Is Prejudice and Discrimination a Myth or a Real Life Situation Essay Example for Free

Is Prejudice and Discrimination a Myth or a Real Life Situation Essay Prejudice is a cultural attitude that rests on negative stereotypes about individuals or groups because of their cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic background. Discrimination is the active denial of desired goals from a category of persons. A category can be based on sex, ethnicity, nationality, religion, language, or class. More recently, disadvantaged groups now also include those based on gender, age, and physical disabilities. Prejudice and discrimination are deeply imbedded at both the individual and societal levels. Attempts to eradicate prejudice and discrimination must thus deal with prevailing beliefs or ideologies, and social structure. Although there is no wide agreement as to the cause of prejudice and discrimination, there is a consensus that they constitute a learned behaviour. The internalization of prejudice starts with parents and, later, teachersthe groups primary in the formation of attitudes within children. The media and social institutions solidify prejudicial attitudes, giving them social legitimacy. In a sense, it is incorrect to speak of eradicating prejudice, since prejudice is learned. At best, one can reduce prejudice and discrimination. Society looks most often to education and legislation to alleviate prejudice and discriminationfor reasons still not clearly known, inter-group contact alone is not enough to reduce prejudice. On one hand, multicultural education, whether direct or indirect, constitute the mainstay of educational efforts to eliminate prejudice. On the other hand, the emphasis on civil rights, enlightened immigration policies, and mandates for quota hiring are the cornerstone of legal approaches to alleviating the effects of prejudice and discrimination. The most overlooked area in resolving the problems of prejudice and discrimination lies in the web of close relationships where genuine feelings of love can be fostered and strengthened. The private sphere may indeed be the last frontier where a solution to the problems of prejudice may have to be found.

Affirmative Action In The United States :: essays research papers

The writer Mary Anne Warren is focusing on describing the current practices in many organizations today in regards to the implementing a goal vs. a quota system for the purposes of affirmative action. She defines a quota as "Those who use the term "quotas" pejoratively tend to assume that the numerical standards will be set so high or enforced so rigidly that strong reverse discrimination-that is, the deliberate hiring of demonstrably less well qualified candidates-will be necessary to implement them." (Warren, 370). Warren then describes goal as "The term "goal", on the other hand, suggests that this will not be the case, and that good faith efforts to comply with the standards by means short of strong reverse discrimination will be acceptable." (Warren, 370). The critical thing that must be understood when exploring the subject is that the writer is describing how affirmative action is being applied in American organizations today in other words the current reality. However, she fails to speak to us about how the law designs this program to function. This is the critical component that American organizations must be educated to understand. Affirmative action as defined by law is most definitively not based on a quota system. In fact, what is not widely known is that this program can be equally used by all individuals provided that an inequality exists in the group that they belong to as not being reflected in the work force. So what is affirmative action? What is it designed to do? It is not designed to provide an opportunity to an unqualified candidate. It is designed as "a way of compensating individuals or groups for past injustices or for present disadvantages stemming form past injustices" (Warren, 373). It is further designed "as a means about bringing about further future goods-for example, raising the status of downtrodden groups." (Warren, 373). The keyword in these quotes is the word "group". Who are these groups? The law has identified them. Some of the groups identified are: race, religious beliefs, blood trait, gender, disability (whether physical or mental), veteran status, national origin, and the list continues. In no way does this require that you have to hire an unqualified person for a position because they fall into one or more of these groups. What it does mean is that you can not discriminate and exclude a person from getting a job, getting promoted, and other factors, just because they happen to fall into that group.

