Final Essay

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California State University, San Marcos *

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Anthropology

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Dec 6, 2023

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Final Essay Chicano studies 101 1. Please write about the PBS Series (Race: The Power of an Illusion). What did you learn about race and the practice of racism in America? How does racism and power work together? Describe the different between racism and prejudice. Specifically, define racism and prejudice and give examples between the difference (what is it and what is the difference between racism and prejudice). Draw upon the PBS series, supplemental modules, and the Yañez lecture on Race, Power and Domination. Write 3-4 paragraphs The main idea that I learned from the PBPS series Race: The Power of Illusion was that race was an idea and it was used to manipulate the people and cause discrimination and inequality. It allowed for whites to claim that they were the superior race and that everyone else was below them, which is known as racism. In the documentary, there were a group of high school students from different backgrounds that submitted their DNA information and when the results came back they had similar DNA sequencing which meant that race is not based on biology. Other DNA sequencing test showed similar results that we all had a lot in common and the sequences came out the same. Race was created mainly to benefit whites by economic advantages and to be on top in the social hierarchy. The whites forcibly converted indigenous people into Christianity, stole their lands and forcibly took Africans to work on their plantations all for their greed and power. In the USA, many native Americans were murdered and relocated from their lands because the colonists believed the land belonged to them. They were thought of as savages and unintelligent compared to the white superior people. By looking at other people’s skin color we already have these preconceived notions. For example, when you look at a Mexican person you assume they are lazy, they are criminals, they need to go back where they came from. Prejudice is prejudgments that we have on other people based on assumptions others have made. This made me go back to week 1 of the class when the professor asked us what racial terms do you identify with or what terms do you associate with Mexicans. The documentary was eye-opening because race is just an illusion created for greed and power. I hope that more schools can teach children these ideas and concepts and not at the college level. The idea of racism and prejudice are still prevalent in our world today.

2. Please summarize the key points regarding historical trauma. What is it? How did it get started? Specifically, how does it affect Mexicans/Mexican Americans? Draw upon the historical trauma class sources, in weeks 4 and 5. You may include short quotes and/or specific references from the materials. Write 2-3 paragraphs The European conquest of indigenous lands and populations caused historical trauma to the indigenous populations. The Europeans killed 90% of indigenous populations through disease and forcibly taken their lands. They converted all the indigenous people to Christianity and stripped them of their identities, beliefs and were taught the European way of living. They were at the bottom of the social hierarchy and were placed into forced labor for the superior European white people. This European takeover of indigenous lands cause a lot of PTSD, severe depression and anxiety, and serious trauma to the natives. This was the worst thing that they could have gone through and continues to be an issue today. It affected Mexicans when Hernan Cortes conquered the land of the Aztec Empire. He saw them as savages and barbarians with their human sacrificial rituals and he forcibly took their land with all the resources they had. Many Mexican Americans have to deal with these negative connotations of racism and prejudice all stemmed from the colonialization period. 3. Pick a topic, historical moment, or concept of your choice that you enjoyed learning about and how you felt this was critical to learning and understanding American history and society (i.e., dominant narrative, Native foods, Aztec Dance, colonialism, Spanish Conquest, curanderismo, etc.). What did you learn about this topic and why was it important to learn? Write 2-3 paragraphs An interesting topic I learned about was decolonizing your diet which means that people are gravitating towards the foods that come from the indigenous people. Many of the products today are over processed foods with a lot of preservatives which comes from the colonization ideas. Removing dairy, wheat, sugar, beef, pork and food brought over by the colonization countries is to decolonize your diet. I learned that the wealthiest have the poorest health and the poorest of people have healthy bodies. Corn was considered a poor person food and was devalued over time. The mainstream

colonial diet consists of sodas, chips, candies, cookies, energy drinks, fried food, fake foods, meats, and poultries. All these foods are bad for one’s health and were created for profit. Going back to foods like maize, squash, beans, nopales, nuts, fruits, and seeds were the way of the indigenous people. They used foods as medicine and were in much better health than the colonizers.

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