African americans and Native americans Essay Example for Free

African americans and Native americans Essay African Americans and American Indians or Native Americans are two of the major subordinate groups in America today. They face many forms of oppression from the dominant group and have many things in common when it comes to this oppression. I would like to focus on five specific types of oppression they face: stigmatization, segregation, ethnocentrism, prejudice, and discrimination. African Americans are facing stigmatization far less these days, but if one looks back a half-century, they will find countless examples. Stigmatization can include the de-humanization, labeling, characterizing, and degrading of a group. During slavery, blacks were stigmatized into the happy and carefree characters Mammy and Sambo. This was done to show that slavery was good and blacks probably wouldnt be able to function in free society. When slaves were freed, blacks were painted as savages that could not be trusted to live normally. Caricatures of blacks with exaggerated features and portraits of the characters Sambo and Mammy still exist today. For Native Americans, stigmatization is far worse. Countless sports teams have a Native American as their mascot, some having very derogatory names such as the Washington Redskins. Indians were also portrayed as evil in countless western movies and as ruthless savages in others. These stigmatizations make Indians seem more like fantasy characters than real people. Many people do not realize that these stigmatizations are very hurtful and detrimental to society. Segregation, the separation of two or more groups based on physical characteristics, is another issue that still plagues African Americans and Native Americans. From the moment Europeans set foot on what is now America, they have been forcing Indians farther and farther west. The American government created reservations for the Indians so that they could have the valuable resources that they needed. Treaties were signed and broken, and the Indians moved farther along the Trail of Tears. Reservations still exist today and for the most part Native Americans have are not integrated into American society. Most would like to think that after the Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education, segregation no longer exists for African Americans. Sure its not like we still have separate drinking fountains, but by and large blacks and whites are separate. In all major cities large housing projects have been created for low-income persons. The vast majority of the people living there are black. Most inner city schools are almost entirely made up of minorities. Legal segregation is no longer a problem anymore, but social segregation is still a major problem in society today and something needs to be done. Ethnocentrism is the feeling by one group that they are superior to another based on ethnic background. Native Americans have always been the victims of this. They were forced to leave their homeland by the superior Europeans and thought not good enough to live among them. Native Americans still live mostly separate and many people still degrade them and think of them as inferior both mentally and physically. Most people have not been exposed to them yet judge them anyways. This is very sad and disturbing. African Americans were thought of as the lowest, stupidest, least civilized people on earth. The whites thought they were far superior and showed this by literally stealing African Americans from their homeland of Africa and forcing to into slave labor. Even after slavery, white supremacy groups such as the KKK still exist and continue to be a proponent for the inferiority of African Americans. Many think of blacks as being less far less intelligent and civilized even today. Prejudice and discrimination are two of the biggest problems facing African and Native Americans today, and the two go hand in hand. Prejudice involves negative attitudes towards ethnic groups, which can include beliefs, thoughts, and stereotypes. Discrimination is taking action on these prejudices by denying certain rights and opportunities to these groups. Prejudice leads to discrimination of these groups. African Americans as well as Native Americans are discriminated against in employment opportunities, housing options, public school resources, and countless other ways. They are  discriminated against because of these prejudices and stereotypes.For example, say a black man walks into a store with his white friend. The employees of the store are more likely to offer service to the white man and will probably follow the black man to make sure he is not shoplifting. The prejudice views they hold cause them to discriminate against the black man. These problems are very real even today and unless society as a whole addresses them and ways to stop them, they will continue to destroy the fabric of our country.

Hamlet †Spiritual or Non-spiritual? :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Hamlet – Spiritual or Non-spiritual?      Ã‚  Ã‚   The spiritual dimension or side of the Shakespearean drama Hamlet is nearly quite as interesting as the non-spiritual aspect. This essay will explore the spirituality in its various dimensions.    R.A. Foakes in â€Å"The Play’s Courtly Setting† explains the spiritual setback Hamlet experienced following the ghost’s revelation and request for revenge:    Perhaps the most terrible feature of his recognition of corruption everywhere is his recognition of it in himself too; where others deceive he must deceive too, where others act he must put on an antic disposition, where the inmost desires and passions of others must be revealed, so must his own passions be roused. And where there is no legal punishment for his father’s death, he must stoop, driven by the universal wrong, and â€Å"being thus be-netted round with villainies†, to revenge. He must share the corruption of others in spite of his nobility, and recognize in himself the common features, "we are arrant knaves all." (53)    In his essay â€Å"Hamlet: His Own Falstaff,† Harold Goddard sees that Hamlet was made for â€Å"religion† and several other purposes:    He [Hamlet] was made, that is, for religion and philosophy, for love and art, for liberty to â€Å"grow unto himself† – five forces that are the elemental enemies of Force. And this man is called upon to kill. It is almost as if Jesus had been asked to play the role of Napoleon (as the temptation in the wilderness suggests that in some sense he was). If Jesus had been, ought he to have accepted it? The absurdity of the question prompts the recording of the strangest of all the strange facts in the history of Hamlet: the fact, namely, that nearly all readers, commentators, and critics are agreed in thinking that it was Hamlet’s duty to kill, that he ought indeed to have killed much sooner than he did. (12)    Goddard’s highlighting of the main question underlying the narrative of the play – a moral question involving justifiable killing – indicates the spiritual nature of   Hamlet. Not all critics appreciate the spirituality in Hamlet. A.C. Bradley’s Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth presents a different interpretation regarding the presence of spirituality within the play:    For although this or that dramatis persona may speak of gods or of God, of evil spirits or of Satan, of heaven and of hell, and although the poet may show us ghosts from another world, these ideas do not materially influence his representation of life, nor are they used to throw light on the mystery of its tragedy.

