The Development of Racism Essay -- Slavery Racist Equality Segregation

The Development of Racism Slavery's twin legacies to the present are the social and economic inferiority it conferred upon blacks and the cultural racism it instilled in whites. Both continue to haunt our society. Therefore, treating slavery's enduring legacy is necessarily controversial. Unlike slavery, racism is not over yet. (Loewen 143) Racism can be defined as "any set of beliefs, which classifies humanity into distinct collectives, defined in terms of natural and/or cultural attributes, and ranks these attributes in a hierarchy of superiority and inferiority" (Blum 5). It can be directly linked to the past and still, centuries later, serves as a painful reminder that race continues to be one of the "sharpest and deepest divisions in American life" (Loewen 138). What were the causes of racism? How did it develop historically? In order to answer those complex questions, I plan to examine the conditions of America's history from colonialism to present day society. It was these conditions of America's past that promoted the development of racist practices and ideas that continue to be embraced by many to this day. The idea of superiority and inferiority of entire groups were largely the result of the encounters between the Europeans and the indigenous native peoples of the Americas. Christopher Columbus was one of the first individuals who played a chief role in the birth of both racism and slavery. Upon the so-called "discovery" of America, European self-consciousness rose to the point that Europeans began to notice the similarities between each other. "There were no 'white' people in Europe before 1492" (Loewen, 66). But after the beginning of transatlantic slave trade, Europeans began to "see 'white' ... ...mproved, especially as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, racial inequalities still remain; from income to IQ levels, to the number of the incarcerated and life expectancies. While Americans like to think of our country as the equal land of opportunity, clearly it is not. Racism continues to remain "our American Obsession" (Loewen 139). Works Cited Blum, Lawrence. I'm Not A Racist But: The Moral Quandary of Race. New York: Cornell University Press, 2002. 5 Chomsky, Noam. Understanding Power, The Indispensable Chromsky. Eds. Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel. New York: New Press, 2002. 135. Loewen, James. Lies My Techer Told Me; Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. 60-169. Zinn, Howard. A Peoples History of the United States. New York: HaperCollins Publisher Inc., 1999. 25-33.

