GWS 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Toni Morrison, Light Skin, Mexican Americans

• School: University of Kentucky
• Department: Gender and Women's Studies
• Course: GWS 200
• Professor: Mikaela Feroli

Document Summary

1980 u. s. bureau of the census created two ethnic categories of whites: To identify oneself today as a hispanic" is partially to acknowledge one"s ethnic heritage without surrendering one"s whiteness" (p. 55) Black americans experienced de jure segregation before 1960s, whereas mexican americans experienced de facto segregation. Many middle class mexican americans didn"t object to segregation of whites and blacks because they believed they were also white and that there had been a mistake made in regarding people of. Lulac= league of united latin american citizens. The lulac soughts to set the racial record straight. Members of this league took offence to be associated with blacks or other colored races. Discrimination against mexicans in the u. s. has been continuous, pervasive and systemic. Choosing the caucasian option, enabled some mexican americans to forge white racial identities that were constructed on the backs of blacks (p. 57 . The mexican government created a census category for three racial groups.