Free Custom «Race and Your Community» Essay Paper

Introduction

The topic about race has existed in the world for a long time and has its trace from early years. Race exists because of a diversity of certain issues that touch human life, in general. Race refers to the classification of people into distinct populations based on factors such as geographical ancestry, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic status and heritable characteristics such as color. This paper analyzes the influences of race to the community and to the people. It looks at how racial influences affect how people interact.

Discussion

Most people in my community look like me in several aspects. First, most of us share the same complexion.  Despite the fact that people with different skin, color exist in my community, people with black color form the significant part of the community. The other people have a white skin color that differentiates from the majority.  The community comprises of sixty five percent of blacks and thirty five percent of whites. I am a black and lived in my community since my birth. Secondly, the members of my community share the same culture like me.  The black culture forms the dominant culture in my community unlike the culture of the whites. The community expects that everybody emulate the culture of the blacks as opposed to the white culture.

 

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The cultural differences experienced in my community forms the key cause of racism. This leads to lack of accommodation within the community that encourages prejudice.  The black population expects the whites, to view them in a dominant perspective, and accord them respect. However, the whites feel that they should get the same treatment and recognition accorded to the black population. This has created a lot of tension because people from the two different races and cultures want to have a certain share of recognition that they feel the other should not get. Therefore, the people in my community differ in terms of color, culture and recognition that come with color (Dr. Rice, 2011).  

Most leaders in my community come from the race that I belong. Community leaders treat people like me in a respectable manner. I have not seen much discrimination directed at the whites from our leaders, judging by the fact that most leaders come from the black population. From my observations of how leaders handle things, they treat each member of the community well irrespective of the culture, race or color they have. The leaders allocate resources based on necessity and availability rather than based on racism. The leaders of the community have strived to provide education that has that have the same quality for everyone irrespective of their skin color or cultural affiliation. Despite the fact that some whites came into the community as illegal immigrants, the leaders and the police do not treat them differently, except when they commit a crime. The police serve everyone in the community in the same way.

However, in every community people have different ideologies regarding certain issues. Some leaders tend to think that the white population should not receive the same treatment as the blacks because most of them came as immigrants. Some argue that the fact that whites came to the community as immigrants does not mean that the community leaders should treat them differently. They argue that way because they believe that place of origin has no importance, with regard to the treatment that members of the community should get. To them membership in the community should hold significance. The leaders in my community have tried as much as possible to ensure that all people receive the same treatment and privilege that the community offers. They have provided schools, hospitals, public transport systems and resources that serve the community universally, without tagging any culture on them.

Leaders in workplaces treat people like me in an excellent way. They offer us responsibilities that require attention and our relationship with them reflects an interactive and peaceful environment. However, when it comes to the whites, the treatment that they receive from leaders depends with personal attributes and belief. Despite the fact that the public domain rallies for a fair and anti-racial treatment in job environments, leaders practice what they feel appropriate. Certain leaders can work with people from the two races, while other prefers to work with people from my race only. The kind of responsibilities accorded to employees depends on individuals. Some may put whites in executive positions and put whites in substandard working conditions. On the other hand, others treat people from the two races equally. For them the ability to work in a given environment depends on the qualifications and capabilities that an individual has rather than their race (Dines & Humez, 2003).

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The members of the community treat people like me in a respectable way. As a black and having been born in that community, most people in the community treat people like me as one of their own. Close relations happen in terms of age groups, social status, and school and work influences.  Although the people who come from a different race live with us in the same community, the members of the community treat them a little bit differently. For example most people in my community especially the blacks expect that everyone in the community identify the black population as superior. Therefore, the members of the community treat whites differently from blacks. They require that the whites appear lesser than the blacks do. Therefore, the members of the community treat blacks as imperative to the whites. This could have manifested from the fact that the black population occupied the land ancestrally, while the whites came in as immigrants (Dr. Rice, 2011).

The texts and work manuals contain information on people like me, in terms of the responsibilities that each person has as opposed to the racial role that people play in workplaces. The reason for the information involves clarifying the responsibilities that people should engage.  Other work manuals contain information on and about people like me and other different people. For instance, a particular job may require one to have the capacity to communicate in my language other than the national and official language. Therefore, the work manual must contain this information so that whoever wants to apply for the job knows the expectations and qualifications that they should meet (Walsh, 2007).

The media in my community represent people like me. The media supports and highlights stereotypes for almost every community. The media portrays people like me in certain ways. For instance, the media portrays people like me as educated because most people who anchor news in the national television and write articles in famous print media come from my race. Therefore, the media presents a stereotype of people like me through making us appear well educated.

The media has also represented people like me as non-violent and peaceful. Whenever something goes wrong in my community, the white population always gets attention as the first suspects even when it seems unlikely one of them to have committed any offence. The media focuses on the positive things that people like me may have done and avoid the misdoings. The media has made people like me appear peaceful. The media portrays stereotypes that people in my community uphold it through their actions and call the race card whenever they feel treated unfairly.

The people occupying leadership positions in my community and I share some similarities as well as differences. First, we share the culture that governs the people occupying leadership positions in my community. Most of the leaders originate from my race because we form the majority. Therefore, the culture that they hold and use in their leadership originates from our race. This makes us similar. Secondly, the ideologies that the leaders hold have similarity with my ideologies. We believe that all people should have the right to lead irrespective of their gender, color or race. The qualifications and their capability to lead have significance. This forms the reason why my community has a voting process when choosing leaders. The selection of leaders happens through voting process. People get to choose the leader they need irrespective of his or her race. Thirdly, we share an educational view. The leaders and I believe that all children should get a valid education in a mainstreamed school setting to eliminate favoritism and unfairness. To this end, we support the idea that the community should adopt a strategy that allows students from different races to study together learn their differences and know how to live together, as one family (Walsh, 2007).

Despite the fact that we share certain aspects, I have differences with people who occupy leadership positions in my community. The leaders believe that the community should provide resources to each race, in equal measure. This means that each race should get an equal amount of resources regardless of the number of people it has. This cannot happen because the two groups in my community differ in a significant margin. Therefore, if the leaders will implement this ideology, it means that one group will suffer because of a shortage of resources while the other will flourish because they will have plenty of resources.

If I could resolve inequities in my community, I would change a couple of things. First, I would change the leadership population to have members from the white family represented equally. Currently the leadership comprises of leaders almost all from one race while the other one does not have limited attention and representation. I would also ensure that I come up with a way that will enable people from the two groups and understand differences the each other. Through this, I will have contributed towards ending racism and cultivate one culture of brothers and sisters. Thirdly, I would ensure that people who promote racism stop with immediate effect. I would ensure that people abandon the notion that blacks have better brains or have dominance than the other race. This could happen through organizing seminars and talk shows that enable people to talk and know the differences between them.

The main concepts that relate to race include racial group, ethnic group, gender group, prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes. Ethnic groups and religious groups provide racial differences. These groups lead to prejudice. Prejudice arises out of ignorance or lack of information about certain issues. When prejudice develops, it leads to stereotypes. People start believing that other people have certain characteristics just because they come from particular racial groups. For example, just because the media does not represent whites in educated ways most often, the community thinks that any white person has no education or has least education. Therefore, after people form stereotypes they begin to discriminate others based on whatever revolves in their mind (Dr. Rice, 2011).

Conclusion

Race acts as a factor that affects how people interact, how leaders treat their subjects, and how the media portrays different groups within the community. Racism creates prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination. Therefore, people must learn to live and interact with other people from other races and avoid creating differences based on cultural and racial concerns.