Melting Pot - American Society
Word Count – 499 Melting Pot
The social and economic indicators of America paint an obvious picture. Through out America’s history and even till today, Caucasians have always been in control. Even though history has a huge role in that regarding everything that happened during slavery years, the conditions for ethnical minorities has not improved to the standards usually enjoyed by Caucasians. Paying close attention to some statistics regarding ethnic minorities, we see clearly that the conditions for them are much different than those of Caucasians. Comparing the unemployment, education and poverty rates between African Americans and Caucasians the disadvantages are apparent. There are twice as many African Americans unemployed and in poverty compared to the rest of America which is an obvious indicator of the education in the ‘hood’. So when equal opportunities are not extended to all members of the society we see a skewed representation of ethnicities in the government and its related agencies. In the melting pot of diversity, we see many interest groups that serve to lobby for their groups’ goals. Since we are entrenched in the specific problems of ethnicities, we forget that we are all citizens of the world and our ethnicity is just something someone ascribed to us. Thus we do not see greater participation in interest groups by people of various diversities, since there are way too many problems facing with their own ascribed identity.
The problem with ascribed identities is that they are hard-wired into our brain. Not only do we differentiate between people based on their race, religion and ethnicity but also we have developed rigid stereotypes that lead you to assume everything about a person without even knowing them. The effect of these stereotypes is so strong that sometimes people lose their own individual identity when they see what is ‘expected’ from the people of their ethnicity. What this does is that it creates populations of people
The social and economic indicators of America paint an obvious picture. Through out America’s history and even till today, Caucasians have always been in control. Even though history has a huge role in that regarding everything that happened during slavery years, the conditions for ethnical minorities has not improved to the standards usually enjoyed by Caucasians. Paying close attention to some statistics regarding ethnic minorities, we see clearly that the conditions for them are much different than those of Caucasians. Comparing the unemployment, education and poverty rates between African Americans and Caucasians the disadvantages are apparent. There are twice as many African Americans unemployed and in poverty compared to the rest of America which is an obvious indicator of the education in the ‘hood’. So when equal opportunities are not extended to all members of the society we see a skewed representation of ethnicities in the government and its related agencies. In the melting pot of diversity, we see many interest groups that serve to lobby for their groups’ goals. Since we are entrenched in the specific problems of ethnicities, we forget that we are all citizens of the world and our ethnicity is just something someone ascribed to us. Thus we do not see greater participation in interest groups by people of various diversities, since there are way too many problems facing with their own ascribed identity.
The problem with ascribed identities is that they are hard-wired into our brain. Not only do we differentiate between people based on their race, religion and ethnicity but also we have developed rigid stereotypes that lead you to assume everything about a person without even knowing them. The effect of these stereotypes is so strong that sometimes people lose their own individual identity when they see what is ‘expected’ from the people of their ethnicity. What this does is that it creates populations of people