Deborah Kingston

Dr. Fiona Harris

English 1050

April 19th 2018

Ethnicity: A World Wide Diverse Culture

I had struggled, I clinched, it was horrible to bare the injustice, I couldn’t take it anymore!

Finally, for the third time, my upset tone of voice spoke in a rage of fire inside me, “David, Stop

It!” Then I threw my first punch towards the person degrading my younger brother. I hit him right

in the nose, bleeding profusely, I was astonished at my actions. I had never done something

like this before, for reasons I call, just plain cruel & wrong. It was an act of “Othering” as

discussed from one of the individuals in this course says, “Our world and societies have been

molded by people of different skin colors, beliefs, cultures, and values; each person identifying

themselves with one or the other” (Tiare Gonzales) We were a close nit family that kept to our

own business, shy and never asked or wanted any attention towards us whatsoever. We were

different.

Regardless, how could I let someone torture, torment or tease a sibling of mine, just for

being from a different ethnic background. We were from a European background. We didn’t

bring much attention to us at all, nor did we desire to. The commonality these days, you see it

everywhere, different groups of various ethnic backgrounds, religious cultures, diverse

 relationships and much more. The ethnicity issues in our growing population is clearly

profound to say the least. I’m guilty of it myself. In the course material and much of the reading

it has opened my eyes to a new perspective, in which dissects the reality of how much issues

occur on this topic alone. We grew up fairly religious, a Christian belief that strictly relates to

much higher standards and values. We didn’t cook with or eat sugar or soda pop of any kind,

we didn’t believe in watching a lot of television, we didn’t believe the modern ways of child labor

being wrong, but instead beneficial to the growth and development of strength in our growing

economy and family structure. We never used modern medicines, drugs or alcohol, smoked,

nor did we consume caffeinated beverages. Still to this day I can count on one hand the times I

went the hospital or doctor’s office at now age 31. This was our ethnic group and way of life.

Between research and multiple documents read online and attempting to understand

ethnic background issues, often the predicament came up as racial issues being strongly in

relation to ethnic problems in our society. However, that is not the case, there is a distinct and

clear difference between the two. Race is primarily associated with the physical features of a

person, whereas ethnicity is associated with a person’s cultural background, cultural beliefs or

ideas and their lifestyles. For instance the story in the text that relates to,
 “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July “ This documentary to me is a good example of

how people often regard race and ethnicity one in the same, yet they are not. Notice the author

reads. “Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster

about this day” (page 461) This comment shows that no matter the race, there are different

ethnic backgrounds that we can all relate to on the issues of ongoing struggle with ethnic

backgrounds.

An ethnic group is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities such

as common ancestry, language, society or by their national traditions or heritage. It is defined

as a social group that shares a history together. Ethnicity is also considered to be shared

characteristics among other individuals. Such as, culture, language, religion and traditions. For

instance, an example of Race, is of brown white or black colored skin from all various parts of

the world, while an example of ethnicity is German or Spanish ancestry regardless of race or

even Chinese and etc. This concept is often difficult to describe because a person’s ancestry

and cultural heritage describes a person’s ethnic background. For example, The Arab is an

ethnic group, and is defined by their shared language, religion, nationality and their race.

Where the Irish and Scottish groups, are differentiated by their unique historical ancestry.

These issues have been addressed in the reading material in many forms, one in

particular that caught my eyes states that, “Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to
the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation’s seems equally hideous and revolting.

America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the

future.” (page 466 ) The speech from Frederick Douglas, brought me to consider the more

current issues that I researched on this topic of how ethnicity still shows prominent disturbances

all over the world.

An article from CNN says, “America's ongoing diversity explosion should be

greeted with optimism because of the opportunities it presents for revitalizing our country,

energizing our labor force and providing greater connectivity to the global economy. But

there is a hidden danger lurking in the form of an emerging generation gap with strong racial

overtones that, left unchecked, could become a significant obstacle to progress.

This gap has been greatly inflamed by the rhetoric of the presidential primaries. Its

potential harm was illustrated in the canceled Donald Trump event earlier this month in

Chicago, which saw young people of mixed races protesting against the views of what

one of them called "white suburbanites" who embrace, often angrily, a vision of America

that would shut them out.” These comments and much more stated in the text when

understanding the history and ethnic background that comes from people of a diverse

cultural and nation, makes me relate to my own experience and most especially those

that came before in my family.

