How Race Shapes the Way Chicanos Experience Citizenship in the United States

Chicanas/Chicanos is a term used to refer to Mexican Americans, people of Mexican descent who were born in the United States of America. The role of race in the lives of Mexican American has always been a hotly debated topic. While other people do not see the role of race as a critical factor that shapes the experiences of the Chicanos in America, others see race as a key factor to the lives of the Chicanos. The latter argument has more weight. Race plays a critical role in the lives of Mexican Americans. It is a factor that shapes all their experience and attributes every aspect of their life to the race factor. Their experience is tied to their history of coming in as labor immigrants. They were segregated by being socially discredited and left to rot at the bottom of the racial, economic hierarchy in the country. While the Chicanos cannot openly admit to socio-economic segregation in the country, there are other open racial barriers that they were still being subjected to; enough to admit that they live as per the construct of race. The assimilation theorists argue that the Chicanos are nothing close to the White Americans, as many people like to portray them. Unlike the whites, the Chicanos are constant skin color discrimination, racial stigmatization, and societal marginalization. It's now clear that race plays a critical role in the lives of the Chicanos. The provided readings deeply cut into the lives of Mexican Americans to show how more of a theory that statement is; its practicality is beyond what the majority would perceive. In light of this, this paper utilizes the provided readings to show how race shapes the experience of Mexican Americans in the country.