The context of civil rights 155Although many Mexican Americans have roots that go back hundreds of years,
a majority of Latinos have been in the United States for less than two generations.
Consequently, they have become a political force only recently, although they
are now the nation’s largest minority. Latinos’ relative lack of political clout when
compared with that of African Americans can be explained by two factors. First,
Latinos vote at a much lower rate than African Americans, in part because many have
language barriers. In addition, about one-third of Latinos cannot vote in national
elections because they are not U.S. citizens. Second, unlike African Americans,
Latinos are a relatively diverse group politically, composed of people from many
Latin American nations. Most Latino voters are loyal to the Democratic Party, but
a majority of Cuban Americans are Republicans. Although this diversity means
that Latino voters do not speak with one voice, it brings opportunity for increased
political clout in the future. The diversity of partisan attachments among Latinos and
their relatively low levels of political involvement mean that both parties are eager
to attract them as new voters. In 2016, Donald Trump surprised many experts by
winning a higher percentage of the Latino vote (29 percent) than Mitt Romney did in
2012 (27 percent).
Asian Americans experienced discrimination beginning with their arrival in the
United States in the nineteenth century. The first wave of Chinese immigrants came
with the 1848 California gold rush. Initially, foreign miners, including the Chinese,
were able to stake out their claims along with Americans. But by 1850, when the easy-
to-find gold was gone, Americans tried to drive out the Chinese through violence
and the Foreign Miners Tax. Subsequently, Chinese immigrants played a crucial
role in building the intercontinental railroad between 1865 and 1869. Yet, because
they were given the most dangerous jobs, many lost their lives. After the railroad was
completed, Chinese workers returned to the West Coast, where they experienced
increasing discrimination and violence. Following several race riots, Congress passed
the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prevented Chinese already in the United
States from becoming U.S. citizens—although the Supreme Court later granted their
American-born children automatic citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.^13
The Chinese Exclusion Act also barred virtually all immigration from China—the first
time in U.S. history that a specific ethnic group was singled out in this way. During
World War II, more than 110,000 Japanese were placed in internment camps. Despite
the internment being upheld by the Supreme Court at the time, a 1980 congressional
commission determined that it was a “grave injustice” motivated by “racial prejudice,
war hysteria and the failure of political leadership.” Eight years later, President RonaldNative Americans’ struggles to
maintain the security of their cultural
lands were at the forefront of
controversy over the construction of
the Dakota Access Pipeline. In 2016
and 2017, the Standing Rock Sioux
tribe led protests against the oil
pipeline and its proposed route, which
threatened their ancestral lands and
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