Racial And Ethnic Politics In California

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Sociology - Political Sociology, Majorities, Minorities, grade: A, Kenyatta University, language: English, abstract: This essay will explore the sociological imagination analysis of race and ethnic issue in California and the national immigration issue by covering the following paradigms: structural functionalism, symbolic interaction and social conflict perspective. Evidently, the two sides of the United States’ political divide have utilized the opportunity to accentuate the manner through which California is different from the rest of the nation. For years, Americans have recognized California as the Golden State, maintaining that it was initially a distant and dreamy land, then as a cultural shaper and as a promised land for millions and millions of Americans and immigrants. While it remains to be America’s most populated state, attributed to a great success story, there are many areas where it has failed to live up to its promise. Notably, California is a demographic giant, an aspect implying that its respective issues correlate with those of the entire nation. The history of California is characterized by a constant change, owing its preeminence to its natural advantages such as the vast geographic area and pleasant climate and to human ingenuity. In this respect, it is imperative to note that its proximity to Mexico has forced the State to continue experiencing unprecedented population growth by Latinos who highly contribute to the ever-changing nature of California society, its politics and culture. It is unfortunate to note that, currently, spiteful characterizations of immigrants together with draconian plans for their marginalization have been drifted by diverse political figures to a startlingly receptive public; an aspect linked to the California Proposition 187.

Located a mere fifteen minutes from Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley is an incubator for California's new ethnic politics. Here, Latinos and Asian Americans are the dominant groups. Politics are Latino-dominated, while a large infusion of Chinese immigrants and capital has made the San Gabriel Valley the center of the nation's largest Chinese ethnic economy. The white population, meanwhile, has dropped from an overwhelming majority in 1970 to a minority in 1990. Leland T. Saito presents an insider's view of the political, economic, and cultural implications of this ethnic mix. He examines how diverse residents of the region have worked to overcome their initial antagonisms and develop new, more effective political alliances. Tracing grassroots political organization along racial and ethnic lines, Race and Politics focuses on the construction of new identities in general and the panethnic affiliation "Asian American" in particular.

"With narrative fluency and deftness, constructed on a bedrock of prodigious archival research, HoSang's book provides a sorely needed genealogy of the 'color-blind consensus' that has come to define race and recode racism within US politics, law and public policy. This will be a book that lasts."_Nikhil Pal Singh, author of Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy "An important analysis of both the exact contours of white supremacy and the failures of electoral anti-racism."_George Lipsitz, author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness "Racial Propositions brilliantly documents the history of race in California's post-World War II ballot initiatives to show that nothing is what it seems when it comes to race and politics in America's ethnoracial frontier. Daniel HoSang provides readers with a sharply focused interdisciplinary lens though which to see how the language and politics of political liberalism veil what are ultimately racialized ballot initiatives. If California is a harbinger for the rest of the country, then HoSang's tour de force is required reading for anyone interested how the United States will negotiate diversity in the 21st century."_Tomás R. Jiménez, author of Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration, and Identity