...1954, the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Reactions to the decision were varied and touched a range of emotions among nearly all citizens of the United States. For some, Brown was heralded as the triumph over legal barriers to better educational opportunities for racial/ethnic and minority students. Yet, for others, it endangered a way of life that in the eyes of some, ensured “separate but equal” under Plessy vs. Ferguson (1898). Whatever the perspective, Brown meant a departure from past rules and values. It meant change. Problem In “Public Education in the Twentieth Century and Beyond: High Hopes, Broken Promises, and an Uncertain Future,” Nieto (2005) outlines key legislation over the past seventy-five years in U.S. education that has aided in leveling the educational outcomes for minority students. After the ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), policies aimed at providing equal opportunities to racial/ ethnic and minority groups began to emerge. As such, changes in population in terms of race, ethnicity, social class, and other differences helped to form the educational experiences of all students in U.S. public schools along with how we view, design, and implement educational policy. This, according to Nieto (2005) has laid the groundwork for thwarted attempts to live up to Horace Mann’s ideal of education as the “great equalizer.” What is interesting to...
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...A diverse student body enhances medical education by teaching students cultural competency. Moreover, building cultural competency from the start of medical training is key to preparing medical professionals to successfully serve multicultural communities. Immersing myself in an educational environment rich with diversity at the University of Colorado School of Medicine will be an invaluable experience for my peers and I to learn from our differing perspectives on disease and health. Equally important, growing up in a working class household will allow me to contribute to the diversity of the student body. Coping with financial struggles as I was growing up was difficult, however, working since early adolescence has shaped my career goals and...
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...justice system. Potential Solution or Strategy One potential solution to address the disproportionate representation and inequities faced by minority populations within the criminal justice system is the implementation of community-based diversion programs. These programs aim to divert individuals from traditional criminal justice processing and towards community-based interventions and support services. Community-based diversion programs can help mitigate racial disparities within the criminal justice system by providing alternatives to incarceration that are more equitable and responsive to the needs of minority populations. By promoting fairness and reducing the reliance on punitive measures, these programs contribute to a more just and inclusive criminal justice...
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...helping professionals. I reviewed several articles where the main theme is; we live in a world of systems that allow for injustice and oppression. The Professional Counselor’s work deals with many of the symptoms that permit for this injustice and oppression. The articles had similar recurring traits that are stressed as important practices that need to be adopted by Professionals in the helping field to increase awareness of social justice and implement actions for change in a socially unjust society. I will explain the four main attributes: knowledge, awareness, research and advocacy and explain how education and focus in each area will contribute to the social justice inequities in the communities we practice. If professional counselors want to promote social justice, to be effective, there has to be a movement to take action on the burdensome stigmatisms and unfortunate inequities that human beings bring to professionals about the communities they live in. Social justice and the counseling profession have roots that goes back to the 1900’s. It has always been understood from a social work point of view that problems such as depression, anxiety, and abuse often derive from economic and environmental issues. In order to help a client over come their issues it is necessary to address the policies and services available to them in the community they live in. Over the years, the professional counselors focus switched gears from counseling...
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...The assumption of innocence, due process of law, double jeopardy, mass incarceration, inequity and gun law disparities to name a few are constantly at odds with current affairs. The U.S. Constitution shapes the U.S. Criminal Justice System with rights and due process for all citizens. The US Criminal Justice System is currently faced with challenges of prison overcrowding, mental health, drug offenses, inequity and gun violence. American society keeps asking for changes to be made to each part of the system. Changes and the...
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...and start conversations that spark change. Since childhood, I have been known for being opinionated and unapologetically unafraid to ask tough questions. My commitment to intellectual exploration is a genuine belief in the power of discourse. I can authentically engage in conversations about disability advocacy because I am part of the community. Challenging harmful stereotypes, language, and systems has taught me the importance of education and disability rights legislation. Despite the initial resistance that can often accompany the pursuit of what is right, I have learned that growth happens in discomfort. My decision to pursue law school stems from my curiosity and commitment to change. I seek a community that values dissent and views discourse as a tool for progress. The legal profession challenges assumptions to help create a more equitable society. My academic and personal pursuits have consistently involved thought-provoking conversations and advocating for equity and...
