Any country that conquest another country has to impose it culture by obligating its language, religion, and traditions to fully conquest the other country. To many people from the dependent country, it is hard to learn the language imposed because of the lack of good education and experience. The dominant society may think that because of their anatomy or their race they are not able to do so. In the text “Black Children are Verbally Deprived” by Walt Wolfram, the author explains how the North American society supposes that African American has a different English speech because the segregation and the poor education they have had. Nowadays, Puerto Ricans are having the same problems as the African Americans did before with the North Americans in terms of the use of English.
The northern parts of the United States accepted African Americans, and many try to escape to the north to try to get employed and leave the racial segregation in the south. The south had state laws that prevented African Americans from doing what they believe are right. (265, packet) Even though it was said that, African Americans are equal to whites under the constitution, as long as part of the United States still have the segregation going on, then the African Americans do not have rights in the whole country. This was a huge obstacle to stop the racism and try to fit them into the society to live with whites. Women were part of the minorities along with the blacks because of the way they were treated.
Additionally, the two poems are similar in that in Suicide Note, the college student is trying to please her family by getting perfect grades; she is working hard at school, and feels that she is not good enough, smart enough, or pretty enough (Mirikitani, 1417); the college student is under pressure to live up to her parent’s expectations. In Out, Out, the young boy is also hard at work, trying take care of the family. The poems are different in that in Suicide Note, the college girl has taken her life and writes her parents an apology note informing them why she is taking her life; in Out, Out, the child in the poem does not take his own life, but dies as a result of cutting his hand using a saw. In Out, Out, the young boy is cutting wood, and he becomes excited and cuts his hand on accident. The two poems are also different in that in Suicide Note, the young girl has time to think about and give reason as to why she is taking her life.
Another result of the negative labeling of black pupils is the higher exclusion rate and the higher chances of black pupils to be put in sets below their actual abilities, which can only lead those black pupils to underachieve. Another reason for the difference in ethnic achievement is the ethnocentric curriculum which gives priorities to the main ethnic group whilst ignoring others, many sociologists have had their opinions on the ethnocentric curriculum and most of them see that British schools teach lessons and base the curriculum around the English language, history, religion and music. Ball for example stated that the national curriculum focuses on English history and recreates a mythical age of empire and past glories whilst ignoring black and Asian history, sociologist Coard explains why this would cause ethnic underachievement as English history makes other ethnic groups feel inferior
He provides readers with a definition of this term that may seem unfamiliar to many – “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviour based on very narrow slices of experience”. The author goes on to discuss how these impressions can be changed with much concerted effort. The subject matter remains of current interest as the issues of racism, social inequality and stereotyping that are still very prevalent in societies of today come to the forefront when he states, “if you are a white person who would like to treat black people as equals in every way, it requires more than a simple commitment to equality. It requires that you change your life”. This statement may also suggest that while the article is written for a wide audience, the style is more geared towards the attitude of Caucasians to black minorities.
Minorities in the media The media has a huge influence on the way different races are viewed by society. Misrepresentation can be defined as to give a false or misleading representation with intent to deceive or be unfair. The United States is one of, if not the most, diverse nations in the world. It is often described as a melting pot because the country is made up of so many ethnicities and races. In spite of this diversity, the media still misrepresents different races in many ways.
Double consciousness forces blacks to not only view themselves from their own unique perspective, but to also view themselves as they might be perceived by the outside world. Du Bois spoke of this when he talked about “the sense of looking at one’s self through the eyes of others”. As a result, blacks can suffer from a damaged self-image shaped by the perceptions and treatment of white people. Black life in turn can easily become shaped by stereotypes perpetuated by mainstream culture. According to Du Bois the prejudices of white people elicit “self-questioning, self-criticism, and lowering of ideals” among black people.
Pre Encounter is associated with a worldview that contends that race is not salient to personality identity. Encounter is a status that is associated with confusion regarding the meaning of one’s race. Immersion-Emersion is associated with one identifying with Black culture and denigrating White culture. Internalization is associated with one internalizing Black culture, transcending racism and fighting general cultural oppression (Helms, J.E, & Parham, (1990). Anger is conceptualized as an instinctual drive (Hall, 1899) and Blacks are often stereotyped as angry and out of control with regard to their feelings and emotions (Franklin, 2004).
King outlined the reasons for these methods in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” He stated that nonviolent protest was used because it dramatized the issues of segregation and discrimination that blacks faced, and thereby gained the public’s sympathy (Letter…Birm. Jail, 2). This method then required nonviolent action by blacks and also needed a violent white reaction to create the drama of good versus evil within media in order to create sympathy for blacks (Letter…Birm. Jail, 2). With this added media outrage they hoped to in turn get more legislation passed and enforced.
In “Being a Chink’ and “The Meaning of a Word” Christine Leong and Gloria Naylor look at words that are meant to hurt people. What caught my attention most were the two main words used in both essays, “Nigger” and “Chink”. With enough detail, I realized that “Nigger” is a very strong word and African Americans show no mercy when it is used towards them. I feel as if both words are very horrible ones said to people but do not carry the same amount of weight as “Nigger” does. To be truthfully honest, I cannot really relate to Leong or Naylor specifically with those words but I could with my own religion.