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Postcolonial ethnicity refers to postcolonial writers' ethnic attitudes as minority in countries that were once colonized by other nations. They describe how tiny groups of people encounter challenges in religious, political, and economic affairs. The United States of America has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States Census officially recognized five racial categories (White, Black or African American, Asian American, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) as well as people of two or more races. The Census Bureau also classified respondents as "Hispanic or Latino" or "Not Hispanic or Latino", identifying Hispanic and Latino as an ethnicity (not a race), which comprises the largest minority group in the nation. The Census also asked an "Ancestry Question," which covers the broader notion of ethnicity, in the 2000 Census long form and the 2010 American Community Survey. Non-Hispanic whites will account for 57.8% of the population in 2020, making white Americans the racial and ethnic majority. Hispanic and Latino Americans (of any racial group) make up the largest ethnic minority, accounting for 18.7% of the population, while Black or African Americans make up the largest racial minority, accounting for 12.1%. White Americans are the majority in every census-defined region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West) and every state except Hawaii, but the Midwestern United States contributes the most population, at 85 percent according to the Population Estimates Program (PEP) or 83 percent according to the American Community Survey (ACS). The African-American population in the South accounts for 55 percent of the total. A plurality or majority of the other recognized categories can be found in the West. The latter region is home to 42% of Hispanic and Latino Americans, 46% of Asian Americans, 48% of American Indians and Alaska Natives, 68% of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, 37% of Multiracial Americans, and 46% of those who self-identify as "some other race." While the five inhabited US territories are ethnically diverse, they are all very homogeneous: Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are mostly Asian and Pacific Islander, Puerto Rico is predominantly Hispanic/Latino, and the US Virgin Islands are predominantly African American. Moreover, Human rights are defined in the United States through the Constitution and other legal systems. Through an adopted constitution, the federal government has guaranteed unalienable rights to its citizens and (to some extent) non-citizens. These rights have evolved over time as a result of constitutional amendments, legislation, and court precedent. Despite getting high marks in human rights assessments, the United States' human rights record has drawn considerable domestic and international criticism. Much of the criticism has focused on the existence of systematic racism. Furthermore, the US has the largest number of minors in its prison system of any country.

History

European ancestry ranged from an estimated 7% for a sample of Jamaicans to roughly 23% for a sample of African Americans from New Orleans, where there was historically a sizable class of mixed-race individuals, according to one examination of genetic markers with different frequencies between continents (Parra et al. 1998). Because of the uncertainty caused by the distinction, 33 percent of Latino respondents in the 2000 census checked "some other race" instead of the designated racial groups (according to US census statistics). Furthermore, a person's personal racial identification may change over time due to cultural variables, and self-ascribed race may differ from the assigned race (Kressin et al. Under earlier census procedures, many mixed-race children born in the United States were reported as being of a different race than one of their biological parents. Attempts to trace mingling across populations resulted in a variety of historical classifications such as "mulatto" and "octaroon" among persons of partial African origin, as well as "blood quantum" distinctions that became increasingly untethered from self-reported ancestry. The Constitution guaranteed that everyone has rights and that these rights belong to everyone (presumably meaning men and women, and perhaps children, although the developmental distinction between children and adults poses issues and has been the subject of subsequent amendments, as discussed below). The vast Quaker population in the colonies, notably in the Delaware Valley, and their theological convictions that all persons, regardless of sex, age, race, or other characteristics, have the same Inner light, may have impacted some of this thought. The following historical trends have influenced the ethnic makeup of the United States: Original settlement patterns A variety of Native American peoples, including Alaska Natives, colonized the Americas. Slavery was sanctioned under the original Constitution (albeit it was not based on the slave's race or any other characteristic), and by the Three-Fifths Compromise, it was counted as three-fifths of a Person for taxation and representation in the House of Representatives (although the slaves themselves were discriminated against in voting for such representatives). African Americans left the South during the Great Migration and Second Great Migration in the twentieth century, seeking work and escaping racial violence in Northern, Midwestern, and Western cities, where they had to compete with new European immigrants. According to the 2000 census, Native Americans have reached their highest documented population, 4.5 million, since the United States was founded in 1776. After the Civil War, when slaves were freed, whites wanted to label everyone with "one drop" of "black blood" or recognized African ancestry as black in order to reclaim white control in the South during and after Reconstruction. Attempts to organize the United States' increasingly varied population into distinct categories in the twentieth century encountered various difficulties (Spickard 1992). For nearly three centuries, physical appearance, presumption of non-European ancestry, and social circle were all utilized to define whites' membership in these groups. Until the early twentieth century, most southern states lacked such a formal definition, though several did implement racial segregation in schools. In 1787, a national conference and colonial conventions ratified the United States Constitution, which established a republic with a variety of rights and civic liberties. All men are created equal," the Declaration stated, "and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among those are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," echoing John Locke's "life, liberty, and property." However, it did not grant white male property owners in the United States the right to vote (about 6 percent of the population). Additionally, The Civil War broke out in the 1860s following decades of battle between southern states' continued use of slavery and northern states' prohibition of it, and the Constitution was rewritten in the aftermath to prohibit slavery and states' denial of constitutional rights. This included free black males and unattached women of any race, but not married women, who were unable to claim fifty pounds on their own (anything they owned or earned belonged to their husbands by the Common law of Coverture). The statute was altered in 1790 to specifically include women, but it was revised again in 1807 to exclude them, which was invalid because any such modification had to be based on universal suffrage, as required by the state constitution. Concerns over individual liberty and the concentration of authority at the federal level prompted the passage of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, as the new Constitution began to take effect in practice. Women had been voting in some states since the United States' founding, such as New Jersey, and even earlier in the colonial era, but they were denied the right to vote in others.

