Ethnic Segregation and Its Effects in America Assignment

Ethnic Segregation and Its Effects in America - Assignment Example From the American mapping, New York leads among the most segregated large cities with a great degree of racial diversity which intensifies the high rate of ethic segregation in the city. Ethnic segregation in the US is mainly seen in the residential settings. Research shows that the whites are populated in one area while the backs, Asians and Latino have their own separate residential sites. The whites are mainly found clustered together with few other races in their midst. Birth weight segregation similarly has high degree regarding the segregation as it separates the Asians, blacks, whites and Latino from each other. Many places are known by the originality of the persons. Racial diversity impacts negatively on the American residents. Research shows that the African American residents have problems in accessing good quality jobs or even lack them in the long run. Researches shows that the spatial segregation of blacks from the whites led to segregated modes of employments and hence race based employment which leads to varied economic status and thus high poverty rates among the blacks as compared to the whites. Ethnic segregation similarly leads to health segregation. Research shows that the blacks are prone to very poor health conditions as perceived from the birth results. The discriminated persons similarly have limited access to the health facilities which diminishes their health conditions.

A Comparison of Francis Bacon and Carolus Linnaeus' View of Nature and Essay

A Comparison of Francis Bacon and Carolus Linnaeus' View of Nature and Humanity's Relationship to It - Essay Example This frequency is enough to reflect and substantiate the view of nature as instruments. Instrumentation purposes vary from burial to horticulture, medicinal or treatment purposes, harnessing of raw materials, et cetera. The same view was described by Linnaeus; â€Å"when we follow the series of created things, and consider how providentially one is made for the sake of another, the matter comes to this, that all things are made for the sake of man† (3). While Bacon recognized nature as an instrument to human needs, Linnaeus furthered this by pointing out how every aspect of nature was designed to be made useful for humans. Nature as Local. Interestingly, Bacon implicated that nature’s instrumentation was largely determined by location. While burial was done in the Lower Region, observatories were situated in the Upper Region. Thus, nature presents a limit by which instrumentation is permissible or not advisable, and this fact was respected by the people of Salomonâ€⠄¢s House. The same fact was implicated by Carolus Linnaeus in his The Economy of Nature. His recognition of the co-location of habitat and particular species of flora and fauna was expressed through his acknowledgement of the dissimilar patterns of seasons, as well as the variance in soil composition (Linnaeus 2). Moreover, Linnaeus explicitly expressed this: â€Å"How wise, how beautiful is the agreement between the plants of every country, and its inhabitants, and other circumstances!† (2). Nature as the Framework of Imitation. Bacon’s view suggested that the workings of nature served as the mold by which humans replicate certain processes for the desired output. This imitation was explicitly detailed: â€Å"We use them likewise for the imitation of natural mines...,† or â€Å"We have heats in imitation of the sun’s and heavenly bodies’ heats, that pass divers[e] inequalities...† (Bacon 3-5). Thus, it is safe to assume that early processe s that were said to be ‘invented’ by early humans were probably forms of mimicry out of the observable natural processes. Nature as Something to be Improved. The recognition of nature’s imperfection was prevalent; yet, this imperfection was viewed by Bacon only in the context of the human’s desired output. This was pronounced in the field of horticulture wherein the practice of grafting, inoculating, and growing de-seeded plants was common (Bacon 4). Moreover, the pursuit of understanding the effects of flora and fauna on humans, whether good or bad, was inherent in designed structures or enclosures (Bacon 4). The same view was perceived by Linneaus; he went on to explain that by virtue of human reasoning, humans are able to propagate aspects of nature (i.e., vegetables), and asserted that if nature was â€Å"left to herself, could scarcely effect† (3). Thus, Linnaeus, just like Bacon, saw human intervention as the necessary means to enable nature t o become fully or wholly purposeful. Nature as an Unending Cycle of Life and Death. Linnaeus depicted this cycle through the vegetable-to-mold and mold-to-vegetable analogy. His main point was that vegetation is comprised of the same composite -- the black mold; thus, he asserted, â€Å"So that the tallest tree is, properly speaking, nothing but mold wonderfully compounded with air and water...† (Linnaeus 3). Consequently, this view implicates how inevitable and normal death is. Moreover, death is viewed a necessity for a fresh beginning in the cycle of natural creation. Nature as Designed to be Biodiverse. The implications of nature’s biodiversity were successfully presented by Linnaeus. He proffered biodiversity as the solution in controlling the population of species, the

