Racial Diversity: Historical Worksheet

Associate Program Material

Racial Diversity: Historical Worksheet

Answer the following questions in 100 to 250 words each. Provide citations for all the sources you use.

• Throughout most of U.S. history, in most locations, what race has been in the majority? What is the common ancestral background of most members of this group?

• “Germans are the largest ancestral group in the United States; the 2008 census showed that about 17 percent of Americans saying they had at least some German ancestry. Although most German Americans are assimilated, it is possible to see the ethnic tradition in some areas. In Milwaukee, they have a population that is 48 percent German ancestry” (University of Phoenix, 2011, p. 117). The text also goes on to say that Germany is just one of 20 European nations from which at least 1 million people claim to have ancestry in the United States. There are also more than 36 million Irish Americans, and the Republic of Ireland had a population of 4 million in 2008. From the staggering facts on the populations of certain immigrants that made up the majority of the population for many years. Race is socially constructed, as we learned in Chapter 1. Sometimes we come to define our race by the majority even when of a mixed race. People who are the children of an African American and Mexican American are biracial or “mixed,” They come to be seen by others by whatever has been socially constructed to their best interest. In today’s society, what it means to be White in the United States has really changed. All of the different immigrants and biracial mixes has put the white people classification in the minority classification.

• What are some of the larger racial minorities in U.S. history? What have been the common ancestral backgrounds of each of these groups? When did each become a significant or notable minority group?

• According to University of Phoenix Racial and Ethnic Groups (2011), as early as 1857, The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, which ruled that slaves remained slaves even when living or traveling in states where slavery was illegal, was when discrimination really became an issue. There were great efforts over many years to try to find some equality among the Afro Americans. It was not until the 1940s when the Supreme Court revises earlier decisions and begins to grant African Americans the same rights as those held by Whites. With due time, equality would make big strides. The most important legislative effort to eradicate discrimination was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act led to the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which had the power to investigate complaints against employers and to recommend action to the Department of Justice. Despite these efforts, devastating forms of discrimination persist. African Americans, Latinos, and others fall victim to redlining, or the pattern of discrimination against people trying to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods (University of Phoenix, 2011).

• In what ways have laws been used to enforce discrimination? Provide examples. These laws were intended against which racial minorities?

• According to "Racial Discrimination Law And Legal Definition (2001-2013),” Racial discrimination is the practice of letting a person's race or skin color unfairly become a factor when deciding who receives a job, promotion, or other employment benefit. It most often affects minority individuals who feel they have been unfairly discriminated against in favor of a Caucasian (or white) individual. Most of the civil right laws of this time were geared toward equal opportunities in the workplace. The 1991 law said that employees could also recover punitive monetary damages for pain and emotional suffering, mental anguish, future lost wages and benefits, and more. Then there were changes in the 1991 law that involved employment practices that have a "disparate impact" on racial groups (that is, affect them more than white groups), make it easier for a plaintiff to receive damages in cases where a discriminatory practice and a nondiscriminatory practice both played a part in a hiring or promotion decision.

• In what ways have laws been used to eliminate discrimination? Provide examples. Did the laws work to eliminate discrimination?

Affirmative action was created to enforce all of the previous laws that were established to eliminate discrimination in the workplace. Although affirmative action is a controversial policy intended to counteract racial discrimination. West's Encyclopedia of American Law defines affirmative action as referring "to both mandatory and voluntary programs intended to affirm the civil rights of designated classes of individuals by taking positive actions to protect them." So, what he is saying is that affirmative action actively promotes the interest of minorities over the white majority in order to correct past discrimination. This has led to a huge growth in the minority workforce, and they have been able to rise through the ranks more quickly, often taking jobs that were traditionally held by white workers. This can lead to resentment towards the heavily favored minorities. According to "Racial Discrimination Law And Legal Definition (2001-2013),”There have been recent cases where whites have claimed that reverse discrimination has occurred—that is, a minority received unfairly favorable treatment at the expense of a white individual”(para. 18). Most of these laws were primarily intended for the Afro-American community.

References:

Racial Discrimination Law and Legal Definition. (2001-2013). Retrieved from http://definitions.uslegal.com/r/racial-discrimination/
University of Phoenix. (2011). Racial and Ethnic Groups. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, ETH125 website.