 Some of the personal insights I have developed from the reading are the

examples of the immigrants that came to Ellis Island from the story of, “More than Just a

Shrine” where people were coming over from all over to earn a hard day’s work no

matter their ethnic background. A comment in the writing material struck my awareness

when it wrote, “It’s the one place I can be sure my people are connected to. And so I

made a journey there to find my history.” (Page 432) Often ethnicity issues arise

because we are unfit or unwilling to accept others unlike our own kind to come into our

own territory and be able to understand how to thrive. Because of so many ethnicity

and racial issues that arose throughout history. We as a nation disallowed the further

progress of growth to be at a faster pace that it could have been. I used to think that

President Trumps intentions were for good because he is avoiding or blocking the

possibility for disaster to strike by providing and protecting our own society and culture

to be able thrive instead of allow other nationalities to take over our own territory and

surrounding lands of prosper for the American kind. I was timid and firm on the fact that

he was right to do so because we never know what job losses we would have for our

own nation when others randomly make there way here to find there way of life, it

presumably left no room for us as well. This reminds me of the comments made in the

article when reading about the Slumdog Tourism “Slum tourism has its advocates, who

say it promotes social awareness. And its good money, which helps the local
Economy.” What Trump may or may not understand, is that, it is good for an economy

to have growth of other cultures and ethnic backgrounds to partake in a land of prosper.

I do not however, agree that is should be done or allowed illegally, but be open to

provide a prosperous place for immigrants to call home and help grow our ethnic

diverse backgrounds. How are we to thrive if we don’t stay true to our values with other

cultures, races, ethnic backgrounds and grow beyond our diverse funnel of white and

black, but embrace the cultures who I would proclaim as helpful to our growing

economy?

Personally if we don’t allow the diverse culture to prosper among our nation we

won’t provide the needs of the society which grows to prove our nation is becoming

more and more diverse each year statistically the numbers are astounding and articles

have commented on this idea. Research shows as of July 2018 White Americans are

the racial majority. African Americans are the largest racial minority, accounting to an

estimated 12.7 percent of the population. Hispanic and Latino Americans amount to an

estimated 17.8% of the total U.S. Population, making up the largest ethnic minority, the

white non-Hispanic or Latino population make up 61.3% of the nation’s total, with the

total White population (including White Hispanics and Latinos) being 76.9%

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States)
 The comments made by, Leandra Hollingshead made a very good point to my same

understanding about a Spanish and English being in the same text or language, the story of

Mexicans crossing the border and the officer being white but the Mexican being an English

teacher brought a lot of insight and thought in regards to the techniques that the authors used

to depict ethnic issues that often arise. She wrote, “Culture has become a moving thing and

that in some ways, it is just getting run over. I believe that the overall point that Kumar is

trying to bring out through his own experience in his writing, is that the assumptions and

stereotypes are still very much prevalent and affect the choices made” I would have to

say I agree to these comments myself and couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Another alarming issue that I approached in current times was a speech that had

taken place in Birmingham. It criticized immigration from Commonwealth countries to

the United Kingdom and proposed a new policy in which migrants would return to their

countries of origin. It was made in 1968 and later called, “The Rivers of Blood” It was a

controversy then and it is now, knowing that, “On Saturday night, the BBC will

broadcast the entire text on radio for the first time” they did so and it brought

horrific results of racial discrimination just like it did then and it still does now.

In conclusion, history repeats itself, ethnicity issues arise no matter the country,

no matter the president, no matter our surroundings, most know no different.

 Works Cited page
Baer, Kathryn. “DC Public Library Moves to Restrict Access by Homeless
People.” Reading Culture. Ed. Diana George and John Trimbur. New Jersey:Pearson,
2012. Print. pp. 300-301

Fisher, Marc. “D.C. Libraries: Homeless Shelters No More?” Reading Culture. Ed. Diana
George and John Trimbur. New Jersey:Pearson, 2012. Print. pp. 297-299

Invrio. “Slum Tours.” Reality Tours and Travel, realitytoursandtravel.com/slum-tour.php.

Kumar, Amitava. “Passport Photos.” Reading Culture. Ed. Diana George and John
Trimbur. New Jersey:Pearson, 2012. Print. pp. 514-517.

Odede, Kennedy. “Slumdog Tourism.” Reading Culture. Ed. Diana George and John
Trimbur. New Jersey:Pearson, 2012. Print. pp. 518-520

“Unpleasant Design & Hostile Urban Architecture.” 99% Invisible,

99percentinvisible.org/episode/unpleasant-design-hostile-urban-architecture/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States (Links to
an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States