Gulf War Oil Spill of 1991 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gulf War Oil Spill of 1991 - Essay Example Whereas various economic costs are comparatively not that difficult to approximate, for instance the lost profits within the commercial fishing industry, however various costs like the lost aesthetic and ecological values are complex to quantify. The policies on oil spills decree that environmental renovation be carried out as reparation for the losses and damages. It is important to consider preliminary data in regard to the potential economic costs of the Gulf War oil spill, observing that the ecological destructions to wildlife and habitats are probably to be greater as compared to the market-based costs like the lost profits of both tourism and fishing. The Gulf War oil spill evokes the thought on economic valuation of risk. A careful though is given to the development o policies amidst oil spill risk and the relevance of standard risk analysis established as the right methodology for economic risk appraisal. This discussion has significant inferences for other disputes where disastrous risk is at issue, for instance nuclear power and global climate change. Economics postulates that the efficient prices for both goods and services ought to reflect all social benefits and costs but not merely the market interaction of demand and supply. Apparently the economic impact of the spill was a negative inclination due to the losses that were incurred in the process. Very many oil spills occur yearly within the marine surroundings. The degree of these spills is comparatively minor, not exceeding 100 gallons, and has insignificant damages to the economy. Larger oil spills such as the Gulf War oil spill of 1991, result in significant destruction to both the environment and economy. The Gulf War oil spill adversely impacted on aquatic plants and organisms, including fish (Saenger, 1994), thus significantly leading to a fall in fish supply and a corresponding decline in revenue. Further, polluted beaches were increasingly unattractive

African-American culture Essay Example for Free

African-American culture Essay â€Å"Everyday Use† by Alice Walker centers in the story between a Mother and her children with conflicting ideas on cultural and ancestral preservation (Mohr). The mother who was described in the story as an uneducated, â€Å"big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands who lived in a rural locality depicted a typical black woman during the 1950s-1960s. The story opens as she waited for her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, as they arrived home from the city studying in a university. Upon their arrival at home, they had a quarrel over the possession of an heirloom quilt. The piece illustrates several levels of meaning. There were various symbolism employed by the writer. The possession of the â€Å"quilt† which the whole story revolved around symbolizes the traditional history and the art of the African-American culture, and to their woman to be specific. Their traditional art gives emphasis on abstract designs as shown by the quilt (Mohr). Moreover, it beautifully creates a transition where something as unimportant and as invaluable as a quilt contained a rich and valued importance such as a cultural representation as the story unfolded. The use of Mrs. Johnson as the point of view in this story has a vital role in how the author contrasted the love for culture as opposed to Mrs. Johnson’s daughter Dee’s who showed less worth towards their Black heritage. Her description as a mother symbolizes the general older generation of the African-American culture while on the other hand her daughters who were then educated in college was a representation of the current (new breed) generation. The dispute over the quilt reflects the two sides of the Black societies. Because of the hidden meanings in the story, there will be several ways one can use in order to explain and interpret the story. The mother experienced a lot of confusions and at the same time the incident revealed to her, her daughters’ contradictory understanding towards their lineage. She described her daughter Maggie like a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car†, that is, she recognized her daughter as unsophisticated but loyal (like a dog), as opposed to Dee who see saw as â€Å"burned us with a lot of knowledge†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . This description mirrored Dee’s central role in the story which is a representation of the materialistic and complicated modern Black who was caught in the confusing web between acknowledging her culture and the â€Å"fitting in trend† that was prevalent after the Black Power Movement (Ogbar). Even with the contrasted description, Mrs. Johnson decided to give the quilt to Maggie; she thus confirmed and affirmed her younger daughter’s idea of self-worth and at the same time revealed her own concept through Maggie’s personality. Another important highlight in the story is the similarity between the names of Dee and to that of their Grandmother Dee and this ultimately set the comparison between Dee and her grandmother. The similarity in the name suggests that they came from the same race but the obvious distinction in their characters showed the degree of the influence of the white’s culture to Dee and the preservation efforts by Grandmother Dee as exemplified by doing traditional quilting. The story â€Å"Everyday Use† is a reflection of the author’s early life. Alice Walker who was involved in the efforts of cultural preservation used literature as a device to convey her position and opinion as a Black African American in their turbulent period of struggle for equality. This short story took place in a setting almost the same as the place where she grew up in Georgia. More striking parallelism is on the character of Maggie Johnson, like Maggie, Alice Walker is also disfigured due to a gunshot wound. On the other hand, her similarities with Dee are reflected in their exemplary intelligence which both gained them scholarships in universities. As observed in this story, Alive Walker blatantly expressed her views and judgments towards this racial discrimination and this story was as effective as it is since this is reflective of her life, therefore the feelings associated with it has deep connection to her. Art, for example writing, as I stressed in the introduction is one of the effective vessel that carries your thoughts when you don’t want to deliberately express an unaccepted idea and also, it is a helpful tool for conveying a strong message at the same time entertaining.

