As we approach another presidential election in 2020, the United Sates continues to be a country who’s past causes racial division, inequality, and significant disparagement between the wealthy and the rest of the rest of the Nation. The recent shootings and murder of Black Americans by rogue police departments has sparked outrage and a social upheaval demanding accountability. The injustice and unfair treatment towards Black Americans by by certain police officers is not new. Unfortunately, these conditions have existed for many years and until recently failed to capture enough of the American people’s attention before the level of unity and concern reached its final boiling point.
In many areas of the United States people are taking to the streets both in peaceful and in some areas even violent upheaval over the continued erosion of our civil liberties. Yet our history as a Nation has offered many opportunities for us to learn from. The history of America includes some very dark and troubling times. Racism, discrimination, and exploitation of Black Americans can be traced back as far as Chattel Slavery and and pre-civil war America. Even after President Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation, Jim Crow laws in the South denied Black Americans their freedom.
And not so long ago Americans were yet again stripped of their freedoms in the name of National security.
Many Americans associate the term ‘concentration camps’ with the despicable crimes against humanity directed by Germany’s Adolf Hitler toward people of Jewish from 1933 to 1945. I also associate the term with my childhood and stories from my father, who was loaded on a bus along with my grandparents and his 8 younger siblings in the late spring of 1942. My father was born in California in 1923 making him a United States citizen. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii, all Japanese Americans on the West Coast were ordered into concentration camps. Executive order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt stripped my grandparents, my father, as well as his 8 siblings of all of their rights. The family farm and all belongings became property of the United States.
I grew up knowing that our civil liberties and freedoms should not and could not be taken for granted. American individualism embeds strong social and legal support for individuals rights. Americans value independence over conformity, part of the American low power-distance behavioral trait(Moran, Abramson & Moran, p.386-387). Many of the issues troubling our society and business today could be and should be avoided. The failed lessons from our history should be reminders and guides for us to use as navigation tools towards a unified America.
I watched and listened to media after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by radical extreme fundamentalist. As a United States Navy veteran I felt a strong sense of action and duty. Like many Americans I sought justice for the victims and their families. Yet, when discussions of rounding up all military fighting aged men of Middle Eastern decent were being discussed, I cringed at the very thought of America repeating such an unethical, heinous, mistake. The importance of learning from our past mistakes may have been a factor that ultimately led to the idea not being acted upon. Regardless of the reasons for the decision to not execute the ridiculous idea, the end decision was the correct one. This demonstrates the ability to learn from previous mistakes.
During these turbulent times in America I implore everyone to not make assumptions based on trends or current media sensationalism. The need for cultural education has never been more important to our future. The strength of America lies within our diversity.
Pennsylvania State University WC(2020). OLEAD-410:Leadership in a global context. Lesson 7[The Middle East:Focus on Saudi Arabia]. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697185
Miyakawa, E.T.(1946). Tule lake. House by the sea publishing,Victoria B.C.: Canada.
Moran, R.T., Ambramson, N.R., & Moran, S.V (2014). Managing cultural differences:Leadership skills and strategies for working in a global world. New York:Elsevier.
bpf5191 says
Excellent comments and feedback, I appreciate you taking time to read the post. I agree with your comments, I also thought of ethnocentrism, prejudice, and stereotypes. The level of ethnocentrism in America’s history is undeniably responsible for many of the social issues we still struggle with as a Nation. For example, the chattel slavery that fueled labor in the South eventually led to Civil war that ended up with a declaration of freedom for all slaves, yet “Jim Crow” laws in the South allowed discrimination, racial injustice, and exploitation of Black American’s who were technically freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Blacks, women, and non-land owning men were not allowed to vote or take part in the political process. There was no fair representation of these groups. Today the wage disparagement for women doing the same work as there male counterpart continues a century later in our history. As you mention, the prejudice that existed then is still woven through our societies fabric, prejudice- It means “a positive or negative prejudgement, usually based on faulty data – can lead us to create in- and out-groups, contributing to our feeling more negatively towards out-group members who become easy targets for our anger” (Gamble & Gamble, 2013, p. 240). Too many groups in America today continue to target their anger towards out-groups or anyone they perceive as different than themselves. For the first time in my lifetime there appears to be a strong enough wave of concern among a large diverse group of people that represent many different groups, that are coming together to address these troubling issues that have plagued our country for too many years.
ejm187 says
This post makes me think of interference, the things that get in the way of diversity, with three words in mind: ethnocentrism, prejudice, and stereotypes. It has become commonplace to hear people say – that’s not me, I don’t behave that way – but for many, that’s simply not true. What may be true is that they’re blind to it.
First consider ethnocentrism, “the tendency to see your culture as superior to and more natural than all others” (Gamble & Gamble, 2013, p. 390). Sadly, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of ethnocentrism in American history as white people thought it was appropriate to enslave Black people because of the color of their skin. Next, let’s look at the word prejudice. It means “a positive or negative prejudgement, usually based on faulty data – can lead us to create in- and out-groups, contributing to our feeling more negatively towards out-group members who become easy targets for our anger” (Gamble & Gamble, 2013, p. 240). This goes hand-in-hand with the wealth divide that we face, or the anger that emerges when groups (perceived as different) are protesting for their rights. Finally, stereotypes are the mental pictures that we carry with us, making assumptions before we allow ourselves to step back and actually see what’s in front of us (Gamble & Gamble, 2013). If, as one nation, we could all change our ethnocentrism, prejudices, and stereotypes, we might actually make it. We should not forget that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” (Little, 2019, para. 1).
I am truly sorry for injustices and losses that your family faced.
References:
Gamble, T. K., & Gamble M. W. (2013). Leading with communication: A practical approach to leadership communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Little, B. (2019). Why Lincoln’s ‘house divided’ speech was so important. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-house-divided-speech