abandonment of Spanish, in the minds of these educators, would lead to the assimilation and advancement of Mexican-Americans in society. Consequently, the use of Spanish was strongly discouraged amongst Mexican-American children (Moore, 1970, pp. 76-78). Forbidding the use of Spanish in school had a deleterious effect on those Mexican-American students who were raised with Spanish at home. They were not allowed to learn in their native language, but forced to learn English in order to learn other subjects. As a practical matter, they fell behind Anglo students who were the same age because they had to learn an additional subject, the English language, and because they were not proficient in the use of English. Thus, they had a harder time learning the other subjects, which were taught in English. Consequently, Spanish-speaking Mexican-American students were far behind Anglo students in the academic sphere by the time they reached high school. The pressure to end their formal education at the age of sixteen was therefore tremendous (Moore, 1970, 76-84
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Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)