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US Civil Rights Argumentative Analysis

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It is no secret that when the US constitution was ratified, the privileges and immunities and basic human rights were intended for a very specific group of people who were considered citizens of the new colony. According to McClain and Stewart’s Can We All Get Along, the committee that drafted the founding document was appointed to devise a new national seal after the advent of the Articles of confederation; the idea proposed by Benjamin Franklin John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was for the seal to represent the countries of the colonists’ origin. The countries included were England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland. This leaves thousands upon thousands of people living in America and not being represented or even recognized by …show more content…

Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the US, was acquired in the Spanish-American war and the Jones Act of 1917 made the inhabitants American citizens. On the island they do not pay taxes and cannot receive all the benefits and assistance of the US government. On the mainland however they are not distinguished from other US citizens and whether on the mainland or the island all are subject to a potential military draft. After America acquired Arizona, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mexicans living in these territories were given a month to decide if they would choose to be US citizens or remain Mexican citizens living under US rule. Even the Mexicans that decided to become US citizens were put off their land and denied citizenship other rights that were promised by the treaty. In fact, California decided that further action from congress was needed to confer citizenship on the Mexicans living there. Cubans conversely, were around in Florida in small numbers as early as 1870, the difference is Cubans have pretty much always been viewed as white which means they would have likely had no trouble seeking citizenship prior to 1959 when the US opened its arms to Cubans and encouraged them to seek

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