Racism And Public Administration Essays Example

Journals in Race Intergroup Culture

Journals in Race Intergroup Culture

The term “race” in the United States does not necessarily mean biological, genetically or anthropological groups. Racial categories are determined by one’s country of origin, race and social cultural group. Thus, in some cases, a person may belong to more than one race; for instance one can belong to both American Indian and White races (Norman- Major, n.d., p. 5). With many groups of different backgrounds, the country’s administrators should be aware that they will have to serve all members of all communities, but not just few individuals or particular groups (Norman- Major, n.d., pp. 3-4). The administrators have to recognize and respect each people’s cultural differences despite the race or social-cultural group that they belong. Public administrator would therefore require training to gain knowledge on how to understand various cultural groups and ethnicities, on their traditions, values and histories, and the required ways of respecting them so that providing services to them becomes easier. Therefore, for the government’s service actions to be successful, administrators will have to consider serving members of each race or community differently from others (Norman- Major, n.d., pp. 3-4).

Racism and Social Hierarchies

Social hierarchies or classes are normally determined with the level of education, race and income or wealth. In most cases, it is education that determines how people are likely to earn in the society, and how they will belong to certain classes, as middle class or upper class. Roughly, one can note that races with higher percentages of college graduates will have higher average incomes, and therefore one’s class (Norman- Major, n.d., p. 7). On race, recent European immigrants to America have climbed social ladder easily because of their race as Caucasoid (Davis, n.d., p. 57).

How Members of the Intercampus University Dialogue Can Make an Impact

The first thing the members should do is to tell everybody in the campus that America is respected by other countries because of its values of respecting diversity so that everybody can live comfortably. In this regard, being future employees or administrators in both public and private employment, they will just need to gain cultural competency (Benavides, n.d., chap. 7). Since the country boasts that one of its major benefits of diversity is development, other students will be informed about respecting individual differences, as the government advices, both at the University and at the place of work. Since the students may have some stereotypes about some communities like the Hispanics, they will be told to stop them, because they will form barriers to understanding people as individuals and groups (Benavides, n.d., chap. 7). In fact it is illegal since one cannot use what he has seen from other people to judge others. For instance, in the United States, members of Hispanic group come from different countries: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Salvador, Dominica, Columbia, Honduran, Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala. Although all of them relate closely because of the Spanish language they speak, their cultures can differ at a large extent depending on the country where one comes from (Benavides, chap. 7). Thus if somebody wants to work with them, he will have to understand their different cultures, country of origin, workplace manner and job satisfaction, values, skills and so forth (Furman et al., n.d., pp. 168-172).
Therefore, using stereotypes to label any member of Hispanic group without knowing his culture from his or her country of origin could be misleading. Due to poor or lack of permit papers of entering in America, Hispanics from Mexico have been both socially and politically vulnerable in the US. They could lack long term housing, be treated in reserves, work at low wages and they can be easily be deported (Benavides chap. 7). However, the American Indians are not very much discriminated, and they can intermarry with whites of non-Hispanic origin easily. In fact the American Indian can choose to call themselves as Whites (Davis, n.d., p. 57).
Systematic racism. Systematic racism is racism that exists in social, political and economic systems, and it is normally legalized. Thus in the White like Me movie, systemic racism is occurring in education where black people learn in separate colleges from those of white people, politics where people vote racists, economy where blacks get few and low paying jobs, and so forth(IRATE Production, 2015).
Public policy. Public policy refers to principled guide by the government or the state as regards a number of public issues. Principles of the public policy will be accepted in courts as laws. In this regard, in the Griffin’s movie, it was a public policy for a black person to give a white person a chair when he entered public means of transport like train or bus (Griffin, 1961).
Privilege- Privilege was a right or a benefit that white people enjoyed over black people. In this case, in the Griffin’s movie, Black Like Me, he recalls how the G.I. Bill deliberately excluded non-whites from getting recession benefits and other social programs like housing assistance, job insurance and so forth, which set up the foundation of nationalized inequalities between whites and blacks (Griffin, 1961).
Structural racism- It is any system that supports or implements inequality on the basis of racism. In this regard, the government deliberately fails to provide the needed and appropriate services to people simply because of their race. As already noted in the GI Bill, the government deliberately discriminated against black in its benefits during hard times. Further, in the White like Me, the government deliberately allows the country’s companies to trade with racist governments like the South African Apartheid government (IRATE Production, 2015).
Colorblind- It is a term that insists that people should not make any reference to color when selecting individuals to receive a service or for particular activities. However, in the White Like Me movie, Wise notes that most white people are not willing to be color blind because they fear losing privileges (IRATE Production, 2015).
Equal right- It refers to the state whereby everybody is treated equally regardless of his or her race. In this regard, race-based policies will not be considered (Griffin, 1961).
Why some people don’t want to talk about race. Some people especially, those that practice racism would not want to talk about it because they feel that their privileges will be lost (White like Me) (IRATE Production, 2015).
What is your thought about the film as public administrative?- The two films, White Like Me and Black Like Me, show Whiteman’s prejudices about black people. This has resulted in racial discrimination that has been accepted by government and institutionalized in all its systems.
How does that affect you as a public administrative? The first things will be lobbying for and supporting programs and laws that enhance equality among all people. Further, it will be important that public administrators achieve cultural competence by training, so that everybody can be served without prejudice or discrimination because of his race.