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...National HIV/AIDS Strategy and Implementation Plan, there is still much work to be done. This brief highlights underexplored explanations for these disparities and outlines possible solutions to begin addressing them. Oftentimes, popular culture has offered unfortunately erroneous explanations for the stark racial disparate impact of HIV/ AIDS. The mass media, for example, has suggested that black men “on the down low” infect black women by secretly sleeping with male partners, acting as a bisexual “bridge” between gay and straight communities. But public health scholars have found little support for this theory. Many may assume that black people suffer from greater HIV prevalence because they are considered less sexually responsible than whites. Yet several studies have shown that black women and black men who have sex with men—the two groups most severely impacted by HIV/AIDS—have similar numbers of sexual partners and use condoms as often as their white counterparts. Thus, behavioral risk factors, while important, cannot fully explain the racial disparity. Instead, the racial HIV gap and the racial health gap in general, is strongly correlated with the racial wealth gap, which in turn is the direct outcome of both historical and contemporary processes of segregation in housing, education, employment, and health care as well as racially skewed mass incarceration. In this way,...
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...Unlearning Deficit Ideology and the Scornful Gaze: Thoughts on Authenticating the Class Discourse in Education Paul C. Gorski Founder, EdChange Assistant Professor, Integrative Studies George Mason University http://www.EdChange.org gorski@EdChange.org December 2010 Unlearning Deficit Ideology and the Scornful Gaze 2 It is popular in the education milieu today to talk about the dangers of assuming a deficit perspective, approaching students based upon our perceptions of their weaknesses rather than their strengths. Such a perspective deteriorates expectations for students and weakens educators’ abilities to recognize giftedness in its various forms (Ford & Grantham, 2003). The most devastating brand of this sort of deficit thinking emerges when we mistake difference—particularly difference from ourselves— for deficit. If one concentrates best while sitting still it may be difficult to imagine that somebody else—a student or colleague, perhaps—concentrates more effectively while pacing or tapping a pencil. Similarly, if one always has lived among people who speak a certain language variation, such as what people commonly refer to as “standard English,” she or he might mistake somebody’s use of a different variation, such as the Appalachian variety spoken by my grandmother, as an indication of intellectual inferiority or, worse, deviance (Collins, 1988). Over the past ten or so years a critical discourse challenging the deficit perspective has emerged among educators....
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...classification of education, and profession according to the expectation and esteem placed on them within our social hierarchy. Racial and socioeconomic disparities have been a prominent feature within American society and this divide growing larger and more apparent further exacerbates the lasting issue of poverty within communities of color. Standard forms of systemic discrimination have been phased out from our society on an economic level, but some continue to persist, such as white home buyer’s mortgage being denied only 10.4% of times while Blacks (27.6%) and Hispanic (21.9%) home buyers’ mortgages being denied disproportionately more and white men with a criminal record had more positive responses than black men with no criminal record, according to the Arizona State University study on the effects of a criminal record on prospects for employment and CNN and Zillow’s 2013 federal data analysis of information from mortgage lenders. Although race isn’t a large determinant of one’s chances in life, it still continues to effect economic and social policy, in turn continuing to have a lasting effect on...
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...Question 7: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Gender And Development (GAD) approach for oppressed communities in the Caribbean? Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance within ones country. With a mouthful said, I can now turn my attention to the matter at hand. One could ask what is gender and development? The fact is, there is no true meaning for this, however theorist have pieced together that, the Gender and Development (GAD) approach is a way of determining how best to structure development projects and programs based on analysis of gender relationships, in other words it focuses on the socially constructed basis of difference between men and women, economic, political and cultural forces that determine how men and women participate in, benefit from, and control project resources and activities differently and it also places a great emphasis on the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations. This approach shifts the focus from women as a group to the socially determined relations between women and men. With the birth of this approach it is constantly being compared with the WID, they both have perspectives that are theoretically distinct; although in practice it is less clear, with a program possibly involving elements of both. It was developed in the 1980s as an alternative to the Women in Development (WID)...
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...Socioeconomic Status and Health Disparity in America Over the years, researchers have uncovered a strong link between socioeconomic status and one’s risk for being affected by healthy disparities (Ethnic, 2015).When examining the relationship between socioeconomic status and health, evidence shows those with the lowest income and education are the unhealthiest, while most advantaged individuals are the healthiest (Braveman, et al, 2009). It is possible through continued research and broadened knowledge surrounding different cultures and biological factors, we may be able to close certain gaps that exist today and reduce the risk for healthy disparity in America. There are many factors that are used today to measure diversity in socioeconomic status. For example, the relationships between demographics, income, and health help us understand what elevates risk for disparity. Some of the demographic factors include: race and ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, special health care needs, and geographic location (Disparities, 2015). While some groups are impacted greater than others, it is important to acknowledge that these inequities are affecting our society as a whole and should be a priority of concern for all (Ethnic, 2015). When considering how a higher income could produce a healthier future, we see that wealthier people have greater accessibility to key resources. Someone with a high income is more likely to have sufficient health coverage and live in a safe neighborhood...
