Discrimination

Ethnic Minorities

To begin the subject of ethnic minorities, it is important to define what it means. First of all an ethnic group is a group of people whose members have the same ancestry and/or practice endogamy(marrying within a social group). Ethnic identity is a groups of humans who share common cultural, linguistic, religious, behavioral or biological traits, real or presumed, in contrast to other groups.

Now, that the definition of an ethnic group is given, an ethnic minority is an ethnic group that do not constitute the majority of the total population of a given society. We can see a clear view of this know a days in our globalize world when is found a little town of an ethnic in another one, for example, everywhere there is a “China Town”. There you find a dense concentration of Chinese people, in this case, producing and practicing their native elements, foods, activities, etc.

For example here in Peru there are two mayor ethnic minorities, the quechuas and the aymaras. They are two ethnic groups that lived in Peru before the conquest by the Spaniards. Historically they had been secluded in their local environments, however with the installation on the republic back in 1821 they were able to move feely around the country bringing with them most of their cultural heritage. In the past, especially in the times of the colony, they were considered basically as slaves, practicing activities of the lowest lever, being exploded with out pay and serving the dominant class.

Presently we still live the stigma of those years treating those who have not blend deceptively as for intense naming them “cholos” not only because their ethnic origin but also because of their behavior and misunderstood cultural values. Now a day there is not only a discrimination among quechuas and ayamray, but also among immigrant groups. In Peru there is a big Japanese and Chinese colony. They can be called “chinos” in a deceptive way, showing rejection. It is commonly seen that there is racism and discrimination between or in ethnic minorities.

It is very commonly seen that there is discrimination to ethnic minorities when it comes to employments or a restriction in certain public areas.

There is a solution to all of this. We have to be open-minded and accept the cultural differences that we have around us. We have to know that many of the people that we discriminating are the people that are direct decedents of our ancestors. Having an ethnic diversity does not in any way affect negatively our country; on the contrary it makes our county special and unique. We know that the term village is a clustered human settlement or community, we now live in global village in which like instead of people each one special and unique in its form, with its own and special ways, forming a village it is different ethnics, with the same characteristics but in a lager quantity, that form a global village.

QUOTES

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  What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature. ~Voltaire

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  Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." Abraham J. Heschel quotes (Jewish theologian and philosopher, 1907

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  "I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man's court. This should not be I should feel perfect

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  perfectly at ease and at home with the assurance that I am being tried by a fellow South African, who does not regard me as an inferior, entitled to a special type of justice."
  Nelson Mandela quotes (South African Statesman First democratically elected State President of South Africa (1994), 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace

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  I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
  Author: Martin Luther King Jr.

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  Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom. ~Merry Browne

"Living On The Edge"

People use to think that racism and discrimination are terrible cruel cultural elements and they should be eradicated, because we need a better free and united world. But we don’t recognize that sometimes we have these postures, and we think that our behavior is “normal” and the question is “What is normal?” “Is normal a good way of acting?”

We are part of a globalization process, and we are turning into a "smaller world" or a "global village", but why we still keep this kind of attitudes towards differences between people? Shouldn’t we accept now more each other and be more open-minded?

In this article we want to present some situations and you as an honest lector will reflect on your normal reactions, as a test for yourself:

a) Do you use the word “chola” or “cholo” to make a reference of a person in a negative way? When you dislike the person you sometimes use these words to qualify? Do you use it in pejorative way, for insulting others?

b) Sometimes in clubs, VIP’s decide which people should enter the place or not, and the majority of people find this a huge discrimination. But, what happen when all races and socio-economic groups are in the same club or party? Does everyone feel comfortable? Do you feel comfortable?

c) Does everyone feel ok inside a combi? Why some people think it is not secure? Because the drivers are not capable, or also because there people can rob them? Do you find extremely disgusting the smell or other circumstances inside it?

d) If a Muslim travels on an airplane, people normally are afraid on what that person can do. In the airport they are more and checked. In USA Americans are afraid about them, and they are segregated in different ways. Do you sometimes think or feel this sensation of insecurity when this people are in your plane? Do you think this attitude is good to prevent any problem?

e) USA is a country with many illegal people, especially Latin-Americans and Mexicans. This cultural diffusion is very complex, and many Americans make jokes about them and there is a cultural conflict between them. Some people say openly that they dislike foreigners, but others segregate them in a more unconscious way; such as been afraid that this people rob them. Have you ever been part of this conflict? If you are Latin-American, have you ever feel resentment against people that act like this? Resentment is part of discrimination.

f) Racial problems between black and white people are nowadays not a political problem such in the future, when racism was “legal”, but it is more “subtle.” Black people neighborhoods are very different from the white ones. Hate is in other ways expressed, such as in jokes or in some people’s attitude. Have you ever said or laugh about a joke of this nature?

g) When people ask for jobs, many enterprises ask for a photo of the candidate and they rule out applicants with certain physical characteristics, even though they have great intellectual capacities. Have you ever been in this situation? What is your opinion?

