Tolerance or Revival of Old Hatreds - Research Paper Example

? Ethnic Minorities: Tolerance or Revival of Old Hatreds al Affiliation: Ethnic Minorities: Tolerance or Revival of Old Hatreds Introduction In every large society there are ethnic minorities whose origin, life style, culture and language differ from that of the majority group. The United States is a nation with diversity both ethnically and racially. The issue of ethnic minorities has continued to be a trend in American society. African Americans have been directly exposed to ethnic segregation in all areas. For instance they are the only minority ethnic group which ethnically owns their residential neighborhood. Ethnic minorities in North America tend to be segregated to the inner cities which are less desirable while the middle and the upper class live in small urban cities which appear to be homogenous. The elite minorities in Latin American cities were found in one area of the city where they were highly populated. According to Essed (1996) in history most cases and most writings, the issue of ethnic minority involves the aspect of tolerance and revival of old hatreds ethnic minority in relation to the state-religion domination. Minority Groups and Tolerance in European Countries According to Wirth (1945), a minority group is a collection of individuals who owing to their cultural or physical characteristics are singled out from the rest of the community or society in which they live and are treated unequally or differently thereby becoming items of collective discrimination. Minority may be based on race or ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, age or disability. For quite a long time, dominant groups in Europe and the United States of America have discriminated against the minority. The issue of hatred and tension between majority and minority groups exists practically to-date in European countries. In fact, there is almost no chance that in the recent future minorities will seize to exist in the countries. The constitution has been a stable ground upon which segregation has been dealt with. Similarly, organizations such as the European Union have quite been successful in dealing with the tensions that arise between the majorities and minorities in respect of their specific policies against minority discrimination. In the future, governments in consideration of the achievements of such policies will need to adopt similar measures. In many countries, minority-majority differences have resulted in violence and deaths. In France for example, the Jews which is a minority group constantly were massacred. In later years, the level of tolerance to the Jews in France increased slightly with close to 100, 000 of the Jews being expelled from the country instead of being killed by the Frenchmen and French women (Sahin-Dikmen and Marsh, 2003). Alternatively, they were forced to live in areas that were highly segregated with poor living conditions. The manner in which French nationals treated its minorities led to the inducement of resentment in the local minorities against the majority group. Germany is once country that has grappled greatly with the resentment of the majority group against the minorities if the Nazi racial policy is to go by. In fact, the Nazi Nuremberg laws in Germany are known to be one of the worst of policies against minorities for its explicitness in this respect (Sahin-Dikmen and Marsh, 2003). Similar to many European countries, Germany has, from the 1950s, accepted immigrants to reside and work in the country to fulfill its need for labor. However, many of these people experience a lot of hatred and discrimination from many of the Germans. The minority groups have also had to respond in similar ways, sometimes ganging up to attack native Germans. In a bid to counter this hatred, the German government is advocating for people’s integration and tolerance to one another. Since its independence, America has experienced periods of racial prejudice as well as ethnic minorities. Ethnicity in America and Europe in general has historically been viewed in a different way from how it is commonly known. This is due to the fact that there have been various ethnic, national as well as different linguistic groups in America from various countries. Ethnic minorities in the US began to be experienced back in the twentieth century when ethnic groups were said to be subjected to prejudice and actions of the state and its constituents. According to the view of most of the citizens, the state should not acknowledge ethnic, racial or even national identities but should just enforce its legal and political issues to all individuals. There are four ethnic minorities in the US that is the blacks, Mexican Americans, American Indians and Chinese Americans. In the history of ethnic minorities in America and Europe as a whole, there were two forms of prejudice against them which are evidently recognized. One of them is legal prejudice which is based on citizenship qualifications, education and job opportunities. The other form of prejudice is personal prejudice based on individual relations with the neighborhood and the situation of the community at large. Compared to the historical context of ethnic biases in United States today there are fewer obstacles to both social participation and equality biases. Ethnic majorities in United States have historically enjoyed better privileges and freedom compared to minorities from other countries. For most of the twentieth century the population of the minority group was majorly composed of African American. It also represented large part of the total population of the United States. Within the first half of the twentieth century ethnic minority population remained at around thirteen percent. However the non-Hispanic white population steadily grew due to the high birth rates experienced immigration of citizens from Europe thus keeping the minority share almost the same. Within the last half of the twentieth century the population of ethnic minority more than tripled due to immigration of non-Europeans and high birth rate accompanied by high growth rate. Al these can be attributed to tolerance as opposed to revival of old hatreds. At the same time there was slow growth of white population particularly from 1970 as there was a fall in birth rate and immigration from Europe. Inter-ethnic relations were the representation of future stability obstacles. Despite the positive response to ethnic minorities the government continued to established political decisions which increased inter- ethnic revival of old Hatreds rather than tolerance (Zick, Pettigrew and Wagner, 2008). With the increase of their population the ethnic minorities became