AmericanGovernmentandPoliticsToday-Essentials2011-20124-2.pdf

1、5chapter Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved.May not be copied,scanned,or duplicated,in whole or in part.Due to electronic rights,some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially a

2、ffect the overall learning experience.Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.Immigration reform is one of today s hot-button issues.These demonstrators are standing in front of a government building in Phoenix,Arizona

3、.(Monica Almeida/The New York Times/Redux)Civil Rightschapter contentsAfrican Americans and the Consequences of Slavery in the United StatesThe Civil Rights MovementThe Climax of the Civil Rights MovementWomen s Struggle for Equal RightsGender-Based Discrimination in the WorkplaceImmigration,Latinos

4、,and Civil RightsAffirmative ActionSecuring Rights for Persons with DisabilitiesThe Rights and Status of Gay Males and LesbiansThe Rights and Status of Juveniles145 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved.May not be copied,scanned,or duplicated,in whole or in part.Due to electronic right

5、s,some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience.Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrict

6、ions require it.EMPLOYMENT AND TAXESMost illegal immigrants come to the United States to work.Many of them send part of their earnings in America back to relatives in their home countries.The wages sent home to family members by individu-als working in the United States(both legally and illegally)ar

7、e the second-largest source of foreign income in Mexico.The Internal Revenue Service has had diffi culty collecting taxes on the wages that unauthorized immigrants earn,however.Some employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers simply pay those workers in cash“under the table”to avoid a paper tr

8、ail.If unauthorized immigrants were granted citizenship,most employers would no longer be able to engage in such tax-evasion schemes,and tax revenues would increase.Employers sometimes use illegal immigrants as employees because the latter often accept lower wages than American citizens would.Some e

9、mployers break the law by hiring unauthorized immigrants to get around paying state or federal minimum wages.If citi-zenship were granted to unauthorized immigrants,employers would have to reconsider their practices.U.S.IMMIGRATION POLICYObviously,unauthorized immigrants violate U.S.immi-gration law

10、s.Anyone seeking to enter the United States legally faces a lengthy application process and annual quota limitations that depend on national origin.Granting citizenship to all unauthorized immi-grants now living in the United States could be consid-ered unfair to all those who are waiting for legal

11、entry.It is worth noting that the number of applications for legal immigration from countries such as Mexico has held up right through the Great Recession.The number of new illegal immigrants,however,has plummeted,at least for now.FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS1.In 2010,senators Charles Schumer(D.,N.Y.)and L

12、ind-sey Graham(R.,S.C.)made a new proposal to reform the nations immigration laws by creating ways in which unauthorized immigrants could regularize their status,by making it harder to employ undocumented workers,and by allowing more legal immigration.Do you think that Congress is likely to adopt su

13、ch measures any time before the 2012 elections?Why or why not?2.Do you think immigration would signifi cantly increase if the United States unveiled some type of policy to grant cit-izenship to unauthorized immigrants?Why or why not?BACKGROUNDBy common estimates,there may be as many as 12 mil-lion u

14、nauthorized immigrants living in the United States.The majority of these people,who are also called illegal immigrants,illegal aliens,or undocumented workers,came to the United States from Latin American countries,with more than half coming from Mexico.In 2006,many unauthorized immigrants and their

15、advo-cates took to the streets to protest legislation that would have raised penalties for illegal immigration and classi-fi ed as felons all unauthorized immigrants and anyone who helped them.(The legislation did not pass.)The pro-testers also voiced an overriding request:allow illegal immigrants t

16、o obtain U.S.citizenship.WHAT IF UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS WERE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP?Granting citizenship to unauthorized immigrants now living in the United States would have signifi cant reper-cussions.The immigrants sheer numbers would com-mand attention from both political parties.The already impor

17、tant“Hispanic vote”would take on even greater signifi cance.In recent years,voter participation within the Hispanic,or Latino,community has increased.Latinos have become more politically active and outspo-ken.A growing number of individuals of Hispanic descent hold public offi ce as mayors of major

18、cities,gov-ernors,and members of Congress.unauthorized immigrants were granted citizenship?146WHATIF.These Mexicans were caught trying to enter the United States at the border and are being held in a detention center.What drives foreigners to enter this country illegally?(J.Emilio Flores/Corbis)Copy

19、right 2010 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved.May not be copied,scanned,or duplicated,in whole or in part.Due to electronic rights,some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the ove

20、rall learning experience.Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.CHAPTER 5 Civil Rights 147In spite of the words set forth in the Declaration of Independence that“all Men are created equal,”the concept of equal treatme

21、nt under the law was a distant dream in our nations early years.In fact,the majority of the population had few rights at that time.As you learned in Chapter 2,the framers of the Constitution permitted slavery to continue.Slaves thus were excluded from the political process.Women also were excluded f

22、or the most part,as were Native Americans,African Americans who were not slaves,and even white men who did not own property.Today,in contrast,we have numerous civil rights.Equality is at the heart of the con-cept of civil rights.Generally,the term civil rights refers to the rights of all Americans t

23、o equal protection under the law,as provided for by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.Although the terms civil rights and civil liberties are sometimes used inter-changeably,scholars make a distinction between the two.As discussed in Chapter 4,civil liberties are basically limitations on

24、government;they specify what the government can-not do.Civil rights,in contrast,specify what the government must doto ensure equal protection and freedom from discrimination.The history of civil rights in America is the story of the struggle of vari-ous groups to be free from discriminatory treatmen

25、t.In this chapter,we fi rst look at two movements that had signifi cant consequences for the history of civil rights in America:the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the womens movement,which began in the mid-1800s and continues today.Each of these movements resulted in legislation th

