I'd like you to read this important document. What similarities do you find in it with the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution? Can you identify specific violations of it in the situation of minorities in the United States?
Are we a melting pot? Most social scientists say this is a romantic myth that ignores the past and present realities of the United States. In The Myth of the Melting Pot, the Washington Post offered an in-depth, six-part series (with graphs) that explored this issue. Perhaps most controversial is Part Three: Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation. Do you agree with this claim? Why or why not?
In this chapter you read about the Affirmative Action controversy. I'd like you to read a provocative article on this subject by Stanley Fish, called "Reverse Racism, or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black." Fish offer some interesting, impassioned arguments to make his case. What are they? Why do you agree or disagree with them?
Another article on this subject, "Ten Myths About Affirmative Action," offers brief commentary on what the author believes are the most common false beliefs that opponents have about this social policy. Do you agree? Can you think of any opposing arguments?
Ethnic Prejudice, Stereotypes, Discrimination, and the Free Market is a provocative article about past hiring biases relating to Irish and Italian workers and modern times. This article suggests that anti-discrimination laws may have unintended negative consequences. What do you think?
The dominant group, as you read on pages 107-108, frequently uses legislative controls to handle its concerns about immigrants or minority groups. Congress passed the Immigration Control Act of 1996 to address some of the concerns the public, particularly illegal aliens. If you would like to see the text of this legislation, click on the title.
In April 2000, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a Resolution on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. This resolution was a prelude to the World Conference held in South Africa in 2001. As you read the Commission's comments and general recommendations, try to think of one or two specific implementation efforts that could move us closer to the goals of greater tolerance toward others.
One of the "old" immigrant groups is the Irish but, as you can see in the Appendix on page 620, ten of thousands of new Irish immigrants are still coming to the United States. As with virtually all immigrant groups with ethnic organizations to assist them, the Irish also receive a helping hand. If you will click on Emerald Isle Immigration Center, you will find one such organization. When you reach this site, then click on the "What's New" choice to learn about some of the current activities of this group.
The German Americans: An Ethnic Experence is a book giving an in-depth portrait of German immigrants adjusting to life in the United States and gradually becoming part of the societal mainstream. While all eleven chapters are fascinating reading, you might take a look at Chapter 5, which tells of social organizations, festivities, and outsiders' reactions, particularly to Germans frequenting beer gardens.
The beginning of this chapter acquaints you with information about immigration by decades and major immigration acts passed in the past 115 years. If you will access the popular American Immigration Home Page, you will have the opportunity to access a great deal of interesting immigration information, including processing, ports of entry, settlement patterns, and treatment by other Americans at different periods in U.S. history.
Did any of your family enter the United States through Ellis Island? You can trace them at the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island. At this site, you can search for records of family members and access the passenger record, ship's manifest, and a photo of the ship itself.
The Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research at the University of Southern California maintains an excellent site on Native American Resources. Here you will be able to access the home pages of many tribes and native organizations, as well as tribal colleges, Native Studies programs, native journals and newspapers, powwow and festival schedules, and links to Native American language resources. This site also contains many excellent, full-text articles on education and language.
In a special publication, We...The First Americans, the Census Bureau offers a descriptive profile of the American Indian and Alaskan Native populations. Although the statistics are dated, much valuable information can be found here. What tribe has the most high school graduates? The lowest employment rate? The most owner-occupied housing? The least plumbing facilities?
Want to see the Census Bureau's latest report on U.S. Asians and Pacific Islanders? Click on The Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States and you will find numerous tables giving an excellent profile of their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
The Japanese American Internment Web site offers excellent photographs and insights into this sad chapter in U.S. history. How do these images compare with the Tule Lake description on page 292?
The Korean American Historical Society KAHS is dedicated to enriching the collective memory of Korean Americans through collecting, maintaining, and transmitting the heritage and achievements of Koreans living in the United States and abroad through a scholarly journal of oral histories, photographs, and other activities. Go to some of these sites and try to find some illustrations of the sociological patterns discussed in the text.
