ETHNIC GROUPS AND DISCRIMINATION

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

Did the group face prejudice, segregation, racism or any combination of the three?

Prejudices are not superficial or banal inventions without significant social consequences. On the contrary, they are psychosocial constructs that become lethal weapons in any conflictive society. In Exposing prejudice Bonnie Urciuoli offers a lucid, vivid, and timely account of the Puerto Rican experience in New York City. The recent attention Stateside Puerto Ricans have been receiving in the media as a potential swing vote, especially in Florida, has promoted greater interest in this community. While Puerto Rican-Americans have a long and proud history of fighting against prejudice and ignorance in the United States, there is a longstanding concern that the people of Puerto Rico are not as informed as they should be about the history and challenges faced by their compatriotas who have ventured Stateside since the mid-1800s. (Duany 2002: 29-32) Recent dramatic demographic changes are occurring within the US Puerto Rican community, making such a dialogue more relevant and critical than ever. (Perez, 1930, 34 - 39)

For example, as this new century began, the growth of the Puerto Rican population in the United States (outside of Puerto Rico) was such there has been much speculation about its size relative to that of Puerto Rico. According to the latest figures available from the Census Bureau (unpublished data from their Current Population Survey [CPS]), the Stateside Puerto Rican population in 2003 was estimated at 3,855,608. (Census Bureau 2003) The strength of Stateside Puerto Rican identity is fueled by a number of factors. These include the large circular migration between the Island and Stateside, a long tradition of the Government of Puerto Rico promoting the Island's culture among its population and those Stateside, the continuing existence of racial-ethnic prejudice and discrimination in the United States that reinforces racial-ethnic identities, and the realities of high residential and school segregation in the U.S. Many older Puerto Ricans in the U.S. and elsewhere had a desire to return in their homeland. (Perez, 1930, 34 - 39)

The most dramatic Puerto Rican population growth in the 1990s, as it was for Latinos as a whole, was undeniably in smaller cities and towns, such as Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Nathan 2004) But while this type of growth outside of central cities is associated with suburbanization and upward mobility, in the Puerto Rican case this relationship has been recast in ...