Adrienne Watson-Racial Inequality in America

Adrienne Watson

ENG 11000

Professor Moore

Racial Inequality in America

25 March 2015

     Probably the best way to begin to understand racial and ethnic inequality in the United States is to read works by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Malcolm X. All of these great writers gave detailed, autobiographical accounts of the bigotry and discrimination they faced while growing up. The widespread societal changes introduced in America since the 1960s have done little to settle the covert discriminatory policies against racial minorities.

   Many people have some very strong opinions concerning why it is that racial inequality exists. Compared to whites, minority families tend to have much lower family incomes and much higher rates of poverty. They are also much less likely to have college degrees. One long standing belief is that blacks and other people of color are biologically inferior to whites. The belief is that they are naturally less intelligent and have other innate flaws that keep them from achieving the same accomplishments as their white counterparts. Fortunately, this racist view is no longer common today.

   The current financial gap between blacks and whites is one of the main points of tension between the two groups has reached its highest point in history. In 1967, with the Civil Rights movement still in full swing and Jim Crow still in effect, average household income was forty three percent higher for white households than for black households. But things changed dramatically over the next fifty years, as legal segregation diminished. By 2011, average white household income was seventy two percent higher than average black household income, according to a Census report from that year. Average household income for whites is $55,412; for blacks it is $32,229 and for Hispanics $38,624. To say that economic inequality is still a heavily racialized phenomenon, even after the end of the Civil Rights era, would be an understatement. Limited schooling and poor performance

     Educational achievement is important because it directly relates to levels of health, employment, income and civic engagement. “Segregated schools were, and are inferior schools; and we still haven’t fixed them…the inferior education they provided, then and  now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students”(Obama 5). Average public high school graduation rates for whites are eighty three percent, for blacks it is sixty six percent and Hispanics it is seventy one percent. The schools that many children of color attend every day are typically overcrowded and underfunded. In many of these schools, the education standards are less than average. This puts minority students at a disadvantage and produces adults with lesser education. Low-income, Hispanic and African-American students are more likely to need remediation than their white peers. According to a recent U.S census, the percentage of 25 to 29 year-olds with a bachelor's degree is thirty nine percent for whites, twenty percent for blacks, and thirteen percent for Hispanics. The unemployment and poverty rates are lower for whites than for blacks and Hispanics.   

    Employment discrimination has done its part to ensure that black unemployment remains twice as high as white unemployment. “ A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of lack families” (Obama 5). An experiment by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, faculty research fellows of The National Bureau of Economic Research, tried to test discrimination on resumes. In response to help wanted ads in Chicago and Boston newspapers, they sent resumes with either African-American or white-sounding names and then measured the number of callbacks each resume received for interviews. Half of the applications were assigned African-American names that are “common” in the black population and the other half had “white sounding” names, such as Emily Walsh or Greg Baker. The applicants had a varied degree of credentials. Job applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback. Resumes are significantly less likely to get a positive response from potential employers if the applicants have names that are more common in the black community. Criminal background checks have helped to fuel racial inequity in job hiring. An arrest for even a non-violent drug offense can haunt a job applicant for the rest of his life; combined with the fact that Black people are more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites.

   In the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. expresses his frustration with the general white population,

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate… who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom…who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season". Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection” (King 3).

King says that the indifference of the general white populace is just as oppressive as the white supremacists. Moderates have ensured the continuation of segregation by telling blacks to wait and have patience, that black equality will be realized with time. King argues that in order to combat injustice men of action need to force change. The clergymen accused King of supporting violence and encouraging the extreme actions of protesters. In response, King states that he stands in middle of two extremes. On one side is the black people who have been demeaned for so long that they no longer hope for anything better and those few blacks who profit superficially and fear change that could threaten their comfort. On the other side are black people full of bitterness and hate, like Elijah Muhammad and his Muslim movement, which more or less supports violence. King believes he has been successful in encouraging both groups towards peaceful, nonviolent protest, and that more blacks would be attracted to violent movements if Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were to step down as the clergymen wish them to.

