Cultural diversity - Coursework Example

Cultural diversity Cultural diversity Cultural diversity Humanity has the same biological make up yet differs in their motivations, beliefs and customs. This is because each person has its own group in the society where he learns his way of living. The variation in social life brought about discrimination and prejudice not only in ethnicity, race, and religion but also to sexuality, political orientation, mental illness and alcoholism. Although being lesbian and gay is accepted in the contemporary society, prejudice in sexuality remains widespread.

Gay and lesbians are stereotyped in the society because they believe that their behavior could lead to sexual exploitations even if there is no solid evidence to support the claim. To societies with a strong catholic religious faith, having relationship with the same sex is morally wrong. Other concern of prejudice in sexuality includes diverse customs when it comes to women. While most marriages give high regard to sexual exclusiveness, there are other groups in the society who do the opposite.

Eskimo men in Northwest Greenland are known to lend their wife for a night to a friend as a sign of hospitality (Broom et al, 7th edition). This is a norm for them which is considered as strange to others. To someone who is brought up in a culture where wife is not supposed to sleep with another man may consider this norm as unthinkable. Political orientation could also be a source of prejudice and discrimination. In the United States, democrats are known to go with an affirmative action. When Republicans are blocked in attaining their goal, they resort to scapegoat blaming the democrats for it rather than looking at other factors like individual actions or structural factors.

Republicans are stereotyped as a group contributing less to the success of the country. In other countries, people who have the political orientation are stereotyped as powerful, moneyed, and famous. It is an indication of social class. Despite modern medicine and education of people, mental illness continues to create prejudice and discrimination too. Mentally ill people are being looked upon as dangerous and aggressive thus they are being feared and frowned instead of understanding them. This feeling enforces distance between the mentally ill and those who are not.

Mentally ill individuals are stereotyped as a public nuisance, violent and to be avoided. With this, mentally ill people are locked up not only in a poorly conditioned place but from society as well. This holds true with alcoholism where the society looks at alcoholics as deviant and have weak personality. The meaning of prejudice is shared, learned and developed at a young age within the group you belong. Childhood socialization allows us to acquire attitude and behavior appropriate for our society and at the same time we internalize other social norms.

Prejudice may then increase or decrease negative attitude towards racial, ethnic, and religious groups through interaction, imitation and observation of the behavior of our parents, friends, influence of media, and travel. As we grow and re-socialize, we develop social self and live up to the expectation of the generalized others (Taylor et al, 1987). Thus, the development our prejudice depends on whether the group we belong reinforces our early learning. Differences in groups are characterized with the norms each group has.

Each group has their own structures, size and leadership style which differs from the others. On reflection, my primary group has a close family ties as a result of being sentimental and sympathetic. To remain as an accepted part of the group, the member has to be loyal to it even if it means you sacrifice self autonomy, independence and self reliance. Over all, group offers the experience of enjoyment and pressures on their members as well as provides the fundamental social ideals. References BroomL.

, Selznick, P., Darrock, D., ( 7th edition). Sociology. Harper & Row publishing Inc. New York. Taylor, M., et al. (1981. Introduction to sociology. MacMillan publishing Company. New York.