American Values Essay 3

Running head
American Values
Susan Haskins
Rasmussen College

Author Note
This research is being submitted on July 23, 2011 for an assignment due on July17,2011 for G142/SGY1000 for Sociology

American Values I choose Freedom, Equality, and Group Superiority as my three values and how they complement as well as contradicts each other. My first is Freedom what this country was supposed to be founded on, the one reason why the English broke away from England, the people were tired of being ruled by someone who took everything and gave nothing in return. Once over in America the English as well as other cultures took pride in their own self freedom. For another example: The Native American’s took real pride in their own self freedom, lived off the land and roamed as they please Second choice was Equality: “It’s impossible to understand Americans without being aware of the central role that the value of Equality plays in their lives Equality of opportunity has a significantly influenced U.S. History and continues to mark relations among the groups that make up U.S. society.” This may be a value now in today’s society but there was a time when not everyone was treated as the same, women were frowned upon working “a woman’s role,” was to stay home, cook, clean, and have children to raise, Native American was shoved on to worthless land to live, and the Africans were made to be slaves and work crops The last one is Group Superiority: “This contradicts the values of freedom, democracy and equality. American’s regards some groups more highly than others and has done so throughout the history.” Denying women to vote, the ruthless unnecessary killing of Native Americans, and cruel enslavement of Africans, these are just a few examples of how the groups considered superior have denied equality and freedom to others. Two of these three values complement each other , these two are Freedom and Equality everyone wants to be free and to be treated equal, as for the third value Group Superiority clashes with the other two values, it keeps certain people out, if the person had no money or if from a foreign land, these people are looked down up on The group superiority has been around since man has been around, tribes gathered to care for the own people in the caveman days and the tradition was passed down as man evolved, if from a different tribe the person was not accepted. Therefore freedom and equality came over here from England when the settlers arrived in America they refused to be under a King, wanted to be equal and free.

References
Henslin, James M. Sociology A Down-to- Earth Approach (tenth