      King criticized the clergymen for praising the Birmingham police for maintaining order nonviolently. He said the recent public displays of nonviolence by the police were in stark contrast to their typical treatment of black people. There was a recent incident in Michigan, where a man ran a stop sign and after pulling over, he was forced to the ground, put in a chokehold and brutally beaten by police officers. In another incident, Jamier Sale, was at the Carol Miller Justice Center in Sacramento where the judge found him guilty of a $200 traffic infraction. Family and friends believe he is being charged because he is an organizer of the #blacklivesmatter movement, a police brutality protest that took place at the Arden Fair Mall last November. Of all the protestors that where there, a young black man was charged with a crime. The topic of "police brutality" has gained momentum nationwide and has sparked outcry from elected officials and community members asking for police reform. King vehemently states that not only is it wrong to use immoral means to achieve moral ends, but also “to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.”

   The issues of race are complex, tightly interwoven into socio-economic status, gender, culture, history and language. There are no simple answers whatever solution we come up with must be sustained. Our nation faces many challenges; polls asking about the most important issue facing the country receive a long list of responses: the economy, health care, gun policy, foreign policy, immigration and the environment. These problems are very real and demand immediate attention. Who, then, is prepared to take on the challenge of racial equality?

Works Cited

United States. Census Bureau. "Demographic Trends."census.gov.20 March 2015.

King, Martin Luther, Jr.”Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The Atlantic Monthly.1963.

Obama, Barack.”A More Perfect Union”.

Bertrand, Marianne and Sendhil Mullainathan. "Are Emily And Greg More Employable Than Lakisha And Jamal? A Field Experiment On Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review. 2004.

Expository Essay - I am a Language

I am a Language

            Language is a necessity for the world’s everyday functions. People use language every day for many purposes. We may interact and be friendly or hostile. Language is very powerful “…the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (Tan, 76). Language may be used for business or personal relations, for borrowing or exchanging religious, scientific, technological, cultural, or artistic ideas. Of course, without language we could still live our daily lives but the world would look like a much different and less efficient place. Language can heavily influence people’s lives and their relationships with others.

            The language literacy level that we possess determines the relationships we create. One obvious reason is because we just simply cannot communicate with the other person because we use different languages. However, even if a person is able to communicate in a language but it is seen as an illiterate way of speaking it, they may ignore that person because they believe they are too smart for them. Speaking from experience, when my English literacy was shaky, I could not make certain relationships because of it even if I wanted to. If we don’t have literacy of the public language then we may feel isolated and foreign. On the other hand, if we do finally acquire a sufficient level of literacy, doors may open for the opportunities to create other or more relationships.

Author Richard Rodriguez, in his essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, describes his life experiences when he possessed English literacy and when he did not. He says that “until I was seven years old, I did not know the names of the kids who lived across the street” and “Like others who know the pain of public alienation, we transformed the knowledge of our public separateness and made it consoling” (328, 332). Rodriguez describes to us how he could not interact with the closest neighbors and always felt separated from the rest because he did not have English literacy. Therefore that affected his childhood and prevented him from interacting with gringos since those were the only people in his neighborhood. Then, Rodriguez describes to us how his home was filled with neighborhood kids after he and his family practiced during evenings to acquire English literacy.

Author Amy Tan, in her essay “Mother Tongue” tells us of the relationship her mother created with her and how it affected Tan’s life. She states “I was ashamed of her English….her English reflected the quality of what she had to say…her thoughts were imperfect” (78). Tan tells us of how her mother’s limited English affected the view she had of her. Tan also tells us that she was ashamed of her mother because she did not have English literacy. A parent not having English literacy can affect the bond they have with their children because they can feel ashamed of their parents that they can’t express their thoughts in public and everyday life. The public may take advantage of people who do not have English literacy.