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...discrimination of people in the workplace and how to mitigate it. This includes being stared at, insensitive jokes, and utilizing defamatory stereotypes when addressing or referring to employees and/or coworkers. Further, the author expands on how to apply the Confronting Prejudiced Responses (CPR) Model within organizations. Problem or Management Dilemma Primarily, this article visits micro-aggressions and micro-inequities. The perception of discrimination is skewed when viewed by traditionally non-discriminated against groups as they tend to view it as harmless humor. This view belittles the importance of the situation of the offended person and further alienates the person being mistreated. The view that how they feel is somehow wrong or unjust is a prime driver for lack of litigation against offenders. Purpose for the Research The purpose of this article is to “argue that under many circumstances confrontation provides both targets and nontargets a way to communicate that discrimination is not acceptable, thereby promoting an inclusive climate in their organization” (Ashburn-Nardo, Morris, Goodwin, 2008, pg 2, para 1). Review of everyday, unrecognized prejudice is done to bring these overlooked areas of discrimination to the fore. The confrontation model is utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of addressing these types of issues directly. Literature Review Lee, J. (2012). The Effects of Leadership Behavior on Workplace Harassment, Employee Outcomes, and Organizational...
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...Addressing Hidden Discrimination in Public Policies. Racial inequalities from the past continue to live on in several public policies today, often concealing hidden agendas that maintain segregation and economic inequality, especially against African Americans. Kevin Kruse’s “Traffic” and Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” offer important perspectives on how. Historically, seemingly beneficial laws have excluded African Americans, and increased segregation and economic disparity. Kruse reveals how creating the US interstate highway system, to expand economic growth, disrupted black communities and restricted their access to better jobs, healthcare, and education. Furthermore, Alexander’s...
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...The Healthcare Plight of the Hispanic Population in the United States Joanne Cortez Grand Canyon University March 13, 2016 The Healthcare Plight of the Hispanic Population in the United States Disparities in healthcare for Hispanic communities in the United States remains an alarming trend. Social and political inequities bare much of the responsibility of this humanitarian and economic crisis of healthcare. The burden of poverty, prejudice, racial discrimination, immigration status, language barrier, and lack of education are not easily solved and will continue until greater understanding of the complexities of Hispanic communities are better understood. With greater knowledge of the diverseness of this group and the application of social programs and awareness driven by stakeholders and Hispanic consumers of health, will divides be bridged and progress towards a healthier population be realized. This discussion will shed light on the rise of the Hispanic population and the continued barriers to equitable healthcare fostered by social and political disparities. This document will also outline an up and coming group with a potential for political leverage and a brighter future enabling future generations of Hispanics access to all levels of primary, secondary and tertiary care. Population and health status of Hispanics The Pew Research Center compiled findings from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 American...
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...Health Inquiry, Global Health Inequities Introduction: The Millennium Development Goals (or MDG) are a set of 8 goals set by the world’s nations in hope of reducing poverty by 2015. These 8 goals address poverty, education, equality, disease and the environment. Each goal has a targets and indicators we are aiming to achieve by 2015. The purpose of this report is to report on the history, objectives and constitution of the MDG’s and the success and effectiveness of the MDGs. History of MDGs: In the 1990’s the United Nation (UN) member states went through a historically extraordinary UN press conference process. This conference was aimed at building consensus on development priorities for the 21st century. However, at the end of the 1990’s the governments of the conference experienced conference fatigue and feared the process launched by the conferences was losing steam. In September 2000 in New York there was a large gathering of world leaders called the Millennium Summit. This was the largest gathering of world leaders in history including 189 UN member-states. At the Millennium Summit the United Nation Millennium Declaration was adopted as a result of a series of global conferences held during the 1990’s. The UN saw the Millennium Summit as an opportunity to bring back the development of priorities for the 21st century. It was at this Millennium Summit that the Millennium Declaration set in motion a global partnership and was signed by 147 heads of states....
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