Superheros and Engendering Differences :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being able to fly, to defeat all the villains of the world, and having supernatural power are just some of the supernatural characteristics of a superhero. However, these characteristics are the personification of what society would indicate to be the perfect man; or, depending on what superhero, a woman. I grew up admiring and idolizing Superman. From wearing his underwear to owning every one of his videos, I yearned to become Superman. This, however, was obviously impossible. Superman can fly, create a laser beam from his eyes, and he can lift the heaviest of objects. Thus, not being a totally clueless kid, it was the ideals of being a man, that superman possessed, that I tried to copy: having incredible strength, being flagrantly courageous, and being heroic. This, through my admiration of Superman, is what I thought a man should be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some would say that aggressive male behavior is innate; however, it also has to do with the glamorously powerful superheroes that act as role models to males as they are growing up. Superman?s incredible strength has led him to victory over even the biggest and strongest of enemies. Watching him, I thought I could prove my strength by defeating other kids. This did not mean that I went and tried to beat everyone up. Instead, I tried to be better than others at everything. I would try to hang on the monkey bars the longest, be the person who got picked first for any sport, and wrestle anyone to submission. Although my behavior sometimes got to aggressive, and got me in trouble, it always seemed to make me feel like more of a man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Superhero?s also possessed that perfect body that went along with being powerful. They would have perfect biceps, gigantic pecks, and six-pack abs. Although body image is more of an issue with teenagers and adult, this does have an effect on kids. The role models, that kids are introduced to, almost always have a perfect body. Superman, undoubtedly, had a perfect male body: lots of muscle and no fat. In fact, I cannot remember a superhero, male or female, that did not have a perfect body when I was a kid. It is from these images that teach kids, from the beginning, that being fat and weak is ugly. This translated into the ?ugly? kids being made fun of. I, too, fell into the trap of mocking others, who were not perfect, when I was a kid.

The Final Game :: Personal Narrative Volleyball Essays

The Final Game It was November 1st and it was the day of my last volleyball game. I ran into my friend Eri and we started talking about the game later that day. It was against Tunkhannock. They were the best volleyball team from our area, and wouldn’t you know it on our senior night we had to play against them. Senior night was the one night where the seniors were recognized, whether they were good or not. The whole day the team was joking about how much we would lose by against our rival team. In a game to fifteen we thought we would end up owing them points. â€Å"Hey, Eri, are you excited about the game tonight?† I asked. â€Å"Well, I’m more sad than anything,† she replied. â€Å"I’m going to miss all of the freshman that we taught how to play.† â€Å"I know, but don’t you think that it’s going to be a funny game tonight?† â€Å"Oh yeah! We’re going to get killed,† she added. â€Å"Don’t you think it was wrong for them to schedule our senior night with that game?† â€Å"Yeah, I do think it was a little unfair,† I replied. â€Å"But at least we know we are going to get killed and don’t really have to worry about it.† Everyone knew that this game was going to be impossible to win, so we all sort of shrugged it off. The last practice before this game consisted of reminiscing more than drills. Even our coach knew we were going to get killed, but for some reason everyone had in the back of their minds ‘what if†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ â€Å"Don’t you think it would be funny if we actually did win this game?† I asked. â€Å"What? Are you nuts! They haven’t lost a game yet,† Jen replied. â€Å"No, seriously. Don’t you think that they are thinking the same thing we are?† I added. â€Å"That they could win, no problem. And maybe their coach will put in the not so good people for that reason? â€Å"Dana, they don’t have any ‘not so good’ people on their team,† Jen said while giggling. â€Å"I don’t know. I think that we could give them a run for their money.† â€Å"Finally it was seventh period and school was almost over. I could feel the butterflies growing in my stomach. It was 2:35, five more minutes to go and I was counting down until I could run to the gym to start practicing for the big game.