            People may take advantage or mistreat others because of the kind of language they use. Often when literate Americans encounter immigrants who yet don’t know how to speak English well, they feel as if they are above those immigrants. As a result, often times those who don’t know English well, are mistreated because they are thought to not be able to defend themselves. My mother, who speaks some English, needed certain medical results and went to NYU to get them. She spoke to the staff and they understood what she needed, and even though, they mistreated her and did not give her what she asked for. Only after my mother went to the hospital again with my aunt who is a nurse, then she was able to get everything done. Amy Tan writes of the experiences her mother encountered in being mistreated because of how she spoke English. She states “the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (78). People notice the way you speak, your knowledge of, and the way you use English. Based on that people will change their behavior towards you because they get a hint that they can take advantage of you. Tan tells us how the use of “improper” English by her mother led to others taking advantage of her. Whether it was in her mother’s everyday life or even for financial reasons dealing with her stock broker, she was already treated differently when Tan, who spoke English properly, stepped up and helped her deal with those situations. Then, Rodriguez writes that only when he achieved English literacy and can call himself American, he can then enjoy being an individual in society and have the same advantages. He says “Only when I was able to think myself as an American, no longer an alien in gringo society, could I seek the rights and opportunities necessary for full public individuality.” (339). Rodriguez believes that he was only able receive public advantages when he considered himself an American. Therefore, when Rodriguez was unable to speak English, he though as if he was mistreated by society because he could not call himself an American. He argues this even though at the beginning of his narrative he stated that he didn't encounter any major trouble of communicating while running some errands for his mother around his home. Becoming bilingual can affect family relations.

            Being bilingual when the rest of your family is not, can change your family relationship. Many children may no longer find that same relationship at home when they are speaking a different language. They will no longer find the sense of belonging and familiarity as they have with using their native first family language. The special feeling of closeness at home is abandoned. The urgent feeling of coming home disappears. Love in the family does not vanish but is changed by not being as intimate. The bond between themselves stretched longer and longer. Neither Rodriguez, nor his siblings found themselves wanting to come to a warm loving home as much as they have before. Instead they would often find their home filled with gringos speaking a public language. After Rodriguez’s English became his primary language, he no longer knew how to talk to his parents (336). After a child identifies another language as the primary, the child may lose the closeness that existed with the parents. This affects not only their life but also their parents’ lives. Of course this does not happen overnight, family relationship will gradually lose its closeness. Behavior can also change when switching between using a different language.  

            Bilinguals who speak who speak two or more languages can sometimes unconsciously change their behavior, or personality. Therefore, this affects their relationships. There is a Czech proverb that says “Learn a new language and get a new soul.” Many people who speak more than one language say that they notice their behaviors change with each one. A professor at Baruch College, David Luna, asked bilingual women to interpret an ad picturing women, first in one language, then after some time in another. Luna found that “in the Spanish sessions, the bilinguals perceived women in the ads as more self-sufficient as well as extrovert. In the English sessions, however, they expressed more traditional, other-dependent and family-oriented views of the women” (Grosjean). There may be a lot of influence from the cultural aspect of the language to those perspectives but nevertheless the different languages also play an important role. Speaking something in another language can come out having a different meaning, or be perceived differently, than if we spoke it in our primary language. This then translates to being seen as you having some personality traits you do not have. For example, if you weren't speaking your primary language and you said something aggressive. Another person may then see you as a mean person when in fact it would not seem as mean if that person said it in their primary language. Language is powerful; it may influence the relationships we create or the behaviors we ingrain towards others. We may not always be conscience of it, but language has a heavy influence on our lives and our friends and family relationships.         

English The Proper Way? - Maria Boleaga

Maria Boleaga

Expository essay

March 23, 2015

English The Proper Way?

     When many families move into a new society they began to encounter new languages. In order for them to fit into society they need to speak the new language fluently. It won't be easy for parents to learn a new language, however the youngsters will need the support from their parents to be able to speak it fluently and become part of the new society. Since the eighteenth century people from different countries began to migrate to America.  Most of these immigrants did not speak proper English. Speaking a foreign language can be easy to the person who had a lot of practice learning it but not for those who are new to this country.  Adapting to a new society can have a positive and/or negative effect on an immigrant’s family communication.

     Learning a new language can take time and patience, but along with learning this new language a family's communication can change. Many families tend to ignore the importance of being able to communicate with each other without having to eliminate their primary language. Author, Richard Rodriguez, in his memoir "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" writes of how speaking his primary language feels comfortable once he's at home with his family. When speaking his primary language his family is united. However, when his family stopped speaking their primary language things changed. He states "…As we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents" (578). He explains that overtime the relationship within the family rapidly changed. The change happened when the nuns came to his house to advise his parents to provide more English at their house so he can be able to learn it quickly. Speaking a foreign language can be difficult, especially when your primary language is different. Reasons why it can difficult is because without no help from someone who knows proper English to teach them then the family just acquires their primary language. Rodriguez's family changed after including a foreign language in their lives. Once he arrived at this new school, in this new country he felt that he would need to stop speaking his primary language, in order to get use to the new one. However having both primary and foreign languages can bring the family together.

