By seeing many sides of other cultures, we are well informed, and can make rational assessments regarding others. A lot of diversity is visual and obvious, while another type is hidden. Many of people's diverse characteristics are not seen but only understood by talking and getting to know the person. For instance, Jenna, (profiled in; ‘My Place: The Place for Diversity’), would have been judged based on her visual characteristics. If my adult son would have brought her home to meet my family, they would have judged her based upon her visual characteristics.
I found it to be so true when Appiah stated that “Talk of authenticity now just amounts to telling other people what they ought to value in their own traditions”. The reason why I found this to be so true because I feel that access to info does influence the decisions people make. For an example, people from different backgrounds won’t be bullied by being told what they can or can’t do. Even though there is a variety of cultural backgrounds out there to signify diversity, Appiah believed that there existed a unity between all of us. In other words Appiah felt that even though we are so different that in some way, shape, or form there is some type of unity amongst us.
Although the general position of the African Americans improved, there was still discrimination and segregation of the blacks as they were deprived of basic human rights. Issues like disfranchisement, racism, racial hatred groups and segregation prohibited Black equality. In 1950s segregation existed everywhere in America. In the south it was de jure and in the North de facto. In the South segregation was supported by the Jim Crow laws that made it legal.
To help spread acceptance and tolerance, the people of the United States need to work together and stop the negative stereotypes and prejudicial thoughts and actions. Being aware of those around us is one way that the people of the United States can reduce prejudice. Learning all that we can is just another way the appreciation for diversity crosses cultural barriers. Understanding the history of a culture that is part of your ancestors, or one that is important to your close friend is a simple way that the tolerance of those people can be spread even
Throughout the years racism has been a common problem and is happening all around us. In earlier times black people were used as slaves and did have little to no rights at all, but now discrimination between blacks and whites is illeagal and we are all supposed to have equal rights. Although the discrimination is illeagal it has happened in the judical system in the past that juries and other people have made their decision based on the defendants race. Like in the case of Tom Robinson from the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and in the case of Stephen Lawrence the verdict seems to have been based mainly on their colors. So that leads me thinking if people of all races will ever be equal in the justice system and to the rest of the world.
To support his thesis, he pointed out that any lower social class was sent to do manual labor. Some however, were simply better and cheaper to have as slave laborers, such as the African Slaves. (Williams 10) Racism was simply a consequence of slavery so that people could justify the idea of employing and owning slaves. For many years, historians and sociologists have debated the relationship between racism and slavery. Some contend that slavery caused and perpetuated racism, while others argue that racism caused and perpetuated slavery.
America was not the only country of course that practiced slavery; there were many countries that had practiced slavery before. Pinckney states that “If slavery be wrong, it is justified by the example of all the world” (D’Souza, pg. 466). The problem that comes to mind with this is that in those other countries there was no word for freedom, while America was founded as a so called free country. It’s important to understand that slavery wasn’t because of racism but because the pursuit of profit.
Multiculturalism isn’t the total of various ethnocentric groups, where each one of amalgamates around its specific island of cultural standards, instead it’s a closely intertwined network of cultural cores that every citizen feels welcome to learn from. Multiple group membership may be seen as the best possible manifestation of the freedom in American society to contour one's own individuality, or one's purpose. Alternatively, an American native may decide to live as a "cultural eclectic," by which I mean partake in the morals of a assortment of other cultures, which may nothing like the ethnic group that individual may be born from, and not just "ethnic," but political, educational in nature, religious, or of another type. A Greek-American can join an African-American cultural focus. Such person may become culturally "adapted" to at least some of the cultures values in the process.
Slavery, which was a major uproar from colonial America to the civil war, is the racial epidemic of the enslavement of people for money and cheap labor with extensive abuses. The question that could be asked is were the slaves dignified, did they still keep their dignity? The word dignity is the conducting of self-respect as a person sees himself or herself rather than, how others perceive that person. Slavery has been around for years and slaves have been treated unfairly for countless of reasons and situations. Did they still keep their self-respect?
For example to discriminate socially is to make a difference among people on the basis of class or group without regarding one’s value. There are some instances of social discrimination such as disability, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and ethnicity. There are still some forms of discrimination in society today as one knows discrimination has been around for centuries that date back to slavery of African Americans. Society has made some improvements on how society deals with discrimination, which is still a major problem in America society. It is not only occurring in certain parts of the world but also over the United States.