How do we create the world that we want interims of racism?

The first thing is to make sure that the constitution has and implements laws against racism. In this regard, all public institutions should be colorblind, by not giving privileges to certain people for employment or service provision. The same should be extended to private institution to fight racial discrimination in them. It has been noted that the current generation could be more welcoming to members of other races. When classes of cultural competencies are taught in Universities, and at lower grades, it is possible that everybody will like equality and diversity. However, the government should provide good environment for people to practice their cultures positively, as diversity is richness. Nonetheless, intermarriages between races can be highly encouraged. Since members if different races belong to different social-economic classes, the government can begin fairness programs to support them and reduce the gap between the poor and the rich (Davis, n.d., p. 57; Norman- Major, n.d., pp. 3-4).

2-What is the state of my University as it relate to racism? What do you want to be?

Currently, it is like everybody wants to be in a group of his race. For example, African Americans want to be together in an only black American group, since they feel more comfortable to be there. Therefore, I would like to have the University to be like one community with no divisions like races, tribes and so forth. The Inter-race discussions should help people to sit, play, exchange cultures and contact each other with no racism. In this way, everybody will be good to the other (Norman- Major, n.d., pp. 3-4).

3-What did you learn from this experience?

I got a lot of experience from this class ((RACE INTERGROUP DIALOGUE class)). First of all, it helped me to talk about difficult topic that I could not discuss with anyone. Second, we exchanged different views with members of other races, and we now feel like that we are one community. Third, everybody has learnt dangers and costs of racism to both individual and country and therefore we all want to avoid racism. As a person who works in public sector, I now know how to deal with people from other cultures and races without discriminating them. All these will help me to serve people at my place of work, by caring about their cultural backgrounds for better results without racism (Furman et al., n.d., pp. 168-172).

Works Cited

Benavides, A. D. (n.d.). Cultural Competency in Hispanic Communities.
Davis, J. E. (n.d.). Reading 2: Who is Black? One Nation's Definition.
Furman, R., et al. (2009). Social Work Practice with Latinos: Key Issues for Social Workers.
Social Work, 54(2), 167-174.
Griffin, J.H. (1961). Black Like Me. Houghton Mifflin. LCCN 61005368.
IRATE Production. (2015).White Like Me - Tim Wise (full documentary).Youtube.com.
Retrieved on
12 April 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItiXR5m1yAY
Norman- Major, K.A. (n.d.). Cultural Competency and Public Administration,