Gender Roles in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Essay

During the 1900’s, women, specifically black women, were considered to be property of men in the United States, especially down south, in states such as Florida and Georgia. Legally, women had no voice. For example, if a woman was abused by her husband, the court system would not acknowledge it even if it did really happen. In the article â€Å"Sexism in the Early 1900’s†, Becca Woltemath states that â€Å"†¦a woman’s job is to take care of the house and to bear children. She’s no good for anything else. She’s just a simple thinker.† Women were forced into submission and there was nothing they could do about it. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston shows the issue of gender roles through the story of a young woman named Janie, who struggles through an arranged marriage. Through multiple characters, as well as the plot, sexism comes to the surface. As soon as the novel begins, it is evident the roles of men and women play a very big part in this novel: â€Å"Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever†¦Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget† (Hurston 1). In this opening paragraph of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston compares the wishes and dreams of men and women in a particularly interesting way. By using the sea as a symbol, she is saying that men can never really control their dreams, just wait for them to come true. While women on the other hand, can take their dreams into their own hands, molding them as they see fit. Making this comparison establishes the theme of gender difference throughout the novel, and ultimately foreshadows the fact that Janie is going to struggle, yet will stop at nothing to achieve what she sets her mind to. After first setting the tone, Nanny is introduced. Her traditional values of womanly roles such as cooking and cleaning lead us to believe that Janie will be the same way. But when Janie kisses Johnny Taylor, her view of men changes after seeing â€Å"a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to  behold a revelation† (Hurston 11). This paragraph is one of the most important, if not the most, in the whole book. Comparing love to the relationship between a bee and its flower, Janie suddenly craves, love, passion, and above all, someone she can consider her equal. Unfortunately, though, equality was a foreign concept during this time period. Men were seen as â€Å"all-powerful†, considered the sole providers and the only ones allowed to hold any sort of office or high-status job. Women, on the other hand, were the complete opposite. In an article written by Dorothy W. Hartman, a historian, she states: Women’s God-given role, it stated, was as wife and mother, keeper of the household â€Å"Women’s God-given role, it stated, was as wife and mother, keeper of the household†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Many people, including blacks, believed in this sort of household: the men being on top, with the women considered far inferior. In Janie’s first relationship, it is clear this is not the equality she has hoped for. Logan Killicks- an elderly, black man her grandmother has arranged for her to marry- treats Janie like a servant and not like a wife at all. There is no love present, and every day is a chore. Even though Nanny knows Janie is not happy, she insists the marriage is a good one: â€Å"’Heah yo is wid de onliest organ in town, amonst colored folks, in yo’ parlow. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road†¦Lawd have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gits hung on’† (Hurston 23). In Nanny’s speech, Hurston is trying to emphasize that the female’s only role is to marry and look good, and let the man do all the work. Also in her article, Hartman says that â€Å"†¦due to the fact that the man was almost always working, little room was left to develop a connection between husband and wife; love was a foreign concept.†, which describes what Janie and Logan have together exactly. Despite being given all she should want, Janie seeks more. When Joe â€Å"Jody† Starks appears out of nowhere, Janie feels like her dreams have finally come true. But after a while, the marriage turns out to be little more than the stint with Killicks. Starks, like Killicks, treats her as property and not as someone he actually loves. One example is how Jody makes Janie put her hair up in a wrap while working in the store, rather  than leave it down. Another is when he publicly criticizes her appearance, saying she is starting to show her age, when he is clearly at least ten years older: â€Å"’ You ain’t no young courtin’ gal. You’se uh old woman, nearly fourty’† (Hurston 79). Joe feels the need to tear down Janie, in order to make himself feel more important, which was an important part of being a man during this time. By reading the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, one could immediately pick up on the difference gender played during the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s. While women were expected to stay at home and clean and take care of children, men worked to provide for their families and were considered far superior. While these prejudices have slowly gotten better over time, most of them still exist to a small extent in today’s society. Through the characters’ attitudes and narratives, especially Janie’s relationships, and the society’s feelings as a whole, Their Eyes Were Watching God clearly displays the social issues of sexism and gender roles. Works Cited Hartman, Dorothy W. â€Å"Women’s Roles in the Late 19th Century.† Conner Prairie Interactive History Park. Conner Prairie, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print. Woltemath, Becca. â€Å"Sexism in the Early 1900s.†Worldbook Encyclopedia. Worldbook, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2013.

American Women During The Civil War - 914 Words

After the Civil War, the Republicans had views that the defeat of the rebels and destruction of slavery were sufficient to guarantee prosperity for everyone. The traumatic events throughout the Civil War only intensified the desire among a growing group of American women to participate fully in the nation s political life. They were striving for a sense of agency in the United States not only as a collective whole, but also as individuals. Agency refers to the idea that each individual in a culture is free to determine his or her own actions and beliefs. For American women, this means to have the power to control their own life. Immediately after the Civil War, American women took matters into their own hands by aiming to extend their moral influences outside the narrow and exclusive sphere of the home. In 1886, the Equal Rights Association was founded by veteran reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone (Jones, 387). The Equal Rights Association was created to link the rights of white women and African Americans. However, due to Kansas voters who defeated a referendum proposing suffrage for both African Americans and white women in 1867, the two causes decided to separate. In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) while Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, found the rival American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Anthony and Stone were divided by temperament andShow MoreRelatedAfrican American Women During The Civil War1227 Words   |  5 Pages †¢ Is the author s thesis clearly stated? (Restate in your own words) The exceptional rules of war that existed during the Civil War were essential. When it comes to the state of Tennessee, the early â€Å"capture† of the state was of strategically importance for the Union Army. 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