One recently arrived group that has been widely studied and written about in numerous journals are the Hmong (pages 309-311) in this chapter. Interestingly, the Hmong also have their own home page and numerous links to other information about them. If you will click on Hmong Homepage, you will gain access to information about their history, experiences in the U.S., and learn how a fairly new U.S. ethnic group is using the internet to strengthen its ethnic community which is scattered throughout the country.
The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is a civil rights organization committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage. ADC, which is non-sectarian, non-partisan, is the largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980 by former U.S. Senator James Abourezk. Go to this site and look at its "Press Releases" and "Action Alerts" and read some of those items in detail to learn what are some of the current concerns. These could serve as a basis for a paper or discussion topic.
At Arab Americans: Making a Difference , Casey Kasem (of radio's "Casey's Top 40" and "Casey's Countdown") tells of the numerous Arab Americans who have been influential in U.S. business, entertainment, and societal welfare. Did you know that these individuals were Arab Americans? What learning lesson is there in this information?
African Americans, like those in all minority groups, have different views on how to advance their group's status in society. In Nicholas Lemann's article, "Philadelphia: Black Nationalism on Campus," you will find college students at Temple and Penn offering decidedly different approaches. What are these two approaches? What are the pros and cons of each? Do you think that one is better than the other? Why?
Pages 375-377 discuss the highly controversial book, The Bell Curve, by Richard Hernnstein and Charles Murray. There are many articles on the internet about it, most of them highly critical. Using the Infoseek search engine, type in "The Bell Curve" in the search box. You'll get a good list of articles. Select two and compare their comments and arguments.
Go to Linguist looks at the Ebonics debate, and read Charles J. Fillmore's comments that attempt to eliminate the confusion and misunderstandings surrounding the Oakland resolution on ebonics that sparked a national controversy.
Want to see the Census Bureau's latest report on U.S. Blacks? Click on Black Population in the United States and you will find numerous tables giving an excellent profile of their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
I'd like you to explore the web a little and see what's out there offering information, support and assistance to the Hispanic American community. Click on Latino/Hispanic Resources and then check out some of the links. What are you finding? Do you see some common themes or patterns? What groups are better represented than others? What are the primary resources offered?
At The Amish, The Mennonites, and "The Plain People" Web site, you will find an excellent, highly informative set of questions and answers about the historical traditions, weddings, schooling, and lifestyle of the people living of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.
The Anti-Defamation League is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism, as well as all targets of prejudice, hate, and violence. At this Web site, you will find many information sources on current events, hate groups, what to tell children about prejudice, and ways to overcome it.
If you go to the Google search engine and enter either "abortion articles" or "school prayer articles" in the search box, you will discover a good number of internet articles on both sides of these religiously- influenced controversial issues.
To learn which are the largest religions and denominations in the United States, visit this Web site. Were you surprised by any of the denominations appearing or not appearing on the list? What has happened to Christianity between 1990 and 2001 as it proportion of the total population?
One of the best internet resources for this chapter is The Feminist Majority Foundation. Rather than giving you a specific assignment here, I'd like you to go to this site and make your own selection from their menu to learn more about a subject of specific interest to you. While there are many other choices, you might want to select "Feminist Internet Gateway," which will bring you to numerous specific subject headings. Wherever you go, read a little in that area so that you could share that information with others.
How do the proportions of women in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives compare with those in other countries? At Women in National Parliaments, you can find out. First, you will see the data for the world average and by regions. Clicking on "Comparative data by country" will give you that information. Did the United States rank where you expected? What conclusions can you make about the position of women in political power in the U.S. compared to elsewhere?
Here's a little exercise that enables you to learn about Census Bureau Projections for your state about race/origin group demographics from 1995 to 2025. Click on this link and scroll down the table to find the data on all races.
U.S. English, the organization mentioned on page 554 that is dedicated to preserving English as the common language, has its own home page. Go to it and read some of their arguments for their cause. Then click on The Debate over English Only by the American Civil Liberties Union for a contrasting view. Comparative and analytical comments on these two positions would make a good topic for a paper or class discussion.
Want to learn more about current immigration issues? At this site you will find a variety of discussion topics on immigrant earnings, tax contributions, public benefits, naturalization, and many others.
Go to Strangers
to These Shores top page
Go
to Allyn and Bacon top page