     Adapting to both a primary and foreign language can have a positive and negative affect and unite the family. Once we have adapted both languages children can have advantage by helping their parents. Author, Amy Tan, in her essay "Mother Tongue" writes of how her mother use to make her call the stockbroker who her mother works with pretending that she was her mother. In a way this relates to me because at times I have to pretend that I am my mom so the other person at the end of the phone line can understand what my mom is trying to say. Being able to have two languages does help me and my family to understand the society. It can be annoying trying to pretend I am my mom but I look back and think that if I didn't learn proper English then people would take advantage of my mom. Similar to what Tan stated "…the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her" (78).She expresses her feelings of how it bothered her when people won't take her mother's words as one of the people who can actually speak proper English. The anxiety I get when my mom is left alone at home while I am in not present to help. Tan's mom spoke English but not the proper way, my mom may not be able to speak English but she is always willing to say some words and when she does people look at her weird. But I am proud because speaking both my primary and foreign language has helped my family unite and that only between the family can understand each other. As Tan states "…but to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery" (77). Yet, while adapting both a primary and foreign language can have a negative effect in the family.

     Learning a new language can also have a negative effect between the family's communications. Not being able to speak the foreign language with each other is frustrating. Taken by my experiences, I speak English with my siblings but I only speak Spanish to my mother because that is the only way to communicate with her. While learning this language my mother gets irritated because she doesn't understand a word I am saying in English. However, when my mother tries to speak English in a few words I feel embarrassed because of the way she is saying it. Similar to Tan she states "…my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say that is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect…" (78).  She explains that her mother’s English was not proper, so whenever her mother spoke she would feel embarrassed at the way she would talk to people. Since Tan's mother had an accent when she spoke English that made Tan feel even more uncomfortable. As in my experiences my mother too has a heavy accent when she says a few words in English and sometimes I feel uncomfortable because she can't say it right. Similar to Rodriguez's family, he states "in public, my father and mother spoke hesitant, accented, and not always grammatical English" (572).  He explains that since their parents primary language was not English then it was hard for his parents to grasp the English accent. Hearing our family speak a foreign language can be uncomfortable especially when there is accent to it. But, however this negative effect can also be a positive effect.

   Whether we speak our primary and/or the foreign language I this new society there can be a positive and negative effect on the family's communication. Many families move to this country without learning proper English. Our family is the support in order for us to learn this new language to be able to fit in society. There can be times when people can take advantage of the family who can't speak proper English. However, since the children are learning proper English they began to adapt to a new language to help translate the English to their family. Most of the people living in this society learned to adapt both their primary and foreign language, which can help themselves understand the foreign language better. It can be difficult for children to express themselves in English to their parents because their primary language is different from the foreign language. By learning a new language there can be a positive and negative affect in the family's communication, but we learn a new language to fit in society alongside with our family.

The Biggest Con of All

Anastasiia Chorna

English 11000

March 23, 2015

The Biggest Con of All

        Wherever you live in the world, you should know the language of that society in order to thrive in it. However, you shouldn’t abandon your own, personal language.  Our families might be able to protect us and help by creating a world full of comfort and love, but there will always be a moment when we realize it is the time for us to become someone. It is in that moment where we choose to become an independent person with our own goals and values. Each of us has something we love or truly want to do. It is not easy to come to the realization of what that really is, as it is not easy to change our lives in order to start moving in the right direction.  We are all a part of a larger community and whatever our goals are in life we are bound to have contact with people who are critical or just passing by through our life. We must be able to address them in a proper way and language is the most important tool for this.

An empowering example of the influence that language has over our life is a story of Megan Foss. In her article “Love Letters”, she shares with the the world her way of rising from from the bottom of our society to becoming a valuable part of it. An amazing writer and professor at a university, she opened her world to us through her writing. Megan Foss wrote about her realizations and emotions of her using a broken-down language and how it pervaded simultaneously with her being on drugs and working as a prostitute. This language is the closest to her, even if she doesn’t sell her body now and doesn’t take drugs, she was once that person and from that world. It was this language that helped form and mold her into the person she is today.