Now after analyzing your reactions, you can take some conclusions. Try to reflect before acting and don’t forget that all human beings are equal in dignity and rights, and our diversity of race and customs are part of our essence and accepting this is the first step for decreasing conflicts. You can make the difference.

Social Darwinism

This term first appeared in Europe in 1879, but was popularized in the United States in 1944. It draws upon the use of the term Darwinism, which refers to the theory of natural selection in which population is the outcome of the competition between individual organisms for limited resources. This means that the strongest or fittest should survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die.

Because of Globalization, this problem has increased since everyone is competing to be better than the other ones, so in this way only the fittest one is the one who survive, which ends in numerous consequences.
The problem with Social Darwinism is its philosophy, since it makes the faulty assumption that what is natural is equivalent to what is morally correct, meaning that just because something takes place in nature, it must be a moral paradigm for humans to follow.
Social Darwinism was used to justify numerous exploits during history. For instance colonialism, which gave natives a weak image towards more developed societies; military actions, the strongest military would win; social context, it provided a justification for the more exploitative forms of capitalism in which workers were paid sometimes pennies a day for long hours of backbreaking labor; holocaust, applied by the Nazi party in Germany to justify their eugenics programs; and so on.

The most commonly known case up to date is the believe that the white race is superior to the black race, as well as to the Latin race; since white has always been a peace symbol as well as a pure color. Reason why the enormous gap between the white race and the black race exists until today.

Today, Social Darwinism is a significant problem since it is reflected in our environment. According to this theme, related with countries, United States would be the fittest and countries such as Peru, India, and so on, would be the weak ones. Because of Social Darwinism, countries whose economies were based on the United State’s economy are being directly influence by the Wall Street crash and this should not be a problem since it only should affect United States.

Social Darwinism is not only seen in countries as a whole, but also in the small businesses since they have the need to adapt to the strongest and biggest business in order to survive. If not they would simply disappeared because of their inferiority compared with those big business.

related links:

http://www.natvan.com/free-speech/fs9512a.html

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761579584/social_darwinism.html

Gap Between RICH & POOR

No one can deny the benefits that come with globalization. This word gives us the idea of an interconnected world with more technology and greater economic growth. Looking at it like this, it seems to be the perfect world. But, is this really like this? Actually, the question would be: is it the perfect world for EVERYONE?

It is true that rich people continue to get richer with this “globalized world”. UN reports show that over the last four years, the 200 richest people have doubled their wealth to more than $1 trillion; but what about the poorest ones? The report also shows that number of people living with less than a dollar a day riches up to 1.3 billion. This demonstrates that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, then, something in this process has got to be functioning wrong. The 400 highest income earners in the USA make as much money in a year as 300 million African people. The mixed wealth of the world’s three richest families is greater than the annual income of 600 million people in Third World countries. We could continue with the numbers, but these ones already show us that something is clearly wrong with this “perfect world”.

The gap between rich and poor persists, the dangerous thing here is that it not only persists, but it is also widening at amazing levels. Globalization, in terms of economy, has created a risky division that has got to stop growing. The United Nations has made a number of recommendations in order to stop this, including an international forum of business that would help poor countries conduct global negotiations. The basic point here is inserting the Third World countries in the global economy, so that every single country is benefited in a different way, and the rich countries would stop from getting richer at expenses of the poorest.

Globalization is supposed to benefit everyone; it is supposed to unify the world, creating a win-win situation and not the benefit of the most powerful ones at expenses of the weakest ones. Sadly, the situation nowadays seems to be like this, again, rich get richer and poorer get poorer. Could this breach stop from growing? In the present, there is not such thing as the perfect world for everyone, but could it exist in the future?

- Related Articles


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_World/Grotesque_Inequality.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/jun/20/globalisation.ukeconomy

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_1_37/ai_64830849