CAUSES OF PREJUDICE
Question 1
It is factual that an individual cannot hold prejudiced beliefs that do not affect her feelings and actions because; prejudice is basically affected by the culture of an individual especially in the emotional level. Additionally, prejudice as the attitudinal system of beliefs is affected by believes which are passed from generation to generation (Parrillo, 578). Therefore, what can only happen is to keep the prejudice away by raising the knowledge regarding the subject of prejudice to change the feelings and actions.
Question 2
According to Parrillo, self justification can be delineated as disparaging a group by justifying their inferiority and flaws (Parrillo, 580). For example when people need to assure a certain group of individuals that their actions are right and justify it, they tend to source for flaws from the group. This makes this group look inferior which initiates negative stereotyping thus creating prejudice.
Question 3
According to Parrillo, authoritarian attitudes, low self-esteem, and frustration make people deprecate other people in order to improve their feelings about themselves (Parrillo, 583). As a result, this initiates a negative view for other people making one to be more aggressive towards other people.
Question 4
According to Parrillo, socialization process can be delineated as the transiting prejudice beliefs from one generation to the other (Parrillo, 586). Precisely, the parents pass prejudice ideas to their children which is promoted by the fact that children succumb to the parents’ ideas with questioning. Additionally, a child can learn and agree with the prejudice ideas of the parents while growing up even though the parents are not instilling it directly. However, the child can disagree with the prejudice after being exposed to multicultural society.
Question 5
The relationship between economic competition and prejudice is based on the fact that people tend to be unfriendly towards others who appear to threaten their livelihood (Parrillo, 587). Therefore, this initiates a conflict that later results to prejudice. It is worthwhile that increase in economic competition results to increase in prejudice and negative stereotyping (Parrillo, 587).
I think prejudice will continue if everyone had a comfortable income because the economy is the major factor for prejudice – the person is the major factor of prejudice. This means that negative stereotyping will still continue towards the person who was the subject of prejudice earlier.
Parrillo, Vincent N. Encyclopedia of Social Problems. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, 2008. Print.
BARRACK OBAMA: MILES TRAVELLED, MILES TO GO
Question 1
The reason why Kaplan divides her essay in two sections is because she wants to convey two different perceptions of President Obama both before and after inauguration. In 2009 section Kaplan uses the theme of Obama, the first black to become the president, and explains the effect it posses to the African-American community. In 2010 section, Kaplan depicts Obama in office after inauguration together with the conflicting issues in front of him. The perception of Barack Obama in the first section is extraordinary seen as the representative of the black people. Kaplan observes that though Obama represents the blacks, he cannot be considered the victory of his community. He is the shinning victory of the majority but not all. On the other hand, 2010 section views Obama as inexperienced president who is about to face different crises of the country. This is the reason why Kaplan asserts that Obama was a paradox and he being the president would either be a resolution or a resurrection of a new century especially for racial justice (Kaplan, 60).
Question 2
By asserting that the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board Of Education Case represented “a comma, not a period” Kaplan meant that racism did not cease as people expected (Kaplan, 61). After the ruling by the Supreme Court, segregation never ceased especially in public schools, as a matter of fact, white people left public schools to avoid being victims of the law. Even after Obama becoming the president racism existed as it was exhibited by the declining poll numbers.
Question 3
George W. Bush’s advantage over Obama is based on the fact that people regarded him as the recognizable entity as Kaplan asserts (Kaplan, 61). Everybody new George Bush from his young age in school as an “idiot” and they accepted him for that. On the other hand, people did not acknowledge Obama’s life philosophy and seemed not to be interested (Kaplan, 61). I agree with the assessment that people recognized the autocracy of President Bush and talked much about his childhood. However, no one seems to describe President Obama as either good or bad president. No one seems to be interested with his life or personal idiosyncrasy.
Question 4
According to Kaplan, the ordinary political extremism is exhibited when some critics assert that they are unhappy with the federal government headed by President Obama. However, racially-tingled extremism is exhibited by the view that a black man heading the federal government which is the helpmeet of the blacks’ society is a conservative action. As a result, every single move that President Obama makes to help the needy is opposed openly by the liberals purposely as a black liberal action (Kaplan, 64). I agree with this assessment because some of the policies that were raised by President Obama such as Gun Show Background Check Act of 2013 and Obamacare were opposed for no apparent good reason. This means that they view President Obama’s policy as a conservative action to the black society.
Question 5
When Obama visited places like Los Angeles back in 2006, he exhibited to be more of a manager than a leader especially to black people. However, after becoming the president, he failed to tackle small issues such as racial profiling and Muslim prejudice. He seems not able to take a position that can benefit his people (Kaplan, 64). However, according to Kaplan, President Obama signifies his blackness with a stern point that he makes during his public speeches (Kaplan, 65). It is factual that though Obama might disagree that black people live with the stigma of empathy, he understands and abides with it as it is exhibited through some policies that he implements.