competent just like the majority which led to the latter becoming intolerant and defensive in order to protect themselves. For instance in the class room the ethnic minority students were accepted by the majority students if they placed themselves in a subordinate position which was a way of being tolerant. Ethnic minority tolerance was not seen as a threat as they were struggling to succeed but as they increased their status in the society things began to change hence revival of old hatreds. A research on ethnic minority has indicated that there has historically been a negative relationship between the ethnic minority students’ civic competence and the tolerance levels of the majority ethnic students (Zick, Pettigrew and Wagner, 2008). As a result a fifty percent rise in competence was equal to twenty percent decrease in tolerance (Zick, Pettigrew and Wagner, 2008). Among the three Europe nations, Germany, England and Sweden, ethnic minorities in Sweden had the highest levels of tolerance and German the lowest. England which produced the larger and the longer established minority Ethnic Population in the US among the three, its immigrants did not experience effects of tolerance. However, tolerance was boosted among the German and Sweden ethnic minorities. In the case of groups, ethnic minority tolerance was highest almost in all countries compared to tolerance of the immigrants. As a result the income of the country was largely related to community tolerance perception. Ethnic minorities’ future is prone to the revival of Old hatreds due to the subjective fears and hatreds of the majority. The revival of old hatreds is perceived to have been a threat to the nation’s peace as it is a cause of ethnic rivalries as well as cross border minority issues according to Shepherd (1998). It is the Ethnic Minorities’ rival of Old hatreds which led to state nationalism and led to war in the country in the twentieth century. During critical moments old hatreds and fears are often revived leading to more disgrace for the ethnic minorities hence intolerance. Therefore, the diminishing tolerance of the ethnic minorities can cause the revival of old hatreds and the reverse is true. Today, many European countries have a heterogeneous mix of persons with unique characteristics. Most evident is the presence of individuals who self- consciously identify with different nations (Sahin-Dikmen and Marsh, 2003). The history of tolerance toward minorities can be traced as far back as the late 1640s when the Ottoman Empire started recognizing religious minorities and offering protection to certain groups. This is evidenced by the signing of the 1648 Westphalia treaty. Following the post Cold War times in Europe, many European governments have seen it wise to institutes early measures to resolve tensions that come into being as a result of issues related to national self determination and state sovereignty. Ideally, a lot of measures have been taken by these governments in this respect including military interventions, ethnic partitioning, constitutional rights as well as ethnic power sharing. These interventions have however not been perfectly successful. In more recent times, the interventions of the European Union (EU), NATO and the United nations have seen greater tolerance between majority and minority groups with conflicting interests. Conclusion Minority groups such as the African Americans, Jews, Asians and Muslims living in the US and Europe previously were extremely mistreated in ancient times with some of them still holding grudges for the way they, their family members or ancestors were treated by the majorities. In fact they wonder if they should be tolerant or revive the old hatred they hold against the dominant groups. Some believe that for the sake of peace they should be tolerant whereas others seek revenge and want to revive the old hatreds. After the abolition of slavery in most European countries and in the US, the minority groups such as the blacks, Mexicans, Indians and Chinese still were very resentful of the whites who were the majority group. The groups, especially the African-Americans, were very bitter considering the way they had been mistreated and discriminated against. In response to these mistreatments they became resentful of the Europeans engaging them in demonstrations as they sought acceptance in society. However, the many of the demonstrations never led to peace but rather more deaths. A good number of both the whites and the minority lost their lives and the minority groups were still deprived of their culture, education, food and economic power. In spite of the constant demonstrations and fights, the two groups (minority and the majority) were unable to coexist peacefully. The discriminations continued until Martin Luther King and his likes stepped forward preaching the gospel of tolerance. Tolerance was seen as the only way that the tension between the minorities and majority populations could end. Most Americans argued that for ethnic minorities and the whites to live in peace with each other they had to be tolerant to one other. They had to respect and accept each other’s beliefs and practices. Through tolerance the tension between the minorities and the majorities in the United States reduced and as a result the minorities were allowed to attend the same education institutions as the whites. They also got employed in the industries and even held high positions in the government and the political arenas of the nation. Although some of the minorities and the majorities still hold hatred against each other, most of them have ignored what happened years ago and have embraced tolerance as a way of ensuring that peace exists in America. The historical context of Ethnic minorities cannot be fully attributed or associated particularly with either tolerance or revival of old hatreds. However the two are evident aspects in the subject of ethnic minorities. Both tolerance and revival of old hatreds have characterized ethnic minority at different periods through out history. References Essed, P. (1996). Diversity: gender, color, and culture. Massachusetts: Univ of Massachusetts Press. Sahin-Dikmen M. & Marsh A. (2003) Discrimination in Europe: for diversity against discrimination. European Commission. Shepherd, G. (1998). Popular politics: renewing democracy for a sustainable world. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Wirth Louis (1945). The Problem of Minority Groups. In Ralph Linton (ed.), The Science of Man in the World Crisis. New York: Columbia University Press. Zick A., Pettigrew T. and Wagner U. (2008) “Prejudice and Discrimination in Europe” Volume 64 of Journal of Social Issues Series. John Wiley & Sons. Read More