Makeup and Equality

Some Louisiana Creoles, such as the Isleos of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest, have direct Spanish lineage; however, the majority of self-identified White Hispanics are of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Salvadoran ancestry, all of which are multi-ethnic nations In 2018, 59.8 million Americans self-identified as "Hispanic or Latino origin," accounting for 18.3 percent of the total U.S. population. According to the United States Census Bureau, there are 9–10 million Middle Eastern Americans, including both Arab and non-Arab Americans, accounting for 0.6 percent of the overall U.S. population; however, the Arab American Institute estimates a population of 3.6 million. White Americans as a whole (non-Hispanic Whites + White Hispanics) are anticipated to hold a 73 percent (or 303 million out of 420 million) majority in 2005, up from 77 percent presently. According to the United States Census Bureau, the number of people in the United States who claimed American and no other ancestry increased from 12.4 million in 1990 to 20.2 million in 2000. Slavery existed in all of the American colonies, but it was mostly in the form of personal servants in the north (where 2% of the population was enslaved) and field hands in plantations in the south (where 25% of the population was enslaved by the start of the American Revolutionary War). According to the 2010 United States Census, this number climbed to 42 million when Multiracial African Americans were included, accounting for 13% of the overall U.S. population. Changes in immigration policy, most notably the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, have resulted in a drop in the non-Hispanic white percentage of the 50 states and the District of Columbia since the mid-twentieth century (60.1 percent in 2019). According to the United States Census Bureau, self-identified German Americans made up 17% of the population in 2000, followed by Irish Americans at 12%. Population estimates from the United States Census are based on replies to the census's ancestry question, making it difficult to correctly measure Middle Eastern Americans. Despite the fact that a large part of the population is known to have numerous ancestries, most persons still identified with one racial group in the 2000 census, the first with the opportunity to choose more than one. Though Middle Eastern American communities can be found in all 50 states, the majority of them live in just ten, with California, New York, and Michigan accounting for about a third of the total population. California has the highest concentration of Middle Eastern Americans of any state, with ethnic groups such as Arabs, Persians, and Armenians accounting for a significant portion of the population. Instead, the vast majority of African immigrants (95 percent) identified with their own ethnic groups. According to the census of 2000, 7.2 percent of the population claimed to be of American ancestry. African Americans & Middle Eastern: Few African immigrants self-identify as "African-American," according to US Census Bureau data (as "African-American" is usually referring to blacks with deeply rooted ancestry dating back to the US slave period as discussed in the previous paragraph.) Beginning in 1965, the United States implemented an affirmative action program that requires employers to not only refrain from discrimination, but also to give preferential treatment to groups protected under the Civil Rights Act in order to increase their numbers in areas where they are deemed underrepresented. As a result, the largest and second-largest self-reported ancestry groups in the United States are German and Irish, respectively. By 2043, non-Hispanic Whites will make up fewer than half of the entire population of the United States if current trends continue. [64] The United States Virgin Islands has the largest percentage of African Americans of any state or territory in the United States (76 percent African-American as of 2010). Non-Hispanic blacks made up 37,144,530 people, or 12.1 percent of the population. Individuals who self-identify as African-American, as well as those who emigrated from the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, may alternatively identify as Black or some other written-in race versus African-American because they were not part of the historic US slave system, are included in the grouping, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Throughout the 1990s, this shift in reporting accounted for the most "growth" of any ethnic group in the United States, however it was more about how people described themselves than about birth rates, and it did not reflect immigration. According to the 2009 American Community Survey, the United States has 38,093,725 Black and African Americans, accounting for 12.4% of the population. [98] The US Census Bureau said in 2014 that it would create a new MENA ethnic category for inhabitants from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Arab world, apart from the "white" designation that these populations had sought in 1909. Middle Eastern Americans make up the largest percentage of Michigan's population Dearborn, in particular, has historically been home to a large number of Middle Eastern Americans. "Whites are now the numerical minority in a half dozen states, and they will be the nation's numerical minority in a little more than 25 years," according to demographer Dudley L. Poston Jr. in 2017. With the exception of Hawaii, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands, white Americans make up the majority in 49 of the 50 states, including Puerto Rico, as of 2019. In 1775, Anthony Benezet, motivated by the Religious Society of Friends' ideas, created the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, thinking that all ethnic groups were treated equally and that human slavery was incompatible with Christian beliefs. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, both groups saw large rates of immigration to the United States, prompted by the Great Famine in Ireland and the failed 1848 Revolution in Germany. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee petitioned the Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency in 2012 to identify the MENA populations as a minority/disadvantaged community, driven in part by post-9/11 discrimination. After White Americans and Hispanic or Latino Americans, Black and African Americans are the second and third largest groups in the United States (of any race). However, because of a severe ethnic divide, English and British Americans remain the largest ethnic group. The Census Bureau's working classification of 19 MENA groups, as well as Turkish, Sudanese, Somali, Mauritanian, Armenian, Cypriot, Afghan, Iranian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian communities, were included in the sampling strata for the new MENA category as of December 2015. The United States approved the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race and national origin (CRA).

