Interminority Racism - The 19th Century

The 19th Century

The 19th century was an important century for interminority conflict for two reasons. One was the two great streams of immigration that came from Europe as well as Asia. The other was the development of scientific racism.

The great waves of immigration grew concern for both dominant and subordinate social groups in the States. White Americans were concerned with racial invasion, further confusion, and further classification to avoid the dominant group from becoming diluted. Minorities like African Americans were fearful that these new immigrants would invade their job market.

Social Darwinism made it easy for Whites to dominate the new races. The new most exotic race was those immigrants from Asia. Although many of them appeared white, scientific racism was able to classify them below European immigrants. They were seen as fundamentally different like those of African descent, people who could never completely assimilate.

Between 1790 and 1962 the United States' politics had utilized a racial hierarchy to determine citizenship. Despite that most of these regulations have been dismissed, racial hierarchy in association with political and social power continues today.