African American art

NNamdi Collection of African- American Art is composed of musical art, literary works and other artistic works that expressed African American ideas for freedom. To speak of African American evoked many negative ideas during the human rights activism against slavery. Such ideas as post colonialism, transnational, ethnicity, race and racism, Black Nationalism and many other terms emerged during this period. According to Tololyan, 1996, the African Diaspora, as African Americans were referred to, became the paradigmatic case towards the end of the 20th century.The continued experience of the racial experience became crucial in the emergence of transnational identities of the African Americans due to their background as sons and daughters of slaves. The emergence of music as an art of expressing grievances by the African Americans in the 20th century has a relationship with the emergence of African American sensibilities. An essay, Travelling Music and musicians, the author explores the globalization of African Americans plights using music with special; focus on the exchange between African America, Europe, and the Black combined in the opposition to racial subjugation.The racial tribulations faced by the blacks brought the idea of unified black musical ethos. This consequently brought the forging of collective identity through opposition to common enemy. This brought out the ease with which the complexities of the African Americans dissolved into a binary opposition between Blacks and whites. According to Faye Harrison (1998: 617), the construct has become nearly impossible to uproot, even though currently there is an increasing multicolored and multicultural society where racial barriers are continuously sealed with interracial marriage. The contest is still on the whiteness or blackness of an individual.Faye continue to state that the unending structural quality of racism with its set of economic political, ideological as well as color hierarchies continuously places blacks at the bottom of the ladder and this consequently is the cause of ultimate contest that reinforces the tendency of binarism. Claims of ‘Africanness’ as idealized and articulated through music is more or less similar to the nationalists’ assertions of an opposite political valence in the 20th century (Potter 1998). According to Pamela Potter, German sense of superiority in music was principally used to uphold the racial superiority ideologies.According to her study, she revealed that claims of music’s attachments to the collective attachments to people’s characters ca never be separated from the political and historical use to which such claims are upheld. African America’s literature is celebrated musically, spiritually, and emotionally as a sign of remembrance to the past role of art in the common struggle against social in justice. It is also important to remember that German National Socialists in the early 20th century too claimed to be musical people, considering their passionate depth and spiritual transcendence through the work of art (Potter 1998: 200-234).Potter clarifies that this should not be used to suggest that African Americans assertions of the centrality of the music can be equated to those of National Socialists, but should be used to underscore the importance of placing the spiritual and emotional dimensions in the context of solid historical as well as social practice. This article therefore links music, cultural identities, historical and political forces, and globalized economies in the 20th century with crucial and larger projects of analyzing the African American musical sensibilities.This rejects the idea of static African American essence of favoring more continuous redefined and negotiated sense of culture that springs up from generation to generation in response larger majority white race. Black Atlantic- Paul Gilroy (1993) In his book, critical Atlantic, Paul Gilroy is critica l of the debate on the African American cultural studies and arguing for the centrality of the music for the construction and maintenance of the interethnic identities.Gilroy’s arguments centers on the multiplicity of the cultural flow between the African Americans, Caribbean, Britons, and North Americans. In his work, ships were chosen because of their symbolic middle age passage to invoke and provide his visual image for the transatlantic interaction. However, his continued work dwells in music is significant in making his point. He identifies three principles that regard relationship between race and culture. These three principle positions are: ethnic absolutism, anti-essentialism, and anti-antiessentialism.In his description of positions of black music, he believes that the music is divided between those who see the music as a source of political charge towards enhancing the blackness identity and those who would dispute the existence of such a unifying factor in any pol itical environment. According to his views, anti-essentialism is a social constructionist and ideological view of race that is often ‘insufficiently alive to the lingering power of specifically racialised forms of power and subordination’ (Gilroy 1998: 32).Gilroy expresses his displeasure by describing it as tantamount to forsaking the mass of black people in the societal system of governance. He elaborates his ideology by stating that he takes an exception to the idea that racial identity is simply an ideological effect. For Gilroy, even though he is against the idea of essentialism, race is not an imagined community, something that can be deconstructed so as to neutralize the importance of black homology.The ability of music to link several expressive styles like language, dance and clothing as well as presenting idealized ethical and social sensibilities is central in the symbolic presentation of African American settings. In understanding the spiritual and ethical a spect of the Jazz performance, the combination requires several combination of voice, the ability to play with multiple