Five Myths About Multiracial People in the U.S.

Five Myths About Multiracial People in the U.S. When Barack Obama set his sights on the presidency, newspapers suddenly began devoting a lot more ink to the multiracial identity. Media outlets from Time Magazine and the New York Times to the British-based Guardian and BBC News pondered the significance of Obama’s mixed heritage. His mother was a white Kansan and his father a black Kenyan. Mixed-race people continue to make news headlines, thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau’s finding that the country’s multiracial population is exploding. But just because mixed-race people are in the spotlight doesn’t mean that the myths about them have vanished. What are the most common misconceptions about multiracial identity? This list both names and dispels them. Multiracial People Are Novelties What’s the fastest-growing group of young people? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the answer is multiracial youths. Today, the United States includes more than 4.2 million children identified as multiracial. That’s a jump of nearly 50 percent since the 2000 census. And among the total U.S. population, the number of people identifying as multiracial spiked by 32 percent, or 9 million. In the face of such groundbreaking statistics, it’s easy to conclude that multiracial people are a new phenomenon now rapidly growing in rank. The truth is, however, that multiracial people have been a part of the country’s fabric for centuries. Consider anthropologist Audrey Smedley’s finding that the first child of mixed Afro-European ancestry was born in the U.S. eons ago- way back in 1620. There’s also the fact that historical figures from Crispus Attucks to Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable to Frederick Douglass were all mixed-race. A major reason why it appears that the multiracial population has soared is that for years and years, Americans weren’t allowed to identify as more than one race on federal documents such as the census. Specifically, any American with a fraction of African ancestry was deemed black due to the â€Å"one-drop rule.† This rule proved particularly beneficial to slave owners, who routinely fathered children with slave women. Their mixed-race offspring would be considered black, not white, which served to increase the highly profitable slave population. The year 2000 marked the first time in ages that multiracial individuals could identify as such on the census. By that point in time, though, much of the multiracial population had grown accustomed to identifying as just one race. So, it’s uncertain if the number of multiracials is actually soaring or if ten years after they were first permitted to identify as mixed-race, Americans are finally acknowledging their diverse ancestry. Only Brainwashed Multiracials Identify as Black A year after President Obama identified himself as solely black on the 2010 census, he’s still garnering criticism. Most recently, Los Angeles Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez wrote that when Obama marked only black on the census form, â€Å"he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads.† Rodriguez added that historically Americans haven’t publicly acknowledged their multiracial heritage due to social pressures, taboos against miscegenation and the one-drop rule. But there’s no evidence that Obama identified as he did on the census for any of those reasons. In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, Obama remarks that the mixed people he’s encountered who insist on the multiracial label concern him because they often seem to make a concerted effort to distance themselves from other blacks. Other mixed-race people such as the author Danzy Senna or the artist Adrian Piper say that they choose to identify as black because of their political ideologies, which include standing in solidarity with the largely oppressed African-American community. Piper writes in her essay â€Å"Passing for White, Passing for Black†: â€Å"What joins me to other blacks†¦is not a set of shared physical characteristics, for there is none that all blacks share. Rather, it is the shared experience of being visually or cognitively identified as black by a white racist society, and the punitive and damaging effects of that identification.† People Who Identify as â€Å"Mixed† Are Sellouts Before Tiger Woods became a tabloid fixture, thanks to a string of infidelities with a slew of blondes, the most controversy he sparked involved his racial identity. In 1997, during an appearance on â€Å"The Oprah Winfrey Show,† Woods declared that he did not view himself as black but as â€Å"Cablinasian.† The term Woods coined to describe himself stands for each of the ethnic groups that make up his racial heritage- Caucasian, black, Indian (as in Native American) and Asian. After Woods made this declaration, members of the black community were livid. Colin Powell, for one, weighed in on the controversy by remarking, â€Å"In America, which I love from the depths of my heart and soul, when you look like me, you’re black.† After his â€Å"Cablinasian† remark, Woods was largely seen as a race-traitor, or at the very least, someone aiming to distance himself from blackness. The fact that none of Woods’ long line of mistresses was a woman of color only added to this perception. But many who identify as mixed-race don’t do so to reject their heritage. On the contrary, Laura Wood, a biracial student at the University of Maryland told the New York Times: â€Å"I think it’s really important to acknowledge who you are and everything that makes you that. If someone tries to call me black, I say, ‘yes - and white.’ People have the right not to acknowledge everything, but don’t do it because society tells you that you can’t.† Mixed People Are Raceless In the popular discourse, multiracial people are oft characterized as if they’re raceless. For example, the headlines of news articles about President Obama’s mixed-race heritage often ask, â€Å"Is Obama Biracial or Black?† It’s as if some people believe that the different racial groups in one’s heritage cancel each other out like positive and negative figures in a math equation. The question shouldnt be whether Obamas black or biracial. He’s both- black and white. Explained the black-Jewish writer Rebecca Walker: â€Å"Of course Obama is black. And he’s not black, too. He’s white, and he’s not white, too. ... He’s a lot of things, and neither of them necessarily exclude the other.† Race-Mixing Will End Racism Some people are positively thrilled that the number of mixed-race Americans appears to be soaring. These individuals even have the idealistic notion that race-mixing will lead to bigotry’s end. But these people ignore the obvious: ethnic groups in the U.S. have been mixing for centuries, yet racism hasn’t vanished. Racism even remains a factor in a country such as Brazil, where a wide swath of the population identifies as mixed-race. There, discrimination based on skin color, hair texture, and facial features is endemic- with the most European-looking Brazilians emerging as the country’s most privileged. This goes to show that miscegenation isn’t the cure for racism. Instead, racism will only be remedied when an ideological shift occurs in which people aren’t valued based on what they look like but on what they have to offer as human beings.