Impact of Standardized Testing Essay

There is a vast literature available concerning African American male student accomplishment and its relation to the accomplishment gap occurrence (Perry, Stelle, & Hilliard, 2003; Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003; Hrabrowksi, 1998; Ogbu, 1998; Patterson, 2006; Polite & Davis, 2001; Duncan, 1999; Freeman, 1999). Researchers and media channels explain the causes of African Americans continuously staying behind their White partners. Several provide limited allegations concerning African American male student accomplishment from either a past, sociological, or monetary view when deciding school achievement or failure. On the contrary, sufficient notice has not been granted to experiential and mixed methodological styles for assisting in advancing the debate concerning the provision of efficient resolutions toward narrowing the achievement gap that exists between African American male learners and counteracting deficit-model styles. In â€Å"Educating African American Males: Voices from the Fields†, the author Fashola (2008) and some other important academician researchers tackle this matter. The book is segmented in eight chapters, locating itself in many thematic areas that include social, ethnic, and past matters; school reform; primary, middle and high school experiences; structural analysis of manliness; institutional types of prejudice; and extra-curricular activities which assist in the promotion of affirmative self-confidence and analytical skills for African American males. Altogether, the providers enunciate the requirement of novel styles by demanding the educational commune to shift beyond conventional means of accomplishment and to comprehend the importance of social, past, ethnic, behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and educational styles that add to the broadening of the achievement gap between African American males and their white partners. Cooper and Jordan (2003) tackle the issues of African American male student achievement and they do this by locating and investigating the past as well as the methodical impacts of prejudice and also by displaying the way institutionalized domination have a part to play in the broadening of the achievement gap. The authors assess the elements such as uncontrolled unemployment, poverty, and insufficient accessibility to health care as the possible elements of African American males not being franchised in the circumstance of school and community. The authors imply that an â€Å"intergenerational poverty† (p. 2) exists which disseminates a self-fulfilling prediction for several of African American males. Ogbu’s (1998) research allows for the contextualizing of such past injustices. It is implied that â€Å"the treatment of minorities in the wider society is reflected in their treatment in education† (p. 159). In his book Noguera (2003) assists in the contextualizing of few of the practical attitudes which are required for the comprehension of certain of the behavioral trends of African American males which have an impact on them in school. The author offers information and research which record the way they were marginalized and wronged by the schooling experiences in the capitalist educational frameworks. Text offers a qualitative study which looks for determining the part that educators have in the motivation of students; teachers can utilize this information to reassess and modify their educational and instructional practices and also to fulfill the requirements of African American males and at the same time provide with suitable scaffolding so as to assist the learners in meeting the academic standards. Along with this, Noguera also debates that the learners are to be taught and habituated so as to see that the academic institutions are advantageous to them and also that the anticipations for them are high. Noguera writes about the schooling experiences of African American males by assessing their accomplishment trends in public schools and tackling with their consequent detachment. He writes that Black males underperform on standardized tests and that they undergo much higher drop-out rates. Although Black males achieve much and their performance is good in the primary grades, they tend to underperform by the age of nine (Garibaldi, 1992). His recommendation is that the educators should be placing literary and language enrichment at the head of their instructional concerns. This is particularly important during their primary school times; supplementing with the talents allows for African American males to become self-sufficient, analytical thinking is principal for their general intellectual achievement or failure. Development of Problem An operational attitude to the tradition of schooling also offers a valuable contextual structure for the investigation of student â€Å"oppositionality† and â€Å"resistance† (Ogbu, 1998) as minor traditional features displayed by particular minority learners in reaction to their communal marginalization. The idea of identity and the way it is written either by a person or the community is made pertinent by the reactions of these marginalized learners and is a vital part of a sufficient hypothetical viewpoint on tradition. The academic achievement gap which is present between African American and White learners is a very urgent contest for the urban education in the United States in the present times. Generally, the rank and academic achievement of minority groups in science have been issues of concern in various areas (National Science Foundation, 1994; Atwater, 2000). In a wide-ranging assessment of the issues, Jencks and Phillips (1998) suggest that there should be an application of methodical and preserved research attempts targeted at investigating the causes for the low performance of particular minority groups. When discussing the achievement gap and displaying it as a challenge for the urban education, there has to be an emphasis placed on certain aspects of the urban schools which are responsible for the existent gap. In the United States, the fact that the majority of the Black students study in urban or inner city institutions is correct, and on the other hand White students normally study at suburban schools. It is possible that this factor is responsible for the achievement gap between the Blacks and the Whites and it provides with an urban/suburban aspect. Urban academic institutions are also different from the suburban ones in the accessibility of the study material and commune sources. Even though the fact that the suburban schools normally have much better sources in contrast to the urban schools is true, an exploration can be made in whether the resources that are accessible for the urban schools are utilized most advantageously so as to improve the student involvement and intellectual accomplishment. Even though standardized testing traditionally has been slackly connected to responsibility and student education, the association had been weak. The association between student education and high-stakes standardized testing became more distinct, and a rise in the utilization of the tests has reached classic magnitude following the introduction of the No Child Left Behind. The argument behind such a connection is that raised pressure to perform well on standardized tests, and also a series of incentives and penalties, will raise the student education and accomplishment. Impacts of such testing standards have broad results, not just on the current generation but also on the next generations of youth. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to assess the impact that standardized testing has on African American male students. The study aims to display the issues connected with the impact of standardized testing on African American males. African American males face discrimination and due to that they do not perform as they should in their academics. Innumerable researches have been conducted to examine African American youths’ academic results. There is relative concentration with a stress on the achievement gap between African American youths generally and also that of other ethnic categories, like the Europeans and Asian Americans. Several conceptual structures have been offered which propose the achievement gap in educational results is the outcome of societal-level discrimination which afflicts African Americans (for example, Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; Ogbu, 1987, 1994; Steele, 1997). In reality, several of the studies record the negative impacts of such macro system-level elements on the encouragement and intellectual accomplishment of African American learners (Howard & Hammond, 1985; Ponterotto & Pedersen, 1993; Steele & Aronson, 1995). Nature of the Study Social research can be deductive or inductive and each is applied according to the research type. Deductive approach refers to particular information that has been gained from a general theory. Through the theory the researcher gets the foresights concerning the happening. Deductive research is termed as theory testing. In the case when a research initiates with a theory and is following the hypotheses that the researcher has set to test, the approach is deductive. Deductive reasoning sets to work moving from the more universal to the more precise. Induction is usually described as moving from the specific to the general. Observations are used for inductive approaches. Inductive reasoning moves from the more specific to a broader generalization and theory. In this case there is quite some uncertainty involved and the conclusions are based on theories.