She started her story from the time she started writing letters to her boyfriend Darryl who was in jail. She remembers the times before when they spent all their time together whether be it sharing the same food or sharing the same drugs. They were everything for each other, they enjoyed their time together and nothing else mattered. However, when Darryl was taken away from her, she was left to herself, with only two choices. Either face the cruel reality of her existence or try to find a way to escape. Composing letters to Darryl became the only way to escape from this unjust world, a way to escape into herself. She was what those letters were: day-to-day episodes and anecdotes from her daily life. Her letters encompassed problems with basic necessities, such as food, shelter, clothing,and even her “dope”. She was lethargic, her letters reflected her morbidity of not facing and analyzing her life. Although her letters seemed blech, they were also her thread of hope. She thoroughly enjoyed writing, she was doing something she loves and it is this fact that kept her going on with life after Darryl left her. She was opening herself to words, though broken and misspelled, but her own words nonetheless.

        As time progressed Megan eventually found herself in jail, and once again her enamoring letters and expressive language became her “saving grace”. Nevertheless, here more than ever she grabbed for threads of her writings. Even though her letters were officially addressed to Darryl, they were in actuality written to herself in her own private language. But now, in jail, the writing became her trading currency. She found out that she can reduce her time in jail if she submitted her writings to the English teacher there. Therefore, in order to shorten her term she faced a necessity to address other people. With this in mind she learns proper English. Eventually, she comes to realization that refining and evolving her current English became the progenitor of a world full of opportunities. It strikes her like an epiphany, that it doesn't really matter who you are and where you came from, if you speak the language of the masses, you will be able to obtain benefits from life, to become a valid part of the society. Isn't it "a biggest con of all"?

However only  perfecting the english language was not enough, she was longing for her old language. She knew her past is still a part of her, and the only way to survive with her personality intact in this society, is to integrate and intertwine both of them. Her refinement is as valid a part of her now as her old “trash” English is a part of the past, and only together they build Megan Foss.

The success in which an individual is able to integrate the fluidity of broken english into a more refined context - much as Megan did - is not always achieved. In a lot of cases it depends where you grew up at and what choices you made or rather what choices were made for you. Richard Rodriguez gives a great example of a similar situation like this in his article "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood". Where he grew up in a Spanish speaking family, studied english at school while living in neighborhood full of Americans.

We can see how at his young age he enjoyed speaking Spanish with his family,  and only speaking this language he felt like himself. His family was his only refuge and his only happiness. He didn't speak English and he felt as though he didn't need to, or rather he didn't want to. As Megan had Darryl, Richard had his family - his little escape - where he didn’t face the necessity of communicating with others. He was behind in school, didn’t make any new friends and was alienated from his neighbors. The reason was simple, he didn’t know the language of his community. He didn’t have his “public language”. With the help of teachers, his parents realized the problem and made a decision that changed his life. They forbid Spanish at home.
Unlike Megan, Richard didn’t lose his family, he only lost his personal language. Progressing in the article we see how he starts succeeding in school, finds new friends, and even how his family becomes more familiar with the neighbourhood. Eventually Richard grows up and becomes a successful writer. However, throughout his life the thread of nostalgy and feeling of loss makes its way. In his article we can see how he brightfully remembers the times with his family, and how he misses their conversation in his loved “private language”. When we look at his work as a writer - “Hunger of Memory”(book of autobiographical essay about his childhood), “Mexico’s Children”(study of Mexicans in America) and  “Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father”(memoir) - we can see how he longs for the usage of his private language, the desire to escape back to earlier memories is reflected in his writing.

We are taught proper english so that we may be able to find a decent job at least and succeed in life. Being a member of the American society, we sometimes overlook our foreign native language, the one we spoke at home with our family and friends. Our personal language transforms and develops with us as we grow, learn, and gain our life experience. Only being able to speak both - public and private languages -we can succeed as a valuable part of a society and an independent and unique individual.

Every Episode is the Last Episode

Eric Bruce 

Freshman Composition 

23 March 2015 

Every Episode is the Last Episode 

The television in its creation and advertisement was meant to bring family together in one room, enjoying each others' company as well as the entertainment broadcasted through the screen. Unfortunately, it has done the opposite. The once strong interpersonal relationships that bonded families together have turned into fleeting weak connections. Parents no longer raise their children but put them in front of a screen for a couple hours so that they might get the alone time they want.  The thing about television is that it is timeless. No matter the decade or current events, it still has the same influence that it has had since its distribution in the early 1950s. 

