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Summary of racial inequality in the united states
Summary of racial inequality in the united states
Racial inequality in the us
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In Takaki’s The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority, he clearly and effectively states that the belief that Asians Americans are a “model minority” is not true and racist. This fallacy has caused harm to this culture and is a negative comparison with other minorities. His purpose was to inform the reader that even “good” stereotypes can damage ethnicities. Takaki’s essay was effective, however he lacked a counter argument which made him seem biased. Takaki starts of the essay by explaining the harsh comparisons that the mainstream media made “If Asian Americans can make it, many politicians and pundits ask, why can't African Americans?”(1). He states that those comparisons “pit minorities against each other”(1) which is true. Takaki then explains that the comparisons are not fair since they are not taking into account the hardships that the African Americans have endured. Some being; racism, and the economy. Soon after, Takaki begins to use an abundance of logos all throughout his essay to prove his point, and that conveys his passion for his writing. He begins by showing statistics comparing the earnings of Asian Americans to Caucasians and proves that the Asian Americans that do earn more than Caucasians have “more workers per family”.(1) He goes into details by explaining that even the Japanese Americans which have been praised for their “upward …show more content…
mobility” have not been able to reach equality. He stated that “While Japanese American men in California earned an average income comparable to Caucasian men in 1980, they did so only by acquiring more education and working more hours”. The “model minority” generalization has fused all Asian Americans thus hiding their differences. Takaki makes a great point there, his example was that, “while thousands of Vietnamese American young people attend universities, others are on the streets”. Takaki hits the reader with a sad truth when he states that “Most immigrant coming into Chinatown with a language barrier cannot go outside this confined area into the mainstream of American industry”(2) it is surprising that news such as this did not make it into the mainstream media since it is ironic. According to Takaki the unemployment rates from refugees from Laos have unemployment rates that “reached as high as 80 percent”.(2) Most college-educated Asian Americans that have well paying professions hit the “glass ceiling”-the barrier through which high management positions can be seen but not reached”. The “glass ceiling” is awful because they work keenly in vain according to him, ”In 1988 only 8 percent of Asian Americans were "officials" and "managers,"compared with 12 percent for all groups”. He delves into the stereotypes of Koreans by stating that, “ the triumph of Korean immigrants has been exaggerated.
In 1988, Koreans in the New York metropolitan area earned only 68 percent of the median income of non-Asians”. More than three-quarters of the Koreans that had an education and had prestigious careers, became no more than shopkeepers once they arrived in the United States. Tataki made it clear that Korean shopkeepers did not make a lot of money for example, “Korean shopkeepers do not actually earn very much:17,000 to 35,000 a year, usually representing that income from the labor of an entire
family”.(2) Takaki uses pathos towards the end, by sharing a story of a painter from Hong Kong who came to the United States however; he could not continue to follow his dreams because of the language barrier and his lack of education. That is saddening, because he migrated to the United States to have a better life but was not able to achieve it. Takaki did an exceptional job at debunking the Asian American stereotypes by using a large number of statistics.He went into detail showing all of the different ethnicities within the Asian Americans and compared their earning to other races. Takaki ,however, was biased and only focused on the negative aspects of the “model minority” stereotype. He could have at least praised the Asian Americans for working diligently to the point of making more money than most ethnicities.
Ghettos, low-riders, hip-hop, rap, drugs and crime, it has got to be a Black man right? Saggy pants, unintelligible language, lazy, and the lists continue to both stereotype and describe Blacks. Do Black Americans perpetuate their own discrimination? Are Black Americans creating their own low status in society? Black people around the world have been hypnotized into believing all their failures in life are due to discrimination, but are they correct? Blacks are often their own worst enemies, often the cause of their own disasters, and many don’t see that until it’s too late, if ever. Discrimination and prejudice are imposed upon Blacks, often because the culture they live in is not “acceptable” to the dominant society. On the other hand, an understandable reason for Blacks actions is often due to unattainable opportunities towards the American Dream.
