Cultural diversity issues: racial and ethnic differences - Essay Example

? Diversity Paper In present day context, governments can be identified to be witnessing huge cultural diversity issues which are mostly identified in terms of racial and ethnic differences. For instance, in the US, while delivering public services to the community members such kind of issues are mostly identified. Based on this context, the objective of this paper is to identify the influence of racial and ethnic diversity on the development of public programs and services within the US. The findings obtained in this paper reveal that cultural diversity issues are quite common in the US public sectors, which fundamentally emphasizes delivering healthcare and educational services to the community members. Moreover, the findings obtained also depict that people who belong to different cultural backgrounds often obtain unequal healthcare and educational facilities from the US based public services organizations. However, in order to mitigate these diversity issues, the US government has been focused on the adaptation of various necessary initiatives and the development of certain programs so that equity can be preserved when delivering public services to the minority groups within its community. Introduction Being a multicultural society, the US, since the establishment of democracy, has always been focused on satisfying the developmental community needs and preferences. In the US demography, the Under-Represented Minority (URM) group comprises Mexican Americans, Native Americans and African Americans in the US socio-economic environment. With a similar concern, every year, several private as well as public awareness programs are conducted by the US government concentrating upon these URM groups in order to promote higher degree of attentiveness regarding the resources which are available within the society. It is in this context that the government of US renders strategic consideration towards the appropriateness of evaluating cultural diversity practiced within its public services sector in terms of healthcare facilities, educational services and domestic business environment with the sole motive to preserve the pre-determined economic values effectively (National Urban Fellows, 2013). Influence of racial and ethnic diversity on the development of public programs and services According to the US census report, for the year 2010, 36% of the residents in the US belonged to a minority group. It has been observed that the US demography comprises huge racial as well as ethnic diversity, which further creates a significant influence on the work cultures within the national business context as well as the educational facilities and healthcare services sectors within the nation. In relation to healthcare facilities, issues concerning cultural diversity have been observed in repeated instances where majority of the health organizations were found to lack in terms of their competencies to deliver superior services to the community members. This particular issue tends to become more serious in the future context, subjected to the efficiency of the governmental policy measures aimed to eradicate such occurrences and also owing to the continuously increasing population of the US, where majority of the members belong to different racial backgrounds (Community Catalyst, Inc., 2012). It is in connection with these aspects that the US government has been enacting various strategies to ensure that racial as well as ethnic diversity within the public sector is managed with equity. For instance, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) comprises several provisions that are unambiguously intended to decrease disparities within the healthcare sector along with being highly committed towards providing better healthcare services to the diverse population. According to the recent reports, in the US, low income group, particularly belonging to different racial backgrounds with insufficient knowledge about the native language have to face several barriers while obtaining quality healthcare services and other facilities rendered by public service organizations. Limitations in equal distribution of the healthcare facilities have further led towards a greater number of premature deaths, particularly within the population belonging to minority groups during the period of 2003 to 2006. However, the US Census Bureau anticipated that the US population will increase from 311 million to 439 million in the year 2050 where 54% of the entire population will belong to minority cultural backgrounds. The bureau further affirms that this can be only possible with the development of integrity and equality amid the healthcare services sector of the country along with the deliverance of other developmental needs to these groups (Community Catalyst, Inc., 2012; Joint Center, 2010). It is worth mentioning that the Association of American Medical College (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA) attempts to practice various initiatives in order to provide superior healthcare services as well as facilities to the people who belong to different racial backgrounds. The Federal Government of the US also aims at conducting various healthcare programs in order to improve facilities and deliver superior services to the diverse community. Contextually, with the help of Health Career Opportunity Program (HCOP), the government tends to facilitate superior treatment facilities to the URM groups and provide them with better educational as well as employment opportunities to facilitate growth (Health Resources and Services Administration, 2006). As can be observed from the context above, the influence of racial as well as ethnic diversity on the US public healthcare sector is quite strong, which has forced the government to adopt anti-discriminatory policies. However, such variances or rather influences are not only restricted to the healthcare sector of the US. For instance, racial as well as ethnic discrimination issues are also identified within the educational sector of the nation. In the year 2000, the US census data revealed that majority of the students in the education sector of the country belonged to different racial backgrounds. These groups have further been recorded to face several obstacles while obtaining the educational facilities. It is worth mentioning in this context that according to the US census data of 2000, the population of school age children and adolescents belonging to the age-group of 5-17 years comprise approximately 1% of Indian and Alaskan native students, 16% of non-Hispanic black students, 63% of non-Hispanic white students and 15% of Hispanic students (Terry & Irving, 2010). This particular ratio further depicts a presence of highly diversified culture within the US education sector. Figure: Projected School-age (5-17 years) Population in the United States by Race Source: (Terry & Irving, 2010) The US government has therefore suggested that this huge diversity may be increasing in the upcoming years within the educational services sector. In this similar context, Terry and Irving (2010) revealed that students belonging to minority cultural backgrounds have obtained poor educational services in comparison to other ethnic groups. Consequently, it is fundamentally due to inappropriate educational facilities that Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (CLD) among students has been increasing consistently since the past few years wherein the performance of minority students has become worse than the performances of other students. Hence, in its public services sector, focusing on the education facilities, the US government has been emphasizing practicing certain programs in order to encourage equality as well as sustainability. These programs primarily concentrate upon awareness generation and increment of cross-cultural interaction (Terry & Irving, 2010). Conclusion In the present phenomenon, the US government has to face various diversity related issues while delivering its public services to the community people. For instance, when delivering the healthcare services, minority groups are often revealed to obtain comparatively poor assistance from the healthcare professionals than that rendered to other cultural groups. A similar picture can also be viewed in relation to the educational sector of the nation. It has been fundamentally due to the influence of such issues and versatility in its demographic context that the US governmental bodies have been focusing upon introducing various public programs and services. Hence, it can be affirmed that a strong influence is created by the racial and ethnic diversity issues upon the publicly initiated programs and services within the US. References Community Catalyst, Inc. (2012). Promoting racial and ethnic health equity through exchanges. Retrieved from http://www.communitycatalyst.org/doc_store/publications/Health_Equity_through_Exchanges.pdf Health Resources and Services Administration. (2006). The rationale for diversity in the health professions: a review of the evidence. Retrieved from http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/diversityreviewevidence.pdf Joint Center. (2010). Patient protection and affordable care act of 2010. Retrieved from http://www.jointcenter.org/hpi/sites/all/files/PatientProtection_PREP_0.pdf National Urban Fellows. (2013). Diversity counts: racial and ethnic diversity among public service leadership. Retrieved from http://www.nuf.org/sites/default/files/Documents/NUF_diversitycounts_V2FINAL.pdf Terry, N. P., & Irving, M. A. (2010). Cultural and linguistic diversity: issues in education. Retrieved from http://www.kendallhunt.com/uploadedFiles/Kendall_Hunt/Content/Higher_Education/Uploads/Colarusso_CH04_5e.pdf Read More