Television has always been a source of low-effort thinking; a chance to distract yourself from the life around you and concentrate on an alternate universe full of witty comebacks, action packed car chases and intense love stories. This is as true now as it was true back when the first television sets were put into family homes. In Marie Winn's The Plug In Drug, there is an account of a Chicago woman who noticed the gradual change in her family's holidays together. She once recalled her family spending time together, talking and laughing while her and the rest of her cousins played all types of games. Then she suddenly notices how that had all changed, her family no longer spoke and  played games but rather sat in front of the television set watching the football game (5). This is just one of the few instances in which television influenced the way in which families interacted with each other. It is very likely that you can lose an entire day to television. So easy to sit back and lose track of both consciousness and time. To have your how day planned out and waste it after the fatal words, "I'll do it after this episode". Every episode is the last episode and when you actually finish the last episode, then what? The sun has set and the day is gone, only to be remember nostalgically as a day that could've been productive. What happened to the family bonding and closeness that was intended? The first advertisements to endorse televisions came with a picture of a family sitting together. This was to imply that family bonding occurs in front of the television, but in reality the quietest time a family can spend together is in front of a TV screen.  

Such quiet time in front of the television has been the cause of the deterioration of family intimacy. Families no longer talk as much or spend as much time together as they once did. Now is the case where each member of the family has their own television in their room so even the dead silence they shared as a family is now gone. Television is a method of avoiding the deep, underlying problems that plague every family. Winn explains what makes a family is not only the good times, but the arguments, and the differences in opinions. Without those family experiences the bond is not there and family becomes an idea, something that sounds nice on paper but does not translate into emotions. You cannot develop a bond if all a family talks about is the new episode of Scandal that came on the night before. Winn said it best when she said, "All that seems to be left is love, an abstraction that family members know is necessary but find great difficulty giving to each other since the traditional opportunities for expressing it within the family have been reduced or eliminated". Such weak bonds amongst family members has led to love being seen as accessible as the swipe of a credit card.  

Parents no longer spend their time with their kids, but instead buy their affection and put them in front of a television screen for hours at a time. Eric Schlosser describes the 1980s as "the decade of the child consumer"(1). Advertisements towards children began to increase ten-fold. With a way out of having to spend time with their kids, parents could now slack off on their responsibilities as their kids are raised by cartoon characters. An example of this would be the advertisement starring Joe Camel the cartoon character who endorsed cigarettes (1). A study that is mentioned in Kid Kustomers found that a third of illegal cigarettes sold to minors were Camels. This only further shows that a kid is susceptible to the world around them, unknowingly harming themselves just by watching too much television. A child has an impressionable mind and as such should be monitored in what they are viewing on a day-to-day basis. However, parents neglectfully raise their children only to notice something is wrong if the child acts out. Winn points out that adults only see a problem with children watching so much TV when it is manifested in their behavior and actions (2). But if there are no signs of trouble, television is seen as a positive influence. As parents continue to leave their children to be raised by TV shows, advertisement agencies seek to create what Schlosser calls "cradle-to-grave advertising strategies" (1). These companies see an opportunity to attack while the iron is hot. While the young are growing, they plan on pushing their products to the impressionable minds of the world so that they might nag their parents to purchase it for them and when they have children they can buy it for their kids. This is an endless cycle of hypnosis that only lines the pockets of companies. There are adults singlehandedly telling other adults how to raise their kids essentially. By putting children in front of a television screen and letting them watch endless hours of television, adults are allowing other adults to manipulate their way into the family home. Once a kid their hearts set on one thing, it is nearly impossible to get them to quit, the only way being to crush their spirits with the almighty no. Growing up on television, it is obvious to see the that its characters surely do have an influence on how you act in real life. I watched The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a kid. That show was a positive influence as it taught me family values and the importance of doing the right thing. This came as a lesson in life as my mother worked to support us leaving me alone in the house as she went to work and my sister was in college. However it also fueled my desire to grasp at everything with an 800 telephone line attached to it whether it be a Chia pet or the Heelys. It is so attractive to the eye that kids that have became adults are glued to the screen along with their kids.  

