Fit to Be Citizens Reflection

While reading the excerpts from Fit to Be Citizens by Natalie Molina, the thought that was on continuous repeat in my head was, I can't believe this was happening in America, the supposed "Land of the Free". However, at the same time I was also thinking about what it would be like if we were all equal and the description from Harrison Bergeron of what it would supposedly be like if that were true. This lead me to the conclusion that I am very confused on what I would actually like to have happen. All I know at this time is that I think the way that the Hispanic and Asian people that were described in the story should not have been treated the way that they were treated.

During the late 1800's and early 1900's, local health officials abused their power and trust that the people had in them in order to plant ideas and concerns about the public health to define racial groups at the time, especially people of Asian and Hispanic cultures. They convinced the public that these races were dirty and infested with disease and they even said that the people of Asian cultures had to be confined to a certain area of town in order to avoid the contamination of where the Anglo Saxon people lived.

These articles not only described and explained this issue while also showing how the people of Hispanic decent came to get their stereotypes through scientific discussion and and "public health practices", but it also explained how Asian stereotypes and china town came to be known as a place dominated by Asian culture. The articles provided a "valuable history of public health in Los Angeles, living conditions among Mexican immigrants, and the ways in which regional racial categories influenced national laws and practices."

My initial reaction to what I was reading and the facts that I was presented with was that I was appalled that such blatant wrongful actions we being committed where I live today during a time that was pretty much with in the century of today. I felt that while I was reading about California in the early 1900's, I was actually reading about the history of another country because of the obvious wrong-doings that were set forth. The situation and the people in it that were being described just sounded so ignorant to me that it seemed unreal what I was being told.

Although we as a country have come very far from how we were, there are still traces of the same prejudice and segregation that was happening in the early 1900's in our society today. For example, as we discussed in class, although it is not an established rule or law, our neighborhoods are still partially segregated by race. We still have Chinatown although it is not labeled as "filthy" or "diseased" because of the type of people living there as well. Again however, we come to the question of, do we really want to all be equal?