Book pseudo-philosophical

The book of job is indeed a difficult book (particularly because it is structured like a poem, which i think made it all the more boring. ) But going beyond that, it has some interesting pseudo-philosophical discussions going on. Job is a brave man, given the circumstances and the general assumptions about the nature of the universe at the time (a universe where god occasionally makes his presence known through a whirlwind or some such device).Job is good and brave, but I think there is an inherent assumptions in his arguments that make them fail (in my book): the assumption of the validity of the rationale behind the rules under which God seems to operate. Since Sin is also, ultimately, God's invention, I think an appropriate response to such a condition as Job's would have been â€Å"Why are You playing around with us? † When Job finally acknowledges God's justice, Job gets his good life back! (Someone was just being childish and just wanted some appreciation, after all. )I don't believe that there is a direct correlation between good actions and†¦ divinely bestowed awards. A bit of work and a bit of luck are what it takes to get a good life. As for Genesis chapters 1-11, I cannot take these as an authentic record of historical events. While reading, I kept getting a feeling, in the back of my mind, that there is something inherently wrong in the rationale and explanations of the behaviors of the characters (God included). The story presented in Genesis has the makings of a myth, and is in the same level as that of other creationist stories of other beliefs.As Darwin says, the concept of God is quite beyond the scope of my abilities. Genesis 1-11 is an â€Å"explanation† of the origins of the world, which I believe must be a lot more complex than the chapters relate (at least on the surface). It also â€Å"explains† the origins good and evil in modern mankind. Boring also. Primarily because the story has been recounted countless time s, and, understandably, the sentences are structured as dissimilarly as possible from everyday speech, while still retaining grammatical correctness. But it is still nice to understand ancient (and modern) cultural and religious mentality.

