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Roger Nieberger

Professor Fiona Harris-Ramsby

ENGL-1050-401

29 April 2017

Diversity Issues Reflection Essay

Throughout this semester, we have been studying about many different types of

diversity issues. We have read about race issues, ethnicity issues, class issues, and gender

issues. The one issue that has affected me the most is the ethnicity diversity issue. Many people

confuse ethnicity for race. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ethnic is of or

relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal,

religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or backgroun d. As you can see here, ethnicity

isnt just racial. Ethnicity diversity has been a prevalent issue in the world as of late, especially

in the United States. I think that discrimination based on ethnicity will always happen no matter

how well intentioned people may be. I dont think that it is right, but I dont see it going away

any time soon, at least not in my lifetime. Discrimination, or othering as it is referred to in this

classroom, has been around for centuries.

Lets look at the Native American, and what has happened to that ethnicity over the

past few centuries. They were in America long before European settlers came to America, and

the Native American seemed to be doing just fine living off of this great land of America. Then

European settlers came to America and took over the land. The settlers thought they were

superior to the Native American. Then after the settlers took over the lands the Native

Americans were accustomed to living on, the settlers allowed the Native American to stay on
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reservations to preserve their way of life. This is the way the settlers viewed it anyways. If you

want to know what really happened during this time period, you have to do some real digging

into the history of the Native American because the white man has distorted the true history

of the Native American. Just look at what Ronald Reagan said about the condition of the Native

Americans at a Moscow University in 1988 which was quoted in a Time magazine.

They from the beginning announced that they wanted to maintain their way of life. . . .

And we set up these reservations so they could, and have a Bureau of Indian Affairs to

help take care of them. . . . Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should not have

humored them in wanting to stay in that kind of primitive lifestyle. Maybe we should

have said, No, come join us. . . . Youd be surprised. Some of them became very

wealthy, because some of those reservations were overlaying great pools of oil. And so I

dont know what their complaint might be. (453)

Boy, talk about turning history upside down and inside out. I know for a fact that if the white

man knew of the oil under these reservations at the time of creating these reservations, then

these lands would not have been given to the Native American for a reservation. They would

have been given another piece of land instead. If you want to see what really happened to the

Native American you should view the visual essay that Warren Neidich has on the website

http://americanhistoryreinvented.com/ahr4.html (456). These images show the true history of

what happened to the Native American. This is ethnic othering all the way.

A more recent encounter of ethnic othering is President Trump banning people from

the Middle East from being let into this country. I think this is wrong to generalize everyone

from the Middle East as possibly having ties to terrorist groups. Most of the Middle Easterners
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that I have associated with over the years have been very friendly people. I had an employee

that I hired that was from Egypt, and he was one of the most loyal, hardworking individuals that

I had working for me at the time. This was back when the first Gulf War happened, and I will

never forget a conversation that he and I had the day that war started. He said I hope this war

doesnt ruin this country for my people. I told him not to worry because this country is a

melting pot, so people of all countries are accepted into America. Look at us now.

What is happening today reminds me of my research of Angel Island and reading of Ellis

Island in week 2. While researching about Angel Island, I found a website that stated Ellis

Island seemed to be built with the intent of letting immigrants into this country, and Angel

Island seemed to be built to keep immigrants out of this country. While Angel Island was known

as the Ellis Island of the West, it was called by its staff the Guardian of the Western Gate. The

facility was built to keep Chinese and other Asian immigrants out of this country (United

States Immigration Station (USIS) << Angel Island Conservancy). Mary Gordon offers some

insight to Ellis Island when she states The minute I set foot upon the island I could feel all that

it stood for: insecurity, obedience, anxiety, dehumanization, the terrified and careful deference

of the displaced (432). This doesnt sound like a very welcoming place to me. Now President

Trump wants to treat Middle Easterners like the Chinese were treated at Angel Island.

President Trump wants to keep Middle Easterners out of the United States much like the

Chinese were kept out of the United States at Angel Island. I understand that President Trump

is trying to keep America safe, but there has to be a better way to solve our immigration

problems other than banning a certain ethnicity from coming into the country. This seems to be
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ludicrous to me, considering all the technology available to us today for background checks and

so forth. This seems very discriminatory to me and narrow minded.