The article by Min Zhou titled "Are Asian Americans becoming "white"? was relatively interesting as it provides a look at a different perspective of Asian Americans regarding immigration. I found it particularly interesting to learn that Asian Americans are considered to be white in equal opportunity programs; however, the race is still seen as different from Americans of European ancestry. Furthermore, I was not shocked to read that Zhou described the Asian American race as the "model minority." When first looking at the reading, I was shocked by the title because I thought it was a little exaggerated. I believe the author could have chosen a more suitable phrase rather than "Asian Americans are becoming white"; however, it does provide significant
For as long as I can remember, racial injustice has been the topic of discussion amongst the American nation. A nation commercializing itself as being free and having equality for all, however, one questions how this is true when every other day on the news we hear about the injustices and discriminations of one race over another. Eula Biss published an essay called “White Debt” which unveils her thoughts on discrimination and what she believes white Americans owe, the debt they owe, to a dark past that essentially provided what is out there today. Ta-Nehisi Coates published “Between the World and Me,” offering his perspective about “the Dream” that Americans want, the fear that he faced being black growing up and that black bodies are what
In Kiese Laymon “How to Slowly Kill yourselves and others in America” and Brent Staples “Black Men and Public Spaces” both essays deal with being an African American man but the authors respond in a different ways. At one point in history being an African American wasn’t always the easiest but two Authors shared their stories about the experiences they had which were very different. Although the color of their skin is the same and how they treated was as well both authors take different precaution’s to handle the situations they were in to persuade the audience on how to deal with the effects of racism. Both authors show their hidden message through the actions presented throughout the essays. Laymon`s casual tone and will to fight make him more relatable
1. What is the argument of Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America? How does Takaki make that argument?
Since they lacked certain physical and/or cultural characteristics needed to belong in the American nation, they were not considered worthy enough to receive the same rights and privileges they deserve. Therefore, Takaki hopes that with his book, people would acknowledge how America developed a society centered to benefit only white people with the creation of laws hindering these racial groups from receiving the same and equal rights they deserve.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
For 20 years, Asian Americans have been portrayed by the press and the media as a successful minority. Asian Americans are believed to benefit from astounding achievements in education, rising occupational statuses, increasing income, and are problem-fee in mental health and crime. The idea of Asian Americans as a model minority has become the central theme in media portrayal of Asian Americans since the middle 1960s. The term model minority is given to a minority group that exhibits middle class characteristics, and attains some measure of success on its own without special programs or welfare. Asian Americans are seen as a model minority because even though they have faced prejudice and discrimination by other racial groups, they have succeeded socially, economically, and educationally without resorting to political or violent disagreements with the majority race. The “success” of the minority is offered as proof that the American dream of equal opportunity is capable to those who conform and who are willing to work hard. Therefore, the term ...
American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon, and wasn’t given much respect because they had a different culture or their skin color was different. However, the lives of American minorities changed forever as World War 2 impacted them significantly with segregation problems, socially, and in their working lives, both at that time and for generations after.
In today’s age, African-Americans are still viewed as the lower race. There are entire ghettos associated with housing only African-American individuals and cities are divided among racial lines. For example, our hometown of Chicago, the north serves as residence to the “whites” while the south end of the city home to “blacks”. There is a wide-spread belief that African-Americans are not as smart as the rest of the population, are in some way related to a criminal background, and/or do not care about their betterment in any way and are lazy. This is because, Mills argues, racial realists associate racial characteristics to the “peculiar” history of that race. This makes argument makes logical sense given the oppressive history of African-Americans in
...able they really are with overtly racist stereotypes; and even with all the “human right”’ movements that spring about there is still the need for long-lasting solution against combating prejudices. By displaying stereotypes jokingly, especially ones that pertained for the Asian population, Yang proves not only do people hold prejudice against other groups with his examples of Asian stereotypes, but that stereotypes are still prevalent in today’s society.
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
I also researched instances of counter actions taken by Asian Americans to protest against these negative images. My research also has examples of Asians that have succeeded in breaking through the racial barriers in the media. The results show that even though racial stereotyping still exists in various forms of mass media, there are signs that show noticeable improvement in allowing a more balanced image of Asian Americans. Statement of the Problem There are close to 12 million Asian Americans living in the United States (U.S. Asian, 2000). Asian Americans are considered one of the fastest growing minorities (Pimentel, 2001).
For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued. In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the proceeding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes.
In its current state, the perceptions of Asian Americans in mainstream media show little progress over their perceptions of the past. From the derogatory remarks made about the Chinese when they first migrated from China in the 1820s to the offensive, yet subtle, comments made about the Asian minorities in the United States even to this day, there is a blatant correlation to why these thoughts are still present in this society. Although these have been issues that have lasted for as long as the first migrations from these foreigners began, one person cannot deny that there are certain perspectives that invoke the beliefs of certain stereotypes on others who do not share the same background, either socially or ethnically. More specifically, the typical label that most Filipino-Americans endure today is the idea that they are more likely suited to listen to rap, hip-hop, or R&B than any other music genre, simply because that is what is thought to encompass that group of people. Another idea that is attributed to this specific community is that most of these people, more often than not, are going to be able to perform publicly, whether by singing a cappella or dancing a well-choreographed routine or free styling in more contemporary means. It is from these mentalities that constitute a majority of the preconceived notions set forth upon this group of people, but without any logical or reasonable backing, how can it be that these ideals can perpetuate as being true?