Sociology Student’s Name Essay Sample

Introduction

The American society has developed socially in leaps and bound to be the egalitarian assemblage of persons it is today. This is nevertheless not to say that it is fully devoid of racism, ethnocentrism and unfair American immigrant stories.
A good examination on the manner in which the US has handled racism, ethnocentrism and unfair American immigrant stories fosters understanding of American history in the development of a diverse culture, while helping also to attenuate the increasing social distance. Racism refers to the belief and action based on the belief that a race posses abilities specific to a given race.
For instance, the US has emerged from the times of racism and the use of slaveholding in Southern States through the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments in 1863, 1864 and 1868, respectively. The fact that America had to undergo the American Civil War to proscribe slave labor and pass the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to safeguard the freedom of African Americans from slavery as was enshrined in the Emancipation Proclamation underscores the resolve of the United States to uphold social justice and equity (Gallagher and Lippard, 2014).
Another way in which the US has managed to saunter from racism and ethnocentricism is civil rights activism. The civil rights movement successfully challenged institutionalized discrimination and unfair treatment of the African American and other people of color in matters of employment and remunerations, access to public services and social goods and adequate political representation. The civil rights movement proper began in December 1955 when Rosa Parks’ unfair arrest and treatment sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. From this point, other renowned historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X and John Lewis. Resultantly, one of the benefits that the US accrued from the movement was the emancipation of educational services and sector. Specifically, access to education was extricated from race and race relations especially after the Brown Decision of 1954. My experience in the United States helped me to appreciate the import o these changes as was advanced by symbolic interaction: in the mind of the people of color, the Caucasian is not the man who uses institutions to deny them their rights. This averts negative social relations.
Several changes were also made to incorporate the right, place and voice of women in the American society. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) through their clamoring, helped register major achievements for women, such as the right to vote and own property in 1869. AWSA and NSWA further successfully agitated for the crafting and passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to bring about reforms in higher education, healthcare, career and the workplace. Measures of affirmative action such as Shattering the Glass Ceiling picked up the struggle to ensure adequate female presence in the public and corporate life of the US (Barrett and McIntosh, 2005).
Most recently, the US through the Obama Administration has sought to end the sad and unfair American immigrant stories by attempting to introduce the Immigration reform. Immigration reform is an immigration policy to ensure conformity in law enforcement and civil obligation for both the immigrant and the locals. Although the immigration reform has not yet been crafted and passed, the aforementioned gains have helped knit the US society into a cohesive unit. As is mentioned in structural functionalism, relationships are predicated upon relationships among social institutions making up a society. It is for this same reason that the US is rightly touted as the world’s largest and strongest cultural melting pot (Hawes and Nybakken, 2001). Again, one can appreciate the reality behind America’s relative internal harmony since the Conflict Perspective posits that the absence of the struggle for power among groups struggling for limited resources diminishes chances for war. This informs the need for the Immigration reforms which are aimed at assuaging the exploitation of the immigrant.

References

Barrett, M. and McIntosh, M. (2005). Ethnocentrism and Socialist-Feminist Theory. Feminist Review, 80 (80), 64 - 86
Gallagher, A. C. & Lippard, D. C. (2014). Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
Hawes, J. M. & Nybakken, E. (2001). Family and Society in American History. Michigan: Board of Trustees of the United States.