Braveheart -Movie vs. Real Life Essay

This Essay is about the differences in the movie BraveHeart vs. accual events in the life of William Wallace(AKA BraveHeart) a Scottish peasant and freedom fighter fighting for his country’s freedom from the unfair rule of the English King Edward II(Longshanks). It goes over differences such as the battle of Stirling Bridge and when and how Hollywood came into play. This essay was assigned in my history class after watching the movie BraveHeart and reading about the life of William Wallace in our text books. The idea was to learn about his fight for freedom†¦. Braveheart -Movie vs. Real Life The name Braveheart refers to a Scottish peasant named William Wallace whom which fought for Scotland’s freedom against the English King, Longshanks (Edward II). There is little true knowledge known about William Wallace, and what is known is questionable. Recently there was a movie made about the life of William Wallace, which was titled Braveheart. Overall, the movie portrayed a very clear picture of William Wallace’s life, but there were also some things that happened in the movie that were fiction. Such as there wasn’t a bridge at the battle of Stirling Bridge, the relationship between the Princess and William Wallace, and the Hollywood stuff in the movie. In this essay I will talk about these ways in which I feel that some of the movie was fictional. The first thing is the battle of Stirling Bridge. In real life, the battle took place on a bridge. In the movie, however the battle took place on a large grassy battlefield. The Scottish were quite quick to attack the English who were trying to assemble on the other side of the bridge. That was the way the Scottish won in the actual battle. However in the movie, the Scottish just got lucky and won the highly outnumbered battle. This is probably the most noticeable piece of history poorly portrayed in the movie. The second is the relationship that William Wallace had with the Princess of England. This is ridiculous for several reasons. First, a royal princess would most likely never touch a dirty, Scottish peasant; forget having a  serious relationship with him. And second the princess would have only been about 6 or 7 years old when this situation would’ve taken place. So that is another thing that was quite fictional in Braveheart. The last difference that I want to point out is that there were a lot of little things that I think didn’t happen in real life, and were used because it was a Hollywood movie. An example is that when they were in battle all of the Scottish mooned the English. It is possible because of their ancestor’s, the Kilts, fighting style, but it still seems unlikely to me. Also there is the way that William Wallace killed the Scottish Nobles. He just charged on his horse into their bedrooms in the middle of the night and slit their throats. Things like that probably didn’t happen at all. So in conclusion, Braveheart was a quite informative and entertaining movie that showed a good idea of the life of William Wallace. However there were several things such as there wasn’t a bridge at the battle of Stirling Bridge, the relationship between the Princess and William Wallace, and the Hollywood stuff in the movie, that made the movie less factual than possible. No matter what it was still a good movie, and I would recommend it to somebody wanting to learn about Scotland’s past andor the life of William Wallace.

Case study on Expert Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case study on Expert Systems - Essay Example â€Å"An expert system is an information system that holds and stores the expertise of human experts and then reproduces human reasoning and decision making† (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005, p. 729). According to (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 446), an expert system can be defined as knowledge exhaustive computer program that captures the skills or expertise of human in limited fields of knowledge. An expert system can help decision making by creating related questions and describing the causes for taking definite action (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). This first example encompasses the implementation of expert system in the manufacturing industry. In this regard Lee (2009) presented a detailed overview of a new type of system development and implimentataion at US defense department. The new technology based expert system will be helpful in development of the new generation of weapons systems. This expert system is aimed to effectively manufacture the intended products through giving the advanced materials and current manufacturing techniques. This system is acknowledged as the Intelligent Processing of Materials (IPM) program (Lee, 2009). The implementation of the IPM is aimed to diminish the manufacturing expenditure by using expert systems as well as intelligent control over the major development areas. The main aim of this system is to be functional and efficient in greater stresses, higher temperatures, and harsher environments, for the reason that new material involves all these factors in the overall production and developm ent. According to development teams, IPM program will minimize the overall development time and make intelligent decision. This expert system will make use of analysis as well as synthesis tools to shape models of the material processes. During all these processes the expert system will also control the in-situ sensors to monitor real states of processes. This expert system will be a compensation of the

