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What is the Legislative Branch? |
Although the Legislative Branch was created in 1789 and has had 12,244 members since its creation, very few members have been of Native American, Latinx, or Asian-Pacific decent. Out of this, only 117 have ever been Hispanic and 13 have been Native American. 4 people have served in the Senate with Native American decent and 9 people from Latinx decent. This is not very diverse considering how many people have been apart of Congress. This is an issue because these groups are being underrepresented which allows people not from their culture to speak on their issues. In the legislative branch is where bills are created and voted on and if the representation is not present, these groups will have no success politically.
However, with the Native American representation, it has not been true representation of Native American values. For example, the very first Native American elected into Congress, Charles Custis, did not identify as Native American and believed that the best way for Natives to live in America was to assimilate to white America. So although he had the heritage of being Native American, it does not always qualify as positive representation. Another important thing to note is that the majority of these members in every ethnicity have been male which means women are not getting their fair representation as well. -- April 2017 Updated: The 2018 midterms made history for the United States Congress. There were many firsts that came about when it came to representation. Just off a wide view, it was the first time having so many women elected into Congress. With this, the first Muslim women were elected into Congress. Their names are Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American and Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American and represent Minnesota and Michigan, respectively. The first Native women were also elected into Congress. These women are Deb Haaland and Sharice David. First Hispanic in Congress: Joseph Marion Hernández First Hispanic woman in Congress: Iliana Ros-Lehtinen First Native American in Congress: Charles Custis First Asian - Pacific American in Congress: Hiram L Fong First Asian - Pacific American woman in Congress: Patsy Takemoto Mink |