26、at secured important basic rights for all Americansthe right to vote and the right to equal protection under the laws.As you read in the chapter-opening What If.feature,the Hispanic American population has grown rapidly during the past two decades.In this chapter,we look at some of the issues relate

27、d to Hispanic Americans and immigration.Note that most minorities in this nation have sufferedand some continue to sufferfrom dis-crimination.Native Americans,Asian Americans,and Arab Americans all have had to struggle for equal treatment,as have people from other countries and older Americans.The f

28、act that these groups are not singled out for special attention in the following pages should not be construed to mean that their struggle for equality is any less signifi cant than the struggles of those groups that we do discuss.We take a special look at the cata-strophic historical experience of

29、Native Americans in the Politics and.History feature on the following page.African Americans and the Consequences of Slavery in the United StatesBefore 1863,the Constitution protected slavery and made equal-ity impossible in the sense in which we use the word today.African American leader Frederick

30、Douglass pointed out that“Liberty and Slaveryopposite as Heaven and Hellare both in the Constitution.”As Abraham Lincoln stated sarcastically,“All men are created equal,except Negroes.”The constitutionality of slavery was confi rmed just a few years before the outbreak of the Civil War in the famous

31、 Dred Scott v.Sandford1 case of 1857.The Supreme Court held that Civil RightsGenerally,all rights rooted in the Fourteenth Amendments guarantee of equal protection under the law.ari-eedid you know?That at the time of the American Revolution,African Americans made up 21 percent of the American popula

32、tion of about 2.5 million.1.60 U.S.393(1857).First Lady Michelle Obama was present at the unveiling of a bust of Sojourner Truth in the Emancipation Hall of the U.S.Capitol.Truth is the fi rst African American to be so honored in the Capitol.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)Copyright 2010 Cengage Learn

33、ing.All Rights Reserved.May not be copied,scanned,or duplicated,in whole or in part.Due to electronic rights,some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience

34、.Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.148 PART 2 Civil Rights and Libertiesslaves were not citizens of the United States,nor were they entitled to the rights and privi-leges of citizenship.The Court also ruled that

35、the Missouri Compromise,which banned slavery in the territories north of 3630 latitude(the southern border of Missouri),was unconstitutional.The Dred Scott decision had grave consequences.Many observers con-tend that the ruling contributed to making the Civil War inevitable.WERE NATIVE AMERICANS VIC

36、TIMS OF GENOCIDE?By the end of the nineteenth century,the Native American population was much smaller than it had been four hun-dred years earlier.Is this because Native Americans living in what is now the United States were victims of genocide?Genocide has been defi ned as a crime committed with th

37、e intent to destroy a national,racial,ethnic,or religious group.Were the indigenous peoples of America the vic-tims of a“Euro-American genocidal war”as historian David Stannard contends?HOW MANY NATIVE AMERICANS LIVED BEFORE COLUMBUS?In 1894,the U.S.Census Bureau estimated that before Christopher Co

38、lumbuss discovery of America,there were fewer than 500,000 indigenous people in what is now the United States.In dramatic contrast,anthropologist Henry Dobyns argued in 1966 that the true fi gure was between 10 and 12 million.A recent consensus estimate puts the sum at a more moderate 3.8 million.St

39、ill,any number must come with a vast margin of error.In Numbers from Nowhere,historian David Henige wrote:“If I had to pick the most unanswerable question in the world to get into heaven,that would be a good choice.It is impossible to answer.Yet,people have written tens of thousands of pages on it.”

40、What we do know for certain is that the American Indian population bottomed out at 250,000 at the end of the nineteenth century,before recovering to 3.2 million today.WHY DID THEY DIE?Did millions of Native Americans die in the years imme-diately after Columbus discovered America?Yes,of that we are

41、certain.The Europeans brought with them Old World diseases to which American Indians had no immu-nity.The indigenous population was hit with several dis-eases at onceincluding smallpox,cholera,malaria,mumps,yellow fever,infl uenza,and measles.A person who resisted one disease might die from another.

42、It is probable that 90 percent of the population died,far exceeding the mortality caused by the Black Death in medieval Europe(up to a third of the population).To be sure,the Spanish conquistadores were brutal and many Native Americans died at their hands.Most of those who perished,however,did so wi

43、thout ever seeing a white man.For their part,the Europeans had no conception of what caused diseases,no intention of infecting the indig-enous peoples,and in truth did not even understand what was happening.The continued decrease in the American Indian pop-ulation straight through the nineteenth cen

44、turya time when the European American and African American populations were experiencing explosive growthis more of a problem for the nations conscience.This decrease was largely due to the concentration of Native Americans onto ever-smaller territories.Depriving a people of territory in such a way

45、that their numbers drop is a violation of modern antigenocide treaties.It is not,however,what most people mean when they use the word genocide.FOR CRITICAL ANALYSISIs there any way that European Americans would have allowed the indigenous tribes to keep more of their lands?Why or why not?POLITICS AN

46、D.history Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved.May not be copied,scanned,or duplicated,in whole or in part.Due to electronic rights,some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially

47、affect the overall learning experience.Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.CHAPTER 5 Civil Rights 149Ending ServitudeWith the emancipation of the slaves by President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and t

48、he passage of the Thirteenth,Fourteenth,and Fifteenth Amendments during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War,constitutional inequality was ended.The Thirteenth Amendment(1865)states that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States.The Fourteenth Amendm

49、ent(1868)tells us that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States.It states,furthermore,that“no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;nor shall any State deprive any person of

50、life,liberty,or property,without due process of law;nor deny to any person within its jurisdic-tion the equal protection of the laws.”Note the use of the terms citizen and person in this amendment.Citizens have political rights,such as the right to vote and run for political offi ce.Citizens also ha