Individual Final Project: Kristopher Freitag Race and ethnicity and understanding its differences helped me achieve a certain amount of levity with the way I interact with others. America is extremely diverse, yet have an abundance of things in common. This is shown throughout history and right outside our doors, America, where our towns and cities are filled to the brim with personalities and of difference race and ethnicity share this culture that we call American society.
I have learned to put a haul to being short sited and while I learned little about my own cultural history, the most important thing is to ensure you do not ignore it. Too many people have prejudged notions and are set in their own cultural history and views, but once one looks into it, there are vastly more things one has not realized and learned. It's hard to believe going in to the class that you would be so naive and ignorant to realize how close we are to one another, and how our struggles of differences have brought us closer together.
For myself a Caucasian male, there is little to learn about my ethnicity, however as my wife is Hispanic we have grown closer as I have learned more from her and her "peeps" as she calls them, than most will ever realize. Learning about your own cultural can be beneficial, however I see more benefit in knowing another's, this in turn shows a level of respect for their own history and not a complete overlook of any walks of life they may have come from. The trends in immigration in the United States are very predictable and continue to grow exponentially.
Immigration growth is expected to remain high within the United States, as people love this country of ours, and will continue to move here because of its values and most important of all, its freedom. Yes, America is not perfect, but it is considered the mother country and I don't think that reputation is going away soon. People must prepare for the continuing growth of immigration by integrating language, culture, and other small differences into our society. This is included in our schools, businesses, television, newspapers, and other outlets.
For example, there should be language translations on bus stop signs or restaurant menus, etc. The high note of this exchange of culture will be the limited about of prejudice one can claim against "the white man" as in essence will become the minorities. Ironically, I see this as a good thing, America was founded on immigrants, I see an equal parts share the most compelling idea. Having the freedom to chose your own path and religion in the United States is why we are the fastest growing nation, it is time we embraced our differences and allow them to create a new life for us.
The challenge the United States faces because of its diversity are ever changing and ever growing conflicts within its very own borders. We all want something to enhance lives, some better pay, some more freedom, legalization, marriage, the diversity of the things we fight for are vast in and of themselves. As we move forward we will have to begin to negotiate with all of these conflict and make a peaceful resolution available to the people and their demands, otherwise we will plunge ourselves back down into a civil war, of which I am not interested in.
The ironic side of this, is if we as a society, as a country, as one can stand up and say this will happen and this is how it will be, than we might just unify our differences and permits the first generation of Americans to be born into a country where we work together, not against one another. The different cultural backgrounds integrated into one community, the different experiences we may learn from each other, the possibilities are endless, but if we compare our society to those of old, the expansion of war introduced new cultures and knowledge, why cannot we do the same without the ar.
By simply being civil and tolerant and respectful to one another and treating each other as we would want to be treated. I think rudeness is at all time high. I am reading a book The Civility Solution ; it has much superior info. I think if we educate ourselves on this subject ; share what we are learning it will spread quickly. I was in a restaurant this evening ; my waitress was at the table next to mine ; I heard her use the word CRAP. I couldn't belief she said that, she did. What would make a person say that when she is talking to people about food. So raising consciousness is the way to go.
I think experience is important & when people learn from experience it is the best teacher. Many who live far out away from others are moving in to the more populated areas & that will help. When you need help & the person who helps is not in the body or from the geographical area you love you start loving them anyway. Inevitably media stereotypes are often utilized in order to provide for a specific effect, especially in the entertainment, advertising, and news industries, which need a wide curtain to attract as large an audience as possible to quickly interpret information.
Stereotypes protracted in the media can have negative side effect and become problematic. They can reduce the vast range of cultural differences in people to overly simplistic categorizations and transforming assumptions about particular groups into "realities" are engaged to justify the position of those in charge and perpetuate social prejudice and inequality The cultural groups being stereotyped are not given any opportunity to influence how they are represented.
This is common within the media, regardless of style, show or channel, stereotypes and some causes of stereotypical portrayals, include a lack of diversity behind the scenes. However the basis for this creation of appreciation induced by the media is not without saying, the focus aimed at minorities of all ethnicities, families, and the appreciation for freedom, this lack of anger that can be pushed into our televisions, movies, and commercials is a method of uniting Americans and their differences.
Only through an acknowledgment of our differences will the prejudicial learning's and educational services be made the misinformation to be openly discussed and approached with in a way which is likely to foster change. It is clear however, that if we can't talk about these differences and problems in their portrayal, we surely can't change it. Sigmund Freud, the famous Austrian physician changed the whole face of psychology in such a dramatic way by putting forward a theory of personality that stressed on the importance of the unconscious mind.
The work he completed with patients suffering from mental disabilities like hysteria led him to theorize that our early childhood as well as our unconscious thoughts and actions contribute toward the development of our personalities and overall adult behavior. Changing an entire groups prejudiced attitudes, views and beliefs and an institution's racist actions is not simply fixed overnight.
Reducing our racial prejudice as a society and racism is a complex task that changes in notions from community to community, so it doesn't offer a straight-forward approach, a step by step process that can be adopted and integrated without having a complete understanding of the environment and social context. This action would require knowing your community well and being able to choose a strategy that will best fit your own community's needs, history, context, energies, and resources, as a one size fits all will not work in this matter.