Television has a strange way of depicting its own destructive ways. The downfall of family life that is seen all too often on television shows is only a direct mirror of how we act in real life. It is so typical and cliché. The working mom or pop believe they are doing all they can for their kids as their kids are being raised by the streets or the housemaid. As the growing kid rebels time after time it is only realized towards the end of the show or movie that all the kid wants is to bond with their parents and get to know them as something more than the authority figure or the financial aid in their lives. But no matter how it is depicted, do we even blink hard enough to actually realize what is happening? We are becoming the story plots to our own lives. We are fueling the advertisement companies and Hollywood with our negligence, our naiveté. We are wasting away human interaction and real world experience. We are letting a four cornered box with bright colors raise our youth. We are decimating the virtues of family life because we utter the words, "After this last episode". Will it ever change is something to be seen but as Winn and Schlosser have made clear is that television has families in the palm of their hands, and all they have to do is squeeze until the money comes out.

Expository Essay

Expository Essay

Injustice, oppression, prejudice, and violence against others have characterized humanity since the dawn of civilization, all resulting from an individual or group attempting to use another’s submission as a stepping stone for personal gains. Innovative political movements and philosophy have allowed our species to grow and prosper to an extent; however, minority groups in contemporary societies continue to feel the chokehold of unjust majority rule. These men, women, and children question, on a daily basis, whether their lives’ relevance and stagnation in prejudice society can ever change; an answer comes in the form of a statement rather than a response: progressivism, in the modern era, can successfully combat historical, institutional disparagement of minorities. Specific and consistent applications in law and social perspective, can rapidly encourage the global unity we all, on some level, seek.

Contemporary society relies on law and governmental regulation as its ultimate institutional power and, thus, must be the first means of implementing progressive changes. Past social revolutions epitomize this idea, including the abolition laws against slavery, laissez-faire economic policies, “freedom of religion” integration, women’s and non-biased racial suffrage, and the massive civil rights movement in America. According to his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. believes “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (King, 2). In his following paragraphs, King goes on to say that unjust laws also constitute codes that “a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself,” meaning that laws must apply equally to all groups, and that minorities must play a role in enacting and creating laws through equal voting rights (King, 2). Global democracy requires improvement throughout its future and as Senator, now President, Barack Obama states in A More Perfect Union: “[our] Constitution [promises] its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time” (Obama, 1). One of these “to be perfected” legal concerns regards the general safety of the people. Considering what Dr. King stated on equal treatment, easing safety concerns entails better police patrol schedules, which must span all neighbourhoods in their assigned district and become uniformly frequent throughout. This regulation would equally apply and contribute to all groups, lowering the rates of sexual assault against women, domestic violence and child abuse, opportunistic and financially necessitated theft, and improving familial quality of life. In association, the recent degradation of families, neighbourhoods, and job markets has caused many poor minorities to lack means of supporting themselves, leading them towards criminal lifestyles that endanger the community. In order to uplift these groups, as Dr. King suggests, governments can invest in public welfare shelters offering basic, free, quality medical and survival services. Shelters providing food, water, bedding, and police/first responder security would keep the homeless safe and off the street, lower theft and trespassing rates, and give individuals a means to endure financial burden. An opposing view, however, may argue that society can leech off this system; to defend against this possibility, the concept of shelters must pair itself with another canon: those registered within shelters or as unemployed must accept a constant, stable, government-provided occupation until employed or deemed financially fit. Reserved government job availability rectifies the lack of employment opportunity for minorities, provides a means of financial revenue, and, once again, strengthens quality of life. Government employment may provide monetary income, but it contributes little to vocational mobility; this change must arise from education, a public service supported and enacted by minority and majority groups such as the 100 Black Men of America, Hispanic Organization for the Promotion of Education, and Global Partnership for Education. Public schooling requires additional and uniform funding, allowing and mandating all children to attend, receive quality education, and develop vocational skills. As a result, educational gaps diminish, job opportunity becomes more accessible, and higher education becomes a prospect to underfinanced students. Accommodation is the goal, a mutual relationship between each group to lessen the gaps between them, but it does not stop with finances, gender, and race. Workplaces and other public gathering areas must also accommodate religious practices and public acts of worship under the human right to freedom of religion. Doing so embraces equal treatment of all religious groups, creates a new economic stimulus from the previously marginalized, and influences social view. Congressional changes are pivotal in connecting demographics, encouraging unity, and enhancing equal justice, but, social views, tantamount, must change as well.