musical parameters during performance and well as understanding the cultural foundation of the music. This gives the ethical goal of the music that it eventually makes sense such that a particular group of people can identify with.Gilroy argues that this deep sense of belonging is not an escape but deep involvement of the art of music for the African Americans. This provides means of cultural integration with coping strategies for racism. In his book, ‘’Communities Style’’, Veit Erlmann analyses the song ‘The Lion Sleep Tonight’. This song was done by South African Zulu migrant workers lead by Solomon Linda and was recorded at various diasporic locations. Here Erlmann is specifically interested in the way this music was altered as it was revived and re interpreted by a succession of groups like the Weavers in 1952 and the Tok ens in 1961.These two groups were all American groups. Other versions came from the collaborations between Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Mint Juleps in 1990. On all these versions of the song, at stake here was the construction of the African American identity through music. Erlmann described this as ‘Endotropic performance’ to emphasize the interracial construction of identity through similar styles. These forms of identities have emerged under this increasingly globalized social life. He describes this scenario as strange because a persons understanding of him or herself in the social world is no longer coinciding with the widely dispersed locations.Jerome Harris n his essay, ‘Jazz on the Global Stage’ , Jerome Harris provides an insiders analysis of the globalization of Jazz, based on his professional involvement for more than twenty years as a guitarist and bassist on a research he together with promoters, editors, journalists, other musicians and man agers. He calls his work‘Ecology of jazz’. This is a web of interrelations between art makers, art users and mediators. Harris provides a very rich portrait of jazz in terms of performance and reception, especially in Europe (Bob Thompson, 1962:221). More importantly is his approach to jazz music as a tool of identity and aesthetic.He asks two main questions, who owns jazz? And what is the appropriate aesthetic for the jazz music. He tries to delineate the tension between African Americans sense of ownership of the music and the increasing participation of the non African Americans both as musicians and consumers. According to his views, he suggests that the reason why many African Americans have believed that they own the origin and aesthetic value of jazz is because of the collective loss of identity that was threatening to dismantle the cohesive black communities in the post-civil rights era.This belief wa also held by many non-African Americans. In his views, Harris identifies two basic principle of coping with the dilemmas of who owns jazz. He chooses the classic dichotomies of tradition/innovation and mainstream/avant-garde. Both sides of his debate is respecting tradition and putting emphases on innovation. While other artists work tend to ward off the outside influence on the jazz music, some emphasizes the importance of accepting the necessary changes that may come with globalization of jazz music as a sign of identity by a particular group of people in their own way (Charles W, 1945: 33).At the end, Harris concludes that the globalization and the hybridization of jazz music pose a painful experience of identity as well as cultural ownership for African Americans. At the same time, he sees it as offering new interesting possibilities when players interact with the rest of the world’s music. Conclusion From the three works of art discussed above on the music as a sign of identity, it is clear that both artists agree that music has b een the defining link for cultural identities.In some of the African Americans views on the ownership and identity of the music, it has been grossly affected by the modernization and the globalization of the world where the different aspects of arts have been diluted. This is the conflict between tradition and modernity which has been said to be dominating the debates. In Europe the, the visual art seems to dominate the tribal art category where the sculpture was used to express the feelings of particular social response in the art scene (Alma Thomas et al 1973: 123)These arts explore the popular feelings of the people and to some extent the other group of people does not understand the con text of the grievances when responding to such complains. This was the dilemma of the music as an art in the early years of social uprising in the American society. Here western critics mostly devoted most of their attention to their culture and ways of thinking giving little attention to the exp ressions of these arts. The American cultural studies has shown emergence of arguments about the centrality of the music for the construction and maintenance of the interethnic identities.Such arguments centers on the multiplicity of the cultural flow between the African Americans, Caribbean, Britons, and North Americans. In most of this art work, ships were chosen due to their symbolic middle age passage to invoke and provide the visual image for the transatlantic interaction. However, most of the works of different artists continued to dwell in passing the message of discomfort. This identifies different principles that regard and guide relationship between different races and culture. BibliographyTololyan S, 1996: The African Diaspora-An African American perspective, Chicago, Chicago University Press Gilroy P, 1998: critical Atlantic-Movement of art, Martin Puryear, Lever Veit Erlmann, 1993: Communities Style, an art of expression, New York, Captive printers Faye Harrison, 1998: The slum Gardens, Gift of the Sandra and Charles Gilman, Jr. Foundation in memory of Dorothea L. Leonhard Alma Thomas et al, 1973: Red Rose Cantata, Denver, Colorado, acrylic on canvas Charles W, 1945: Mother and Awaiting His Return, New York, Gift of Jacob Kainen