Prejudice and discrimination towards Mexican Americans in the west led to the educational backwardness of Mexican Americans.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mexican Americans came to America as immigrant laborers being forced to suffer the hardships of poverty in their homeland. Economic crisis within the US triggered the development of hostility towards immigrant laborers. Mexican Americans were not considered white or black by the US people.
The Mexican Americans themselves didn’t consider them to be white or black and found it difficult to answer questions about race. Being a stigmatized community that faced discrimination for several years Mexican Americans became educationally backward when compared with the non-Hispanic people.