Equality And Inequality Essay, Research Paper

United States of America is not a country for one specific group of people such as French, China, or Hispanic. Instead, many of these people come to United States to live. Under one roof, all these different groups have to coexist for this country to function properly. The people came from all over the world. When they came here, they are also brought their culture, religion, and ethnicity. Therefore, these aspects are contributed and created many different inequalities within the nation. These inequalities included the race, ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, religion, and age identity. Further, other aspects such as historical, social, political and economic processes also produce diversity, equality, and structured inequalities in the United States.

After working nearly four months at Mt. Pleasant High School, I have experienced many things, which helped me had a broader view of the racial diversity, and I also became a more informed and effective participant in the society. First of all, the race, ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, religion, and age identity are strongly contributed to the conditions of equality and inequality. Before Civil War, people are dividing into different race between American and African-American. If they are the slavery then their children are also become slave. However, it had been change but still dividing into the group and different class. African-American is not allowed to use and go to the public with the White-American. But now, inequality did not exist and the only way to eliminate inequality is to give everybody the same opportunity in the education and the public life. Education is the key to a better standard of living, wiser decisions, and convalescent equality among all. For me, as an Asian American, I also understand that within Asian community, the class structures are very important. The Asian American is considered this is how they have a public life. Most people within Asian community are judge other by their class. Just like the article, ?Class and Inequality: Tired of playing monopoly? by Donna Langston said ?class is your understanding of the world and where you fit in; it?s composed of ideas, behavior, attitudes, values, and language; class is how you think, feel, act, look, dress, talk, move, walk; class is what stores you shop at, restaurants you eat in; class is the schools you attend, the education you attain; class is the very jobs you will work at throughout your adult life.? (P. 101-102). Just like American, people are dividing into upper class if they have house, drive a new car or running a business. From this fact, I believed it contributed lots to the inequality in the United States. They had been practice and rise with this in mind. Therefore, they also brought out to the community. One way or another, they will treated and judge people just like other did to them.

In addition, the historical, social, political, and economic are also produce and contributed to the conditions of the equality and inequality in the United States. Before Civil War, people divided into different classes. There are lots of different between the White and Black, the upper class and the lower class. This was last until 1960. Along with the African-American, Asian community had been treated inequality. The Chinese people are brought oversee to built the railroad system. They had been treated as the super lower class in the United States. Further, the social structure of the United States also contributed to this issue. We are living in the nation, which has too many different cultures. People come from all over the world. When they came here, they also brought their culture, their social structure with them. Just like the article, ?A model of multicultural understanding? by Don Locke said, ?thus as immigrants come to the United States they are influenced by the existing environmental conditions. They have brought with them their own psychological and behavioral qualities, included language and the arts, childrearing practices, religious practices. These two sets of factors work either against each other or together to form and shape the new immigrant into a participant in the culture of the United States.? (P. 5). The author also point out one issue that I found very interesting and very helpful in the way of reducing the inequality. He said that we should make consider and understand more about the opposite culture in order to help us and other people avoid falling into the conflict between two different cultures.

Throughout my observation, participation at my site and along with the reading that I had read within last four months. I was learned that the social actions also contributed and lead to the greater equality and social justice in the United States. First of all, the government and national leaders are always trying to improve the situation of discriminations and judging between this group and the other. They are trying to pass all kind of laws that possible improve and protect the human rights. For instance, now a day, when we attend in any school, we cannot turn down because of our gender, religion, or our nationality. I believed this could be the biggest of social actions that our leader can do to contribute to the improving equality of different people in the United States. Further, within my site, we had been told and always been remind that we should not offer unfair actions for students no matter of what their culture, age identity, gender are. The coordinator at my site said that the majority of the population in California is in Hispanic origin and eighty percent of the students at my job site are Hispanic. But Hispanic students tend to be more present time oriented. They live to the fullest now and enjoy in present without planning and striving for future satisfaction and security. Education means nothing to them. So I think that we need some Hispanic tutors to help them because as I am a Vietnamese tutor, some Hispanic student avoided or hesitated to ask for my help. My racial background is also a barrier to my interaction with the Hispanic students. For instance, one day of tutoring, I have a group of four students, two were Americans, one was Chinese, and the other was Hispanic. The Hispanic student did not want to study. When I ask him, ? Do you have any problem?? He replied, ? I don?t need help?. From that point of view, I asked myself what is tutor work? In my opinion, the tutor is a person who will help those who need help. Therefore, I ignored all of students who did not raise their hand for questions.

The race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and religion along with historical, social, political, and economic are contributed a lots to the conditions of equality and inequality in the United States. Therefore, after more than fifty hours of doing services at my site, I had been interacts between students from different cultural, racial or ethnic groups. Every times I have to talk or interact with other students. I have a taught time to explain because the different between language and different in generation. From the beginning, I know that in order to have a good communication and good interact with students, I have to understand and realized the different between my culture and another culture. I have a group of two people, one was a Hispanic student and the other was American student. The Hispanic student has a very limited with English. That?s why I am really having trouble with her to explain how to solve the problem in math. However, I am very comfortable with an American student because when I say something, she understands right away. Further, because of the different in culture, I would never know when the Hispanic student mean what she said. Whenever I ask her that did she understand what I just said. She would answer yes. However, few minutes later I went back, I ask her explain for me the problem that I showed her before. She did not know how to explain it. I just wonder that did she really understand what I explained just a few minutes before. My personal experience is very similar to the one Sondra Thiederman described in the article, ?Communication: Overcoming Cultural and language barriers.? She wrote ?To make matters more confusing, many foreign languages answer negatively phrased questions with a positive response. The opposite of the English way. This is the yes-I-have-no-bananas-syndrome. If you were to say: you don?t understand, do you? The answer might be yes. (I agree with you. I don?t understand).? (P. 59). Further, Sondra Thiderman also talk about the situation that the employees would answer yes to the boss because he or she does not want the boss keep explain to him something. The employees also does want to be embarrassing in front of the other employees by saying yes to whatever the boss said. Finally, it turn out that she or he did not understand and did the job wrong. From my personal experience and Sondra Thiederman described in the article, I believed that different culture could affect the conditions of the inequality in the United State. However, if we could understand the different or understand the person we interact with. It could make the inequality disappear.

After all, I have been worked as a tutor at Mt. Pleasant High School for four months; I experienced quite a lot of things. I learn that the tutor job at high school is not an easy job because there are a lot of students come from many different countries. We need to have a good communicate to each other. We have to understand and realized the different between our culture and another culture. The United State is a country that is too diverse and has too many different cultures. In our nation, the people are come from all over the world. They are brought with them their culture, religion, ethnicity. These aspects could produce equality and inequality. Further, the historical, social, political, and economic are also produce diversity, equality and structured inequalities in our society. However, by interact more with the people and try to understand the different between the cultures. We could be able to reduce and lead to greater equality and social justice in the United States.

Bibliography

Locke, Don ?A model of multicultural understanding?. Sage Publication, Inc.

Increasing Multicultural Understanding. pp. 1-13.

Langston, Donna ?Class and Inequality: Tired of playing monopoly??

Thiederman, Sondra ?Communication: Overcoming Cultural and language barriers?.

ACC Communications, Inc. Personnel Journal (now know as Workforce).