Ollapse of the CTV building Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Ollapse of the CTV building - Assignment Example Along with this, it also includes a short analysis of the facts which are duly responsible for such a mishap. In addition, a small conclusion and summary are also included along with recommendations for future actions. One of the important areas of this study is to find out the key stakeholders and role players who were directly or indirectly associated with the collapse of the CTV building. Name and details of these role players and stakeholders have been discussed in Chapter 2. Decision making process of the organizational factors and key management associated with the incident before, during and after the actual massacre of CTV building. From the detailed analysis in this chapter, it has been found that there were high extend of inefficiency of the top management in terms of their key responsibilities and ethical work practice and their ineffectiveness decision making process. Negative impact of many external organizational factors have been discussed which were not forecast prior to the collapse. Major defaults that were the root cause behind the collapse of CTV building were also analysed in Chapter 3. Few of major defaults that have been found out are lack of proper monitoring of top management and higher authorities, construction of an irregular structure and use of poor quality raw materials and old equipment during the constructions of the building. Finally, it can be said that this study has open up a real picture of the insight of the collapse of CTV building. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 5 2. The key-role players and stakeholders that might be associated with the collapse of CTV building 5 3. Analysis of the Defaults, Resulting In CTV Building Collapse 6 3.1 Lack of Proper Monitoring Of the Higher Authorities 7 3.2 Use of Improper Materials 7 3.3 Construction of Irregular structures 9 4. Analyse and Evaluate the Decision-making process of Key Management and the Organisational Factors Associated before, during and after the Incident of CTV build ing collapse 9 4.1 The processes of the key management responsible before the occurrence of such an incident of CTV building: 10 4.2 The processes of the key management responsible during the occurrence of such an incident of CTV building 10 4.3 The processes of the key management responsible after the occurrence of such an incident of CTV building 11 4.4 The processes of the organizational factors responsible prior the occurrence of such an incident of CTV building 11 4.5 The processes of the organizational factors responsible during the occurrence of such an incident of CTV building 12 4.6 The processes of the organizational factors responsible after the occurrence of such an incident of CTV building 13 5. Summary and Conclusions 14 6. Recommendations 14 References 15 1. Introduction The Canterbury Television (CTV) Building that was located in Christchurch suddenly collapsed on 22nd February in the year 2011 due to massive earthquake. The earthquake was such a destructive one that it killed about 115 individuals present inside the building. The prime cause of such a disaster was the faulty construction designs prepared by the structural engineers. Due to it, the high intensity of force and after-shakes of earthquake would not be controlled by the beams and slabs of the building. Apart from this, the floor slabs, rectangular columns and stairwells are not at all developed in a detailed way as presented in the constructional blue-print design. The amount of thickness shown in the design was not seen in actual picture at the time of investigation of the shattered pieces of the CTV building (Preskil & Jones, 2009). 2. The key-role players and stakeholders that might be associated with the collapse of CTV building Preparation of any building is a very tough job as it includes

Management of Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management of Technology - Essay Example One of the most pressing issues that Carnegie faces as an international firm is the issue with currency. Carnegie has been impacted by foreign currency fluctuations and interest rate changes. This has created a situation where international firms like Carnegie have to be very cautious financially. Tracking certain economic factors is also important during the development of your plan. A variable such as determining the optimal deployment date of a very expensive advertising campaign is critical. By tracking the economic status of the market you intend to do business, you are able more accurately predict consumer response. The following are some of the most commonly tracked economic indicators and what they measure: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all goods and services produced within a country during a given period of time, usually one year. Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an index that measures changes in the price of a basket of typical consumer goods. Society shapes our beliefs, values, and norms. People absorb, almost unconsciously, a worldview that defines their relationships to themselves, to others, to organizations, to society, to nature, and to the universe. Carnegie offers a very Marxian approach to the matter: the necessity for people to collaborate together as a group and face and subsequently confront the problems of class inequalities which are determined around the composition of the relations of power which consistently underplay the importance of the sense of justice in the society has certainly not decreased. Political: The political and legal environment is composed of laws, government agencies, and special interest groups that strongly influence the risks associated with marketing decisions. The main issue Carnegie has had to content with revolves around labor malpractice allegations. Carnegie has been involved in many lawsuits that also threaten its reputation; however, it has not been indicted in any of these said lawsuits. Technological: Technology is so important to Carnegie that they incorporated it into their mission statement. In the mission statement, technology is inferred in the word "innovation". To foster this innovation the company pours enormous sums of money into research and development to keep Carnegie on the cutting edge; symptomatic of an entrenched belief within itself that "As human potential evolves, so must our products, we must be committed to the very best performance product. Products of pure imagination, products that move the needle of performance, and products that help us be the athletes we know we are." (Carnegie Corporation, 2009) Ecological: Having an ecological awareness has