Executive Summary Victoria Chemicals Essay

Problem Definition: The organization, Victoria Chemicals, must determine whether or not to improve engineering efficiency through facility improvements at its production plant Merseyside Works. Relevant Facts: The Merseyside Project was evaluated with respect to the following criteria: (1) Impact on earnings per share (2) Payback (3) Discounted cash flow (â€Å"DCF†) and (4) Internal Rate of Return (â€Å"IRR†). The initial assessment of this project was based on assumptions challenged by the experts at Victoria Chemicals. This analysis reflects a more conservative approach that includes potential risks of cannibalization, loss of sales following reconstruction of Merseyside and the purchase of rolling stock in 2010. Analysis Summary: The Merseyside Project met Victoria Chemicals’ internal criteria for consideration of projects despite the introduction of potential risks into the analysis of the projection (Exhibit 1). The NPV was GBP 9.24 million with an IRR of 20.2%. The payback period is 5.5 years and the average annual addition to EPS was minimal but positive. The cannibalization of sales from Rotterdam was included by reducing sales volumes by 5% for the first five years (Exhibit 2). Further, the affect of closing the factory for construction was modeled by reducing sales volumes to 99% for the first five years to reflect the fact that certain purchasers (approximately 1%) may be lost during this time but eventually recovered. Lastly, the purchase of rolling stock in 2010 was included because it reflected the anticipated growth of the firm in other areas that were included in the projection and as such neglecting to include this cost would be false representation of the anticipated growth. Factors that were ignored in the initial projection that increase the attractiveness of the project were added to this analysis including the inflation rate of 3% and the removal of preliminary engineering costs. Conclusion/Recommendations: It is recommended that Victoria Chemicals go forward with the Merseyside Project. This project meets the specified performance hurdles despite the inclusion of potential threats. One major concern of the project is that the payback period is delayed to over 5 years under this assessment and the average annual addition to EPS is minimal. The declining EPS during the initial stages of the project make the organization more vulnerable to a corporate raid. However, polypropylene is priced as a commodity and as such, the only way to improve financial performance is to improve manufacturing cost efficiency. Further, the educated shareholder will recognize that the declining EPS is due to investment in capital assets and is not necessarily a reason to sell shares. Thus, while the capital investment in this project and shutdown for construction may be damaging in the short-term to EPS, in the long-term it will improve profit margins significantly has potential to earn an NPV of GBP 9.24 mill ion.

Analysis Of The Book Not All Men Are Sly Foxes

A Light in the Dark Until recently, children’s books often heralded mothers as the domineering force behind child-rearing. Fathers in the meantime are often looked upon less as an equal partner and relegated in a supporting role. In the essay â€Å"Not All Men are Sly Foxes† published in 1992 in Newsweek magazine, Armin Brott shares his compelling encounters with children’s books by showing the scorn inherently ascribed to fathers in children s books. In recent years, women have pushed for publishers to portray roles women have â€Å"..in shaping our country’s history and culture.† (Brott 345) While doing so men have taken a stagnant image thrusted from those progressive efforts. In an attempt to sway a wavering audience indifferent to the status quo the author blends all three rhetorical appeals emotional,ethical, and logical to revitalize the need to evaluate what children read. Ethos is the Greek word for character, it describes how valid and trustworthy an author conveys his message through the ethical appeal. This appeal is a measure tied to an author’s credibility and the impression readers formed while evaluating their literary work. First, Brott himself is a renowned author, radio host, blogger, and news columnist having written over eight bestseller books and guides through all the stages of fatherhood. Second, he has also been a guest on dozens of television and radio shows such as CBS Overnight ,Today, and Politically Incorrect. Final and foremost, Brott