Free Essays on Glacial Erosion

Describe and explain the location and variety of features of glacial erosion? (20 marks) Glacial erosion has a massive impact on the landscape and can take thousands of metres off the landscape. There are a number of ways that the landscape can be eroded that form a number of varied features. These features are formed in different areas depending on the feature, as features can only be formed in certain areas. The first landform that I’m going to discuss is a corrie. These are an armchair-shaped basin with a steep back wall and a rock basin. They are formed by a number of processes, nivation is considered to be one of the main initiators of corries. This happens when snow accumulates in hollows and freeze-thaw action beneath the snow causes the underlying rocks to disintegrate, any debris is carried out by summer meltwater streams. The snow patch would grow and the layers would become compressed to form ice. After this plucking is responsible for the steepening of the back wall and rotational movement enables abrasion for the deepening of the corrie basin. Corries locate up the side of mountains and have a very clear dominant orientation. The majority of corries will face north (in the northern hemisphere) this is because this side of the mountain will receive the least insolation so glacial processes will be very active e.g. freeze-thaw weathering. Other factors also have an affec t on the location of corries as corries can still face south but they have to locate further up the mountain to form as it will not be cold enough for glacial processes to take place lower down the mountain side. Corries do not often face towards the sea either as, although still cold they get the warmer winds so were not as likely to have a corrie forming. Corries are also likely to from at higher altitudes as it will be colder. Another feature of glacial erosion is an arà ªte this is formed from a two adjacent corries back walls eroding towards e... Free Essays on Glacial Erosion Free Essays on Glacial Erosion Describe and explain the location and variety of features of glacial erosion? (20 marks) Glacial erosion has a massive impact on the landscape and can take thousands of metres off the landscape. There are a number of ways that the landscape can be eroded that form a number of varied features. These features are formed in different areas depending on the feature, as features can only be formed in certain areas. The first landform that I’m going to discuss is a corrie. These are an armchair-shaped basin with a steep back wall and a rock basin. They are formed by a number of processes, nivation is considered to be one of the main initiators of corries. This happens when snow accumulates in hollows and freeze-thaw action beneath the snow causes the underlying rocks to disintegrate, any debris is carried out by summer meltwater streams. The snow patch would grow and the layers would become compressed to form ice. After this plucking is responsible for the steepening of the back wall and rotational movement enables abrasion for the deepening of the corrie basin. Corries locate up the side of mountains and have a very clear dominant orientation. The majority of corries will face north (in the northern hemisphere) this is because this side of the mountain will receive the least insolation so glacial processes will be very active e.g. freeze-thaw weathering. Other factors also have an affec t on the location of corries as corries can still face south but they have to locate further up the mountain to form as it will not be cold enough for glacial processes to take place lower down the mountain side. Corries do not often face towards the sea either as, although still cold they get the warmer winds so were not as likely to have a corrie forming. Corries are also likely to from at higher altitudes as it will be colder. Another feature of glacial erosion is an arà ªte this is formed from a two adjacent corries back walls eroding towards e...

