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Fieldwork Eastern Pennsylvania Day 7


Immigrants in the US experienced and continue to experience prejudice and discrimination for many facets of their identity in a US context. Ethnic and racial prejudice dominate as paradigms in the 250+ interviews conducted as a part of the OGUS Digital History Project. However, class and gender prejudice and discrimination are also noted. The latter of the two impacted the family of a descendant of migrants from Smyrna. The descendant’s maternal grandfather was stigmatized by a contingency of first and second-generation Greek migrants for being gay. His daughter was publicly accosted with gender prejudice that targeted her father. She never discussed the confrontation with her father and internalized the chronic, relentless prejudice and ostracism she faced from her Greek social circle. She turned to substance abuse to escape, which tore her family apart.