World War II played a significant role in the reshaping of ideas and the element of nationality in America. The US is a multiethnic and multicultural society has gone through a lot of changes in the social structure and interactions of its inhabitants as a result of WWII in the 19th Century. It is during that time that the ethnic and racial landscape in America underwent various complexities that threatened the well-being of not only the natives but also the many immigrants. This paper intends to assess how World War II reshaped America’s nationality with a focus on the experiences of the first generation, second-generation immigrants, and Black Americans.
The beginning of World War II marked the end of the economic depression that was there at the time and many jobs were created. The war necessitated many people to serve as security personnel and soldiers who would fight for America and that led to the enlisting of many people. Among the people who were enlisted to serve in the military were the immigrants and Black Americans. They were all at the forefront of the war and contributed significantly to America’s victory. After the war, things did not completely go back to the previous normalcy where the immigrants and the black Americans served as slaves on American plantation and industries before the war.
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Government spending during the war led to an increase in economic development which also led to increased opportunities for employment as well as the formation of new nationality boundaries. According to Foner (2017), ‘the government recognized the new immigrants and their children as loyal Americans, and assumed second class status of the Black Americans.’ The government deliberately led the way in dismantling the racial barriers and even went ahead to create new decent camps for the immigrants and the Black Americans.
However, despite the dismantling of the racial boundaries, the immigrants and Black Americans were still rampantly segregated and discriminated racially (Arsenault, 2001). Since they had actively participated in America’s victory in World War II, they felt they belonged there and hence the racial segregation and discrimination were unexpected. The first-generation immigrants were used to the discrimination but that did not particularly go well with the second-generation immigrants and the black Americans. Such feelings of being left out gave birth to the modern civil rights movement, and there was an exponential growth in the demand for equality in America (Garcia, 2018). The second-generation immigrants and the black Americans took it upon themselves to continuously fight for equal rights as enjoyed by all the Native Americans. There was hence a revolution that sparked a mission for the spread of democracy and freedom.
Conclusively, the aftermath of World War II made the immigrants and the black Americans acquire a sense of belonging having taken active roles in America’s victory during the war. As a result, the American government took the lead role in dismantling the national boundary and created space for them. With the emergent sense of belonging and the racial discrimination and segregation still on the rise, the immigrants and the black Americans actively demanded equality and freedom and that majorly contributed to the new political landscape in America
Bibliography
Arsenault, R. O. (2001). Civil Rights Movement. African American Studies Center .
Foner, E. (2017). Give me liberty!: an American history (2nd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
García, D. G. (2018). Challenging “a Systematic Scheme of Racial Segregation.” Strategies of Segregation .