Wal-Mart v. Dukes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wal-Mart v. Dukes - Research Paper Example The case passed through the district court, ninth Circuit, ninth Circuit en banc and finally to the US Supreme Court in which the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the ninth Circuit en banc on numerous grounds which attracts vehement support on my part. 1. Arguments in favor of the Supreme Court decision There are numerous reasons for the correctness of the decision of the Supreme Court, which may be found on the judgment itself as passed by the Supreme Court, and summed up as follows: I) There must be a common mode of exercising discretion which should be present throughout the company and the respondents in this case were unable to show it. It was unbelievable to conclude by the justices that all the managers would exercise discretion in a common way without any common direction. (Wal Mart 15-16). II) The statistical evidence which was provided by the respondents was insufficient to prove their theory on a class wide basis even if it is taken that they were correct prima facie (Wal Mart 16). III) As per Rule 23(a) (2), it was to find out whether even a single common question existed between the class in order to determine commonality for a class action and found by the court that as the respondents could not provide any convincing evidence to show that a companywide discriminatory and promotion policy existed, the existence of any common question is not established (Wal Mart 19). IV) The respondents also provided anecdotal evidence in support. Respondents submitted about 120 affidavits, which is equivalent to 1 for every 12,500 members in this case. Half of the reports are concentrated only on six states and half of all the States have only one or two cases of sexual discrimination. 14 States have no anecdotes. Even if all the accounts are taken to be true it does not show that the whole company operates under a common policy of discrimination (Wal Mart 18). V) If the plea for monetary relief of the respondent under Rule 23 (b)(2) Civil Procedure is take n into consideration ,it was not correct as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2) is for injunctive or declaratory relief and not for monetary relief (Wal Mart 20). VI) Commonality requires more than an alleged common violation of the same law (Hyman). The mere claim that they have suffered a Title VII injury won’t be enough to give rise to class action; they must have some common contention in addition (Wal Mart 9). As such the respondent’s action under Rule 23 was not proper. 2) Impact of the decision on future cases Despite the legal accuracy and justification of the Supreme Court decision the decision may have some bad impact so far future cases on the same issue are concerned. The impact may be summed up as follows: I) The court’s decision of reversing the case can harm the enforcement of civil rights and employment discrimination laws. The Supreme Court’s decision of decertifying the Dukes class action may make it hard for other plaintiffs to bri ng class actions depending on the court’s reasoning (Wal Mart v. Dukes 10). II) The fact is that in the instant case the Supreme did not rule on merits of the plaintiffs claims and this may be the reason that Wal Mart may face thousands of individual or multiple-plaintiff lawsuits alleging that a particular manager had discriminated against women (Murray 2). III) It will be difficult for the plaintiffs to obtain class certification in all cases. After the decision on this case, it

Density Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Density - Lab Report Example Moreover, the density of water commonly known as 1.00 g/cm3 or 1.00 g/ml is found empirically to be 0.998 g/ml whereas the density of copper which in theory is approximately 8.94 g/ml turns out 8.5 g/ml in the lab. The apparent slight differences between the actual and theoretical figures may be accounted for by error through inaccurate reading of measurements with the device or tool used. Another source of error (other than human fault) may be attributed to unnoticed defect in apparatus or measuring scale which has not been properly calibrated. Density of solid or liquid materials is an intensive property of matter that is why it does not depend on the quantity of material in reference to being mass per unit volume. Because in class we study significant figures and dimensional analysis which involves units of length, mass, volume, as well as their equivalent conversions in other units, the lab establishes relevance as we work in it to experience and learn how to deal with measurements in real life. We have been able to understand that the method of finding density may be carried out by the task of acquiring measures of mass and volume of a substance which can also be made useful in scientific analysis of other

The ways to reduce crime in the worlds most violent cities Essay Example for Free

The ways to reduce crime in the worlds most violent cities Essay Crime has long been considered to be a serious issue of many countries, both developed and developing, in the contemporary society. In particular, the crime rate increases annually in degree in some sectors worldwide. In this speech, I would like to show my concern about the causes of the problem and the solutions to it. There are subjective as well as objective factors that lead to the escalation of this adverse circumstance. The first and also the principal cause of this problem is poverty, or we can say, economic deprivation. People are often driven to great lengths of desperation by poverty and this is a major cause of crime all around the world. The fact that such frustration is created is in itself a very dangerous thing for society on the whole as global inflation has risen significantly over the last few years. It does seem that in our world today, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That is to say, these destitute people do not have enough money to buy food and other necessities. Thus, their last resort to maintain their lives is to rob or steal, which leads to crime. More to the point, violence from mainstream media can also contribute substantially to the increase of crime. There are many films and plays containing violent or sensitive contents, which have a profound influence on the viewers. Some people want to emulate the heroes, as they see them, in the movies without knowing that the behaviour in reality can be seen as illegal in the eyes of the law. Teenagers are especially prone to this kind of factor without the supervision of older adults. There are also many social issues bringing about this unfavorable circumstance. Overpopulation, racism, regionalism, family conditions, and often political power are some factors that lay the foundation of serious crimes. Besides, there are other subjective factors. In other words, the reason for his crime-committing is partially not from the pressure of the society or social illnesses as mentioned above, and really difficult to control. Illustriously, mental disorders are a major cause of crime of this type. Other than depression, people with grave mental disorders also end up committing crimes. Such people should be treated before their tendencies and ailments get out of hand. A person with depression or some other serious mental disorder can also easily cause harm to themselves. Moreover, we have drugs, which are a bane [a cause of trouble], no matter how we look at them. A person addicted to drugs is unable to support their addiction and more often than not they end up in a life of crime to fuel their habits. It is not unknown anywhere in the world that a drug addict ends up committing crimes to raise money for their habits. Besides that, there are also a large number of people that are involved in the drug trade. Though these people may not really be drug-users themselves, they often lure others into drugs and crimes. So, what should we, people in the society, do to help tackle such a problem? Government, I’d like to say, need to come up with some policy that helps narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Television and film rating system need to be strictly implemented. Parents should thoroughly supervise their children, so as not for them to be stuck into drug-relating problems, and make their children lead the most fulfilled life as possible .

