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Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

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The jobless r<strong>at</strong>e is 15.7% among African Americans. Therefore, this problem could have a gre<strong>at</strong>er effect<br />

on them. Officials are concerned th<strong>at</strong> this practice could hamper the government‘s efforts to help millions<br />

of unemployed people get back to work (Hananel, 2011).<br />

African Americans have been stereotyped throughout time. Mostly all of African American<br />

stereotypes come from the legacy of slavery <strong>and</strong> segreg<strong>at</strong>ion. In order to justify slavery, Euro-Americans<br />

cre<strong>at</strong>ed degrading stereotypes of Africans. Stereotypes are irr<strong>at</strong>ional beliefs towards a particular group of<br />

people. Euro-Americans observed an abused slave whose rage finally consumed him <strong>and</strong> who lashed out<br />

violently. After this Euro-Americans began saying th<strong>at</strong> African American men are violent. Even to this<br />

day, the stereotype of African Americans being violent still stays with them. A cultural custom th<strong>at</strong> may<br />

perpetu<strong>at</strong>e this stereotype is African American‘s preference for using direct confront<strong>at</strong>ion to resolve a<br />

conflict. Most Euro-Americans, Asian Americans <strong>and</strong> L<strong>at</strong>ino Americans prefer more indirect methods.<br />

This is why th<strong>at</strong> their actions are often seen as hostile. They like more face-to-face convers<strong>at</strong>ion when<br />

there is a problem <strong>and</strong> most people don‘t appreci<strong>at</strong>e this. The face-to-face conflict may make others<br />

nervous <strong>and</strong> out of their comfort zone. This action to African Americans is just being truthful <strong>and</strong><br />

assertive, but others find it as anger or rage. Even though African American men have more arrest <strong>and</strong><br />

convictions, doesn‘t mean th<strong>at</strong> they are more violent. There are a lot of other ways to go to jail th<strong>at</strong> have<br />

nothing to do with violent action <strong>at</strong> all (Carr-Ruffino, 2009).<br />

Another stereotype th<strong>at</strong> is given to most African Americans is th<strong>at</strong> they are less intelligent than<br />

other people. Reality is th<strong>at</strong> school grades <strong>and</strong> scores on tests like the SAT exam depend more on<br />

socioeconomic st<strong>at</strong>us than any other factor, including ethnicity. Children th<strong>at</strong> come from low-income<br />

households, <strong>and</strong> whose parents don‘t receive a gre<strong>at</strong> educ<strong>at</strong>ion, will get lower grades than others. Children<br />

whose parents receive a higher educ<strong>at</strong>ion, <strong>and</strong> have a gre<strong>at</strong>er income, will get higher grades in school.<br />

When the socioeconomic st<strong>at</strong>us goes up, in turn so do the children‘s grades. African Americans have<br />

different learning styles th<strong>at</strong> help them improve in school. They are better <strong>at</strong> recognizing rhythms <strong>and</strong><br />

p<strong>at</strong>terns than other cultures. They are better <strong>at</strong> doing oral projects, like presenting in front of the class,<br />

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