Another narrow minded, discriminatory thing that happened on April 11, 2011 was

when France banned women from wearing burqas in public. ABC News stated France became

the first country in Europe to ban wearing the burqas in public, subjecting women to substantial

fines and education programs for breaking the new law (544). I didnt know about this issue

until we read about it in this class. I dont understand Frances law on the burqa. France already

had a law banning head scarves which is a law that does make sense to me because these cover

the face which makes it difficult to have facial recognition software working in the event of

something going wrong in a public place. A burqa just covers the body which doesnt interfere

with facial recognition software. I really dont understand this law.

Gloria Anzalda was ethnically othered by Pan American University because she was

Chicano with an accent. In our textbook she stated, At Pan American University, I and all

Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our

accents (522). It seems to me like Pan American University was trying to change Gloria into

somebody else, and cause her to lose her heritage in some ways. This makes me recall our

week 4 discussion when I found out that one of our own classmates was ethnically othered by

his neighbor.

Rafael Granado stated in our week 4 discussion, I have a neighbor that when he sees

me I speak English to him but he says I dont speak Spanish. I recently told him Im speaking

English to you so we can talk. Some people dont want to understand others. This is a classic

example of ethnic othering. Just because Rafael looks different from his neighbor, his
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neighbor has already determined in his mind that he will not be able to communicate with

Rafael. I apologize, Rafael, for your neighbor being so ignorant about diversity. This just goes to

show you how othering happens today.

One of the biggest discriminatory acts that I have witnessed in my life based on ethnicity

was in the fall and winter of 2001. I was working for Pepsi Bottling Group at the time, and I was

a Pepsi delivery driver for the town in which I live. This was the route that I was assigned, and I

liked it because I was delivering to fellow community citizens. There was a Texaco gas

station/convenience store that I delivered to that was on Main Street. It was a family run

business, and the family was very nice. They were kind and very easy to deliver my products to.

The family was from the Middle East, and after 9/11 happened, this business began having all

kinds of trouble. The store kept getting vandalized at night after it was closed. The windows in

the store were being broken. The building itself was being tagged with spray paint, and very

nasty, demeaning words were being used in these tagging instances. I felt so sorry for this

family that was just trying to live the American Dream. They were very nice people, but

eventually the taggers won. This family sold the business and moved away from my town.

This business has since gone completely out of business. To this day, my town doesnt have a

Texaco gas station in it. This made me very angry because this family had no ties to the 9/11

incident other than they were from the Middle East. I watched this family go from being a

happy family living their dream, to being a terrified family that eventually feared for their lives,

so they sold everything and left town. When the owner of this store told me that he was selling

the business and his house because of the hate in the town, I felt awful. Here was a man that

had worked so hard for this opportunity in life, and now it was going away because of a few
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idiots in my town. To this day, I think about that family and wonder how they are doing now? I

often wonder if there was anything that I could have done to maybe change the outcome of

this story.

As you can see from this reflection of ethnicity diversity, there is room for improvement.

I know that ethnic diversity has its challenges because of the different points of views that

different cultures have on things, but if everyone just tries to understand one another then

differences can make the world a better place. This English class has brought to light the many

different types of othering that happen in society today. I am appreciative for the insights this

class has brought out for me about diversity issues. I think former President Barack Obama said

it best about the United States when he said, This union may never be perfect, but generation

after generation has shown that it can always be perfected (482). This statement gives me

hope in this nation, and the world for that matter, will continually strive for inclusion of all.
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Works Cited

Anzalda, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading

and Writing 8th ed. Diana George and John Trimbur. New Jersey: Pearson, 2012. 521-528

Print.

"Ethnic." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.

George, Diana and John Trimbur. Banning Burqas and Headscarves in France. George and

Trimbur. 544-547 Print.

Gordon, Mary. More than Just a Shrine: Paying Homage to the Ghosts of Ellis Island. George

and Trimbur. 431-435 Print.

Neidich, Warren. Contra Curtis: Early American Cover-Ups. George and Trimbur. 456-459

Print.

Obama, Barack. A More Perfect Union. George and Trimbur. 476-483 Print.

Phillips, Christopher. Necessary Fictions: Warren Neidichs Early American Cover-Ups. George

and Trimbur. 453-456 Print.

United States Immigration Station (USIS). Angel Island Conservancy United States Immigration

Station USIS Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.