This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. Preface

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 
  US history is filled with violence and other maltreatment against Native Americans, blacks, and immigrants.
  
• 
  Social scientists warn that the status of people of color has been worsening.
  

FOR YOUR REVIEW

1. 
   Describe why Myrdal said US race relations were an “American dilemma.”
   
2. 
   How much did you learn in high school about the history of race and ethnicity in the United States? Do you think you should have learned more?
   

[1] Brown, D. A. (2009). Bury my heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian history of the American West. New York, NY: Sterling Innovation.

[2] Brown, R. M. (1975). Strain of violence: Historical studies of American violence and vigilantism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

[3] Litwack, L. F. (2009). How free is free? The long death of Jim Crow. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[4] Dinnerstein, L., & Reimers, D. M. (2009). Ethnic Americans: A history of immigration. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

[5] Myrdal, G. (1944). An American dilemma: The negro problem and modern democracy. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers.

[6] Massey, D. S. (2007). Categorically unequal: The American stratification system. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; Wilson, W. J. (2009). The economic plight of inner-city black males. In E. Anderson (Ed.), Against the wall: Poor, young, black, and male (pp. 55–70). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.