Communicative Competence: Upper Intermediate II

Ms Iris Roa

Argumentative Essay:

Excuse me, is it Multiculturalism or Multiple chances of
discrimination?









Section: 1
Students: Albornoz, M. Timothy.
Herrera, C. Isidora






Concepcin, Wednesday 10th, 2014

Excuse me, is it Multiculturalism or Multiple chances of discrimination?

Multiculturalism, according to the Cambridge Dictionary is the belief that different
cultures within a society should all be given importance. However, beliefs could be
misconstrued by the diverse ways of thinking or the different periods of time in which
certain societies were living in. Nowadays, even though multiculturalism is mostly
worldwide accepted, there are still some communities or cultures that have not agreed
to the idea of living within somebody different to them. Over this essay, it will be
presented different factors in which multiculturalism may not be accepted by people in
particular societies such as important historical factors, racism, and economy.

During the First and Second World War, several communities in Europe as a
consequence of the devastation had to leave their hometowns and set in a new place.
During the course of these incidents and due to the belic conflicts previously
mentioned, the United States became the main focus of immigrants who were looking
for a safer and economically efficient place to reconstruct their lives. Nevertheless, the
huge amount of people from several countries and ethnicities, such as Italy, Ireland,
Israel (Jewish) to name but few, caused a collective discomfort of United States
citizens. Hence, many people manifested this feeling not only with discrimination and
disdain, but also with the creation of stereotypes and prejudices towards the ethnicity
that a person might belong to. As a consequence, an institutional racism was installed
by the authorities in order to break the massive migrations from Europe, and even for
Afroamerican people who were actually born in the USA. For instance, wealth became
the main agent that showed how big was the gap between white and black people.

Moreover, racism has been one the issues that caused more troubles over the history
of the world, especially in the United States. Before the 1960s Black people were seen
as slaves that were owned by White people, violence, mistreatment and malnutrition,
were features of Black peoples lives under slavery. In addition, Jim Crow created the
separate but equal law which basically consisted of separating everything that was
public (schools, transportation, places) for White American from African American
citizens. Even though, segregation and slavery are totally abolished and the current
president of The United States is an Afro American person, discrimination and racism
against this people still exist nowadays. There is still racism over the society in the
United States, is not the same as it was some centuries ago, but there are still
organizations against black people, for example, the most radical xenophobic
organization that still exist: the Ku Klux Klan. This organization reported the crudest
crimes against Afro Americans; they would burn them crucified or tied them to trees
just for fun and for the sake of God, some of the things that were qualified as the most
perverse, depraved and obnoxious activities that a normal human could have ever
participated in.

As a consequence of multiculturalism, people who looked for opportunities in other
countries with a better economic situation might take natives labor chances. Therefore,
not only USA is the main example of multiculturalism, but also other countries and
continents are becoming the new home for many people. Thus, if we take a look to our
situation here in Chile, we can find that this phenomenon is occurring, and people are
acting in such the same way as North Americans. People from Per, Bolivia, Colombia
and other South American countries, have found a stable economy and a suitable
place to live with their families and raise their children in our country. However, it can
be seen in Internet and heard in the streets, many citizens from Chile telling our
neighbours that they are occupying their jobs, using their pieces of land, and even
degrading the country. In a certain way, it is true that foreigners may have the chance
to work and earn money for their families, but these compatriots who say and act in a
rude way against immigrants have never thought about the people who were actually
born in Chile but now they live and work abroad. Beside this, it seems to us that in
Chile there is not multicultural education and that creates this set of prejudices
amongst people; however, it could be because of the fact that we, as a country, are just
starting to become a multicultural one.

In conclusion, even though many people think that Multiculturalism is a tool for the
globalization in order to expand the boundaries; there are still people against this
position and argue about the inefficiency of having foreigners contributing on the
development of their country. Therefore, most of the people that are against
multiculturality seem not to realize that multiculturalism is a process throughout the
history that has had an impact in different ways, like the acceptation with society as it
occurred with the United States citizens or immigrants as one of the collateral effects
of the First and Second World War. Finally, we think education should be highly related
to multiculturalism, this tool will serve as the main cure for peoples misconceptions and
prejudices among the acceptance of other cultures living within their born places.