In Barack Obama’s words, “words on a parchment would not be enough to . . . provide men and women of every colour and creed their full rights and obligations . . . What would be needed were Americans . . . who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time” (Obama, 1). The gap President Obama references veers its ugly head in contemporary social perspective: lack of opportunity, lack of respect, hate crimes and terrorism, group-consciousness, and a divisive us-them mentality. Laws coincide with equal opportunity, but vocations such as police forces, fire departments, corporate boards, and other “white-collar” jobs still see majority group dominance. Through work and skill outreach programs, however, (such as Npower, the CUNY Service Corps, and Local Veterans Employment Representation) minorities can expand their education with universities and ascend the corporate ladder through their achievements and work ethic. Additionally, corporate voting that includes all employees within a respective department (the department for which an applicant requests to work) can create diverse, equal opportunity work environments; availability and encouragement for all equates groups with each other, rather than make them competitors. As for respect, mentality, and hate crimes, responsibility falls on psychological concepts such as de-individuation and social identity theory, according to their definitions on SimplyPsychology.org and in David Myer’s Psychology (Myers, 569). SimplyPsychology.org claims that individuals influence their own perspective of themselves, their identity, based on the attributes of the group to which they “feel” they belong and gain confidence by asserting that other groups exist “underneath” their own (McLeod, 2008). Groups, thus, begin to express prejudice and negative views of other groups, acting out against each other by strengthening stereotypes, using derogatory language, using discriminatory exclusion, or de-individualizing enough to commit hate crimes and terrorism. Dr. King reveals his personal concerns on de-individuation in segregated, 1960s America when he discusses black, nationalist groups, particularly mentioning one led by Elijah Muhammad (King, 4). Pivotal social influences - all forms of media, schools, civil leaders, and advertisers - can campaign to reverse these psychological perceptions. Individual praise, rather than focusing on race, creed, or gender, on late night programming would divert public attention to achievement rather than group representation; Obama’s commentators described him as “too black,” “not black enough,” or a quick-fix ploy to the race problem by liberals (Obama, 2), however, if media outlets had focused on his achievements as senator, his policy plans, and his ethical conduct, political controversy might not have arisen due to his race. Voters - the passive citizen - also need to take a stand, since they carry a heavy population influence in society, as King expresses in his disappointment with the white moderate in the 1960s (King, 3-4). President Obama also hopes for action in the white American community when he asks them to acknowledge and address discrimination “not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.  It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper” (Obama, 7). With internal individual change and supported external social campaigns, church groups, schools, and the previously indifferent, unaffected moderate can spread peaceful ideals, protest against acts of discrimination, discourage inappropriate stereotypes, and diminish group-conscious identity, reversing the effects of social identity theory and de-individuation. Lastly, Obama calls for direct unification through the assertion of common struggles (Obama, 7), uplifting each other and not considering people “somebody else’s problem” (Obama, 8). Each progressive idea we integrate into our mentality reinforces the brotherhood sought in all peaceful faiths and advances our species far beyond its current divided limitations.

There is, in fact, only one race – the human race. Conflict may be a necessary, human quality, but it rewards us with the capacity to change, accept, and love; the elimination of disparagement, not conflict, lies in reach for the progressive thinker. Just laws reinforce our equality, opportunity, and quality of life, while positive social perspective enhances brotherhood, closes group gaps, and reminds us that an individual represents such, not a demographic. In a world where progressive changes in law and perspective find voice and enactment, race simply becomes a visually descriptive adjective, gender becomes a means of explaining ambiguous complementary traits, class becomes non-existent, and religion becomes as trivial to identification as whether one prefers cats or dogs. Progressivism outlines our past and future; its exposition, applications, and outcomes conclusively state that embracing another realistically translates to embracing oneself.  

Works Cited

King Jr., Martin Luther. Letter From Birmingham Jail. New York: Liberation, 1963. Print.

Obama, Barack. A More Perfect Union. N.p. 2008. Print.

Myers, David. Psychology. 10^th ed. New York: Worth Custom Publishing, 2013. Print.

McLeod, Saul. Social Identity Theory. SimplyPsychology, 2008. Web.

<www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html>