Work Cited
Kaplan, Erin A. Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches from a Black Journalista. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2011. Print.
MODELS OF AMERICAN ETHNIC RELATIONS: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Question 1
According to Fredrickson there is not distinction between race and ethnicity and it can be misleading to draw a sharp distinction between the two (Fredrickson, 450). This means that there is no clear distinction between the two terms and if any difference is drawn from the two, it will be misleading. Ethnicity becomes radicalized when unique characteristics of a certain group are used to determine the center of status hierarchy of that group (Fredrickson, 450).
Question 2
Fredrickson tries to assert that along the course of the American history, being identified as “other” has transformed (Fredrickson, 450). It is factual that by the turn of 20th century, immigration resulted to accumulation of different races in United States. As a result, characterization of white people has changed radically. Precisely, 20th century marked the accumulation of different ideas of whites’ characterizations such as social Darwinism, scientific racism, and eugenics. In 20th century, most people believed that white people were Northern European immigrants.
Question 3
According to Fredrickson, ethnic hierarchy was eliminated after World War II amongst the white people and Jews (Fredrickson, 451). In this era, ethnic background changed to color. However, it is factual that ethnic hierarchy was wholly eliminated back in 1960s after the civil rights movement.
Fredrickson asserts that ethnic hierarchy still persists in barrios, ghettos and Indian reservations. It is true that ethnic hierarchy still persists in United States citing from the current criminal justice system that promote mass incarceration especially for the African-American community.
Question 4
Fredrickson depicts that assimilationism focused on superiority and domination of one ethnicity group. This cannot be defined as racism since it is based on one race (Fredrickson, 452). With regard to assimilationism, Fredrickson cites from the ‘Native American cultural genocide’. I agree with Fredrickson’s contention because racism is oppressing and prejudicing a person because of his or her cultural background. Therefore, regardless of where it is done for expressing superiority of one race, assimilationism is racist in some other sense.
Question 5
The difference between cultural pluralism and assimilation is based on the fact that cultural pluralists tend to celebrate distinctive characteristics of groups whereas assimilation focuses on obliterating distinctive groups (Fredrickson, 455).
Fredrickson says that multiculturalism differed from pluralism on the fact that it operated cultural pluralist assumptions but it focused on people of color instead of the diversity of European races.
Question 6
Fredrickson disagrees with that claim because the contemporary American society is composed of very divergent ethnicity groups. It is factual that backlash against racial diversity is more threatening because it promotes racial discrimination and segregation (Fredrickson, 458).
Work Cited
Fredrickson, George M. Models of American Ethnic Relations: a Historical Perspective. , n.d.. Print.
SLAVERY IN THE LAND OF THE FREE
Question 1
It is factual that when slavery is viewed in terms of a large group subjected to hard work as in the case in the Old South. This challenges my view of slavery as subjecting a large group of people to hard work with low or no wages. Therefore, places that one can find slaves working in the contemporary world include industries, plantation schemes in rural areas.
Question 2
If the issue of slavery happened to persist, in the contemporary world, human beings would be cheaper than in the past as the number of human beings continue to increase. This means that labor will be readily available which can be compared to employment which does not satisfy the demands of the existing manpower.
Question 3
The reason why authorities and the media in United States do not treat slavery as an urgent issue is based on the fact that it is the basic necessity of every citizen to recognize his or her basic rights. This means that individuals subjected to slavery ought to report to the authorities but not the authorities looking for the enslaved individuals. Thus, if an individual does not report on slavery, the authorities cannot regard it as an urgent safety issue.
Question 4
In a free trade market, capitalism is an economic system where trade is controlled by single individuals by determining the price of the products and other marketing strategies. Therefore, in the modern slavery, individual people determine the price of slaves but what makes it to be worse is lowering the price unbelievably. As a result this makes slavery cheaper and affordable exposing slaves for the benefit of the slave owner. This makes the similarity between capitalism and slavery. The difference between capitalism and slavery is based on the fact that in capitalism individuals who control the price of the trade products uses marketing strategies to increase their competitive advantage whereas in slavery individuals lowers the general price of slaves for the benefit of all slave traders.
Question 5
Regardless of the fact that U.S Guest Worker Program was introduced when the country was in high need of workforce especially during the two world wars (Bales & Soodalter, 69). However according to Bales and Soodalter, the program was characterized by brutality and inequality where the workers were put in poor living working conditions. This is the reason why the authors view the program as no better than slavery. As a result I believe that the government should continue to sponsor the program but improve the working conditions and compensation policies for the guest workers.
Question 6
It is factual that in the current world, no one would take a fieldworker job that paid $10.49 per day. The minimum pay for picking crops for a living under the same conditions would be approximately $7.25 per hour as the Fair Labor Standards Act require. Therefore, working for approximately 8 hours a day can be paid up to $58 per day at minimum.
Work Cited
Bales, Kevin, and Ron Soodalter. The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. Print.
