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What was the Great Depression? |
The Great Depression affected everyone in and out of the United States. However, for minorities in the States, whose life was already faced with numerous injustices and unequal treatment coated with racism, the Great Depression was an even worse time. Latinos in the United States worked in mining, agriculture, and in factories. When the Depression was first hitting, employers let go of the people of color first. To begin with, latinx were already receiving less pay than their white coworkers and now they were receiving nothing. Another major impact on Latinos, particularly Mexicans, was deportation. The United States was deporting people to minimize the people in the States and even deported naturalized citizens, and Mexicans born in the United States.
The Natives were also negatively affected. Their land was already taken in large sums but it was taken in even larger numbers once the Great Depression hit. The want for assimilation of the Natives of the people in the United States was at large and during the depression was no different. Also, during the early 1900's the United States government created the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians and during the Great Depression, many Natives were sent here. Natives were not sent here to actually better their lives but for being any bit problematic. Lastly, Asian-Pacific Americans were also affected. Asian-Pacific Americans held the same jobs as Latinx, mines, fields, and factories. They were affected in the exact same way. An added thing was the segregation within the "Chinatowns", towns that the Chinese settled in and created their own community. This sounds nice, to be surrounded by your culture, but even these towns were a form of segregation. The Chinese were not welcome elsewhere and therefore HAD to settle together. Finally, the Tydings-McDuffy Act was the independence of the Philippines. |