Race_and_Your_Community

Race and Your Community The racial composition in my community has never been a major concern of mine. However, I have been compelled to recognize notable racial imbalances often observed at places where the employees are paid wages that are far above average such as financial institutions, medical societies, judicial or legal law firms, corporate enterprises, and educational establishments that are dominated by Anglo-Saxons. At the other end of the spectrum, it is not unusual to observe a significant amount of racial disproportion amongst employees working as convenience store clerks, grocery store cashiers, hotel service workers, janitorial and sanitation crew members. This group of laborers working blue-collar jobs is typically going to be African American or Hispanic citizens who are paidno more than the minimum wage. Although most of the members in my community are considered Anglo-Saxon, there is an increasing number of immigrants from the Latino group. With their growth steadily on the rise, I predict that the Hispanic population will gradually surpass the percentage of Anglo-Saxons in about twenty years. According to the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic population will become slightly even with the number of Anglo-Saxons by the year 2020. Other ethnic groups will see a slow, steady increase in population growth; however African Americans will barely see any significant change at all. Political leaders in my community rarely address important social issues that pertain to Native Americans and African American families. The same holds true for the Latino community unless there is a serious matter that involves the selling of drugs, illegal immigration, and extensive federal spending toward government healthcare programs that primarily benefit the Latino families. Most of the time, the Mexican Americans are viewed as the major cause of a lot of our community’s social, educational, and political ills; therefore they become the object of pure ridicule (scapegoats) for all other racial groups. Furthermore, adding insult to injury is the fact that most of the texts and work manuals appear to be geared toward the advancement of the Anglo-Saxons. Rarely do I ever get a chance to review pertinent information that provides a suitable amount of information, which would indicate a progressive movement on behalf of the Asian Americans and Native American citizens. African Americans seem to have faired slightly better in this category, however Hispanic Americans have had the opportunity to observe a notable increase in the amount of information that is specifically generated toward the members of the Latino community. This includes texts used in classroom textbooks, restaurant menus, travel itineraries, newspapers, public museums as well as web pages displayed across the Internet, that are predominantly transcribed in Spanish. Leadership positions in my community continue to be strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxons, however there is an upward trend in the number of Hispanics and African Americans seeking and obtaining political offices. Moreover, there are very few leaders who represent Asian American, Pacific Islanders, Native American, and other citizens coming from various ethnic backgrounds. All in all, I find that the African American citizens in this country cancertainly take pride in their personal accomplishments. Somehow they have managed to overcome an insurmountable amount of odds stacked against them yet they continue to endure through extreme hardships over the past fifty years and have become quite successful. If I could resolve any inequities within my community, the first thing I would do is probably something that would help change the social and demographic incongruity regarding the disturbing plight of the Native American people. A fantastic place to start would be to address outstanding social issues that proceed to plague Native American communities such as drug abuse, alcoholism, impoverished living conditions, teen suicide, substandard education, insufficient health care, and lack of gainful employment. Of course, an adequate amount of funding would be necessary to establish local, state and government programs that do much more than apply a band-aid across a large gaping wound, which never heals. I would like to propose a propitious ten-yearproject that will become highly instrumental in ensuring that Native American citizens are not simply given a hand out, but are provided with the proper skills and educational training required to help ensure their overall success. Furthermore, I would see to it that a larger percentage of Native American leaders are appointed to key political and civic positions, which could possibly help to influence the appropriate management and administration of Indian affairs. In order to accomplish my goals, specific organizations would become a major focus of controversial debates such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA). These organizations are basicallyintended to further the advancement and improvement of our Native American citizens, yet continue to be rather ineffective at introducing them to a higher level of achievement. The lack of proper representation within these organizations must certainlybe addressed before a suitable plan of action could be implemented. I believe the best way to measure the level of impact that these organizations have on Native American citizens, would be to specifically address their responsibilities and legal obligations directly toward the Native Americans. Acknowledging that the BIA is not actually a Native American organization, but merely a small branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will be very helpful in researching the general dynamics of this organization. It is my understanding that the primary objective for this organization is the proper management of several millions of land acres, which the government holds in a trust for Native American citizens. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is also responsible for land leasing, protecting the water rights, economic development, maintaining a solid infrastructure, and providing educational services. Many Native Americans believe that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of the chief reasons that they are unable to thrive while continuing to live in severely impoverished conditions on reservations. My job would be to determine whether or not this organization is fully committed to enforcing their policies and regulations and to ensure that the funding used to support this organization is properly managed and is not being abused or neglected. The National Congress of American Indians appears to be one of the only organizations that have actually helped Native Americans to advance by fighting for their rights to receive special benefits, adequate healthcare, safe affordable housing, natural resource management, and religious freedoms. Additionally, the organization has helped to sustain the preservation of the Indian language and cultural identity along with encouraging educational and employment opportunities. Although their efforts can certainly be applauded, it is unfortunate that not enough has been done to significantly address many of the social ills that continue to suppress Native American communities. This is a core area that I would like to address by working together with NCAI to help ensure that Native American citizens are not being exploited for monetary gains as well as ensuring that their rights are always protected using the fullest extent of the law. The National Indian Gaming Association is thought by many to be a major support system for Native American communities, when in fact the organization has done very little to advance the lives of Native Americans either politically, economically or socially. Basically, the NIGA is nothing more than a trade association whose members are representative of organizations and businesses connected to tribal gaming enterprises throughout the U.S. The organization is only beneficial to those who have access to their expensive membership packages starting as low as $800.00 for a single individual or tribe. Naturally, most will not be able to afford such extensive fees, which merely cover member association dues, seminars, meetings, trade booth spaces for lease, action alerts and news publications. This is a major area of focus that I would definitely work hard to change because it does absolutely nothing to directly address the tremendous amount of poverty in Native American communities. My ultimate goal would be to work hand-in-hand with this organization to develop a plan that would allow the opportunity for a substantial amount of the earnings received by the larger, more profitable casinos to be equally distributed throughout the Native American communities. Income generated from the casinos can be used to eliminate the dreadful affects of poverty by building adequate housing, create new jobs and businesses, provide educational workshops and conduct employment training programs that offer unique scholarship incentives upon graduation. This in turn would eventually help to promote, advocate, and facilitate economic prosperity within Native American communities across the United States as well as Canadian provinces.