Caged Bird:

Angelou’s (1969) poem follows the post-colonialism theme and the oppression the subaltern faces. The poem depicts two birds' conflicting experiences. One bird is free to dwell in nature, while another imprisoned bird suffers in captivity. Due to the intense pain, the trapped bird sings, both to deal with its situation and to communicate its own need for release. However, even with the trapped bird singing, begging for freedom his voice isn’t heard and locked with oppression. Angelou (1969) frequently felt as though her remarks were not being heard because of the color of her skin. She felt as if she was still enslaved in certain respects. Although African Americans were free during Angelou's time, there were still numerous social constraints that prevented many black Americans from feeling free at all.

The Guest:

Camus’s (1957) story also talks about post-colonialism theme and the subaltern misery in a Swiss town. To interpret, Daru a schoolmaster who has been given orders to hand over the prisoner, an Arab who allegedly murdered his cousin, to police headquarters in a place around twenty kilometers away. Over the story it’s learned how the Arab had no free will, neither mentally nor physically. As well as Daru who was forced into an action he didn’t want to perceive. Although, Daru is portrayed as a person that spoke freely, made decision, and was allowed to feel. Unlike the Arab that had to follow rules because he was an immigrant. As he was portrayed with very few offensive description either by him looking away, being silent, couldn’t move etc…. The Arab inevitably picks the path at the end that leads to prison, the only thing he believed he deserves since he wasn’t Swiss. Moreover, not only the Arab had no voice, but also Daru felt upset because he knew that he had no voice nor power that could help the Arab escape jail. Camus (1957) “The Guest” subordination is based on class/wealth rather than race. If we address spivak's question from a postcolonial standpoint, the subaltern has a voice. However, if it is looked at from a Marxist perspective, it does not, because it the richer/privileged people denied to help the lower class with their struggles.

Reference:

Stanley Lieberson and Lawrence Santi, 'The Use of Nativity Data to Estimate Ethnic Characteristics and Patterns', Social Science Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1985), pp. 44–46.

"Irish Americans must respond to ethnic question in 2020 US Census". Retrieved May 5, 2021. "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016.

"Guam / Northern Mariana Islands Demographic Profile Data". American FactFinder. 2010. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2019.

"Final Revisions of the Employer Information Report (EEO-1)". Archived from the original on August 13, 2009.

Melvin Randolph Gilmore, "The True Logan Fontenelle", Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. 19, edited by Albert Watkins, Nebraska State Historical Society, 1919, p. 64, at GenNet, accessed August 25, 2011

Angelou (1969.) Caged Bird. https://www.litcharts.com › poetryCaged Bird Summary & Analysis by Maya Angelou - LitCharts

Camus (1958). The Guest. https://www.enotes.com › topics › g...The Guest Study Guide - eNotes.com