Racial Standards

Coming into the United Sates was not my decision; of course, I was only five years old. There was no way I could possibly make such a decision. But I was against the idea. What little girl wants to leave behind everything she has ever known? But what girl can watch her mother prepare to leave and not want to go with? So I was there, left with the choice to go to the U.S. with my mom or stay in Bosnia with my uncles. Clearly I chose to go with my mom. Access was granted to us due to the Clinton administration having opened immigration from eastern European countries. I went from being labeled as an alien to a permanent resident and then to a citizen in 2009. Once we were settled into an apartment, English teachers were thrown at us and we were taught the language, the ways and the customs of this new place I was to call home. I started school and life began so to speak.

I look back at my experience and now see how strongly white privilege was in play. Immigration nowadays is strongly opposed by many, mainly because the people coming in are of Hispanic decent. Not once have I experienced animosity for immigrating to the U.S. and that is primarily due to my white complexion. Bosnians, Irish, Swedish and other immigrants from Europe are more likely to be accepted into the culture and society of what we know as the US and that’s only due to the fact that our complexion matches that of the Americans present. Immigration statistics from 2012, revealed that 27.1% of individuals were foreign born and of that, only, 2.5% of came from eastern Europe. Also, I discovered that I was a part of the 4.4% of foreign-born children who were in the age group of 5 to 17 in 2012. This group is now within the age group of 7 to 19. It’s weird to think of myself as categorized for a certain group like foreign born children, but it does provide a sense of identity away from being labeled as just white, however, I will always be considered white in the eyes of everyone else as will my family. Another interesting fact I found was that there were 10,000,000 people in the U.S. that were granted legal permanent residence during the years of 2000-2009, according to chart 13-2 (Golash-Boza). And my family was apart of that number, we were granted residency in 2000. One thing I wish I could change about this experience is that I had to leave behind a majority of my immediate family.

Unfortunately, my family was one of the remaining few to be granted leave. All of my immediate family still remains in Bosnia, struggling to lead a regular life. Immigration act of 1924, which was a legislation that reduced the immigration from southern and eastern Europe by introducing quotas, or limits on the number of people from these countries were allowed entry. A quota on only certain countries was considered highly unfair, which in turn lead to the Immigration Act of 1965. This act set a universal quota of 20,000 persons for every country (Golash-Boza).

Racism continues to persist throughout the U.S. and society because, we as people allow it to. Institutional, structural and individual racism circles throughout society because no one calls out what is truly going on. The different types of racisms need to be acknowledged first in order for something to be done about it. We as a nation are still in denial about what is occurring in our country.