Low Birthweight Piglets Essay -- Food, Pork Industry

Introduction Low birth weight piglets have high mortality and poor growth postnatally. The pork industry has strategies to increase the piglets’ birth weight. Maternal growth hormone treatment with developmental timing and dose difference increased fetal growth in pigs [1-4]. As GH cannot cross the placenta [5], the increase in fetal growth must due to changes in maternal metabolism and/or placental development and function. Placental weight was increased with maternal GH treatment [4]. However, none of the above studies has demonstrated the effect of maternal GH treatment on placental structural development and function in pigs; therefore, this is the gap that will be addressed in this study. Birth Weight Determinants of fetal growth and birth weight in pigs Birth weight is influenced by several factors during pregnancy, such as parity, maternal nutrition, uterine capacity and litter size. Pigs have two parity groups, sows and gilts. Sows are pigs which have given birth at least 3 times before, and gilts, are pigs that had never been pregnant. The low birth weight of the progeny from gilts might be due to first pregnancy. As gilts are growing when they pregnant, so mother and fetus were competing for limited nitrogenous substrates to meet their needs, and leads to low birth weight in fetus *gatford 2009 & Schoknecht 1993. Piglets from dam which has restriction in food intake or specific nutrients during gestation have reduced in birth weight. The progeny of gilts fed with protein-deficient diet (0.5% protein) in early (d 1 to d44) or late (d 82 to term) during gestation have lower birth weight compared to the control (with 13% protein in diet); whereas protein deficient diet throughout pregnancy caused the progeny weigh... ...reased maternal lean meat percentage *rehfeldt 2001. The backfat depth of pGH treated dams in *gatford 2010 was lower than the controls at farrowing and weaning *. This suggested that GH treatment can stimulate lean growth and inhibiting adipose tissue growth in pigs. The gestation length of sows, but not gilts was being shortened by long term GH treatment. Maternal GH treatment would also affect the concentration of maternal circulating metabolites and hormones. There was an increased in amino acids nitrogen and decreased in free fatty acids in maternal circulation by a 2 or 4 mg GH dose treatments from d 25 to d 51(gatford, 2000). Maternal plasma urea concentration was decreased by 28% by GH treatment with a dose ~15ug/kg from days 25 to 50 *gatford 2009. There was a similar finding in another study with maternal GH treatment in underfed gilts *gatford 2000.

Cool Running’s – American Dream

Englisch – Leistungskurs Do you think that â€Å"Cool Running’s† is an example of the idea of the American Dream? Give reasons for your answer! The film â€Å"Cool Running’s† can be regarded as a perfect example of the idea of the American Dream in many ways. When a group of Jamaican athletes founds a bobsled team, on an island, offering neither snow nor any sleds they could practice on, a former bobsled coach finds himself ready to train the team, in order to win the Winter Olympics.Regarding their commitment to obtain their goals, they struggle through everything standing in their way, such as not being supported by their own families, and even being ridiculed by the opponent teams, and the media. The first desperately looking team becomes a well-trained bobsled crew, showing off their skills and now even competing in the Winter Olympics. Their goal to win the Olympics only becomes of second importance, when their coach reveals his past referring to the scandal he is responsible for, by cheating during the past Olympics, followed by him saying: â€Å"If you're not enough without a medal, you'll never be enough with one. During the final day’s race one of the sled’s blades falls off, flipping the sled on its side, when only a few meters are separating the team from the finishing line. However, they lift the sled proudly and walk across the finishing line, while the crowd around them is applauding cheerfully. It seems like society almost forgot the meaning of the American Dream, by putting prosperity on a level with happiness. Many people forget how some can even find happiness without wealth or economic success, but in their personal fulfillment, which in this case was to take part in the Winter Olympics and represent their country.