Discrimination and Physical Appearance :: essays papers

Discrimination and Physical Appearance There are billions of people living in this world, and that is the most important reason why there is a discrimination. This discrimination occurs due to the difference of skin color, religion, language, and even culture. Back in my home country, there are two groups of people who always seem to discriminate one another. These two groups are the Indonesian natives and the Chinese. Since my skin color is very much different as compared to the Indonesian natives’ I could hardly make friends with them. This was mainly because I always thought that the Indonesians were low-class people just because they are poor; they worked as servants, street sweepers and labors. I believed that this thought applies to most of the other Chinese. The Chinese always think that they are much better off than then dark-skinned Indonesians because the Chinese hold the majority of the business throughout the whole Indonesia although the Chinese population is extremely small in Indonesia. Besides the difference in skin color, I used to think that I would never make friends with the natives because ninety nine percent of them were Moslems. I began to realize that I was absolutely wrong when I left my home country for Singapore to continue my further studies. There, I was very impressed how the Singaporeans, the Indians and the Malays get along together very well. There is even a racial harmony day held once a year. Since then, I started to treat my surrounding people equally regardless of their skin color, language, and religion. When I went back to Indonesia, I tried to make friends with the natives. I then realized that they were just the same as the Chinese. I felt very sorry whenever I thought of how I treated my servants and my other Indonesians so badly in the past. I should have treated the Indonesians well since the beginning because Indonesia does not belong to the Chinese; I was only a foreigner there.

Studying Deviance from a Socio-cultural Stance

Robert K. Merton describes deviance as a unaccepted means of attaining socially important goals. His term innovation requires the person to obtain such goals (wealth, power, etc†¦) in socially unacceptable means, therefore placing the person in the category of a deviant. The strengths of looking at deviance in criminology are the boundless resources of sociologists and other social scientists such as Merton, Emile Durkheim, and George Herbert Mead.Their works are timeless and to the point as they do not need to reflect the current state of societies and instead only the underlying conflict theories from that school of thought that they represent. They are complimentary to current studies, but herein lies the weakness and that is the ever-changing actors and states in societies that need to be studied. The most important factor is the socio-cultural root of socially important goals that deviancy holds many times for the criminal.Those born into poverty and those whose ethnicity o r other minority status puts them into societal disadvantage may innovate ways to achieve simple survival when economies fail them. These socio-cultural roots need to be further explored. The past decade has shown more minority arrests on the part of women and black men, for example. A research study done by the National Institute of Justice suggests that rates of violent crimes by women is on the increase and the term â€Å"marginalized† is used to possibly explain that the most vulnerable women (those who are victims of crimes perpetuated by others) are most likely to commit crimes themselves.But the weakness is the absence of explanation as to why now this is a growing problem as women have always held minority status, but have not shown this level of deviancy. Black men are another group that is disproportionately incarcerated in relation to whites. The question may be of what is the rate of arrest vs. conviction? Is it that these minority populations are being arrested a t higher rates and inevitably convicted due to the financial strain of defense and, in fact deviancy has not changed, arresting attitudes have changed?Research is of the utmost importance in revealing these answers. At any rate these are socio-cultural issues, as is the issue of the images and glamorization of crime in some groups. Pierce and Singleton (1995) suggest that in young African American youth achieving is related to a sense of competence and that that competence represents a sense of control over their possibly out-of-control environments.Innovation then is transformed into deviancy when control and competence is the desired outcome. Looking at conflict theory and economics is the key to understanding this, but it does make it difficult for the Criminologist, as he or she must look to the current state of affairs in a society and look back to theories; sometimes in other disciplines to comprehend deviancy. Studies must be done on motivation and perception, which are highl y psychological.Organizational Behavior offers insight into, such deviant topics as gangs and recruitment, etc†¦Political Science may be utilized to look at other comparable societies to one’s own and the crime rate in relation to regime/regime change and other political factors. Theology (and the Protestant Ethic, for example) may offer insight into deviancy of past and present, as well. But, most importantly a Criminologist must understand the socio-cultural roots, stereotypes, and cultural bias that exists in his/her own community of interest to understand deviancy as innovation and the roots of all this. References Eitzen, D. S.   Phi Delta Kappan. April 1992.   â€Å"Problem Students: The Sociocultural Roots†.   p.587. Mead, G.H. (1918) â€Å"The Psychology of Punitive Justice†, American Journal of Sociology 23: 577-602. National Institute of Justice.   (1999).   â€Å"Research on Women and Girls in the Justice System: Plenary Papers of the 1999 Conference on Criminal Research and Evaluation-Enhancing Policy and Practice Through Research†. Volume 3. Pierce, W.J. & Singleton, S.M.   (1995).   â€Å"Improvisation as a concept for understanding and treating violent behavior among African American youthâ€Å". Families in Society. 76(7).   pp.444-450.

Leadership Style in the Movie Gladiator - 4901 Words

GROUP PAPER/LEADERSHIP GLADIATOR, by Ridley Scott (2004) 1. INTRODUCTION Acting as observers in this case, we are reviewing the leadership from the perspective of the son of Caesar, Commodus. A man, with love lost. A man, without the desired virtues set by his Father. A man, without morals, as stated by his Father. A man, who competes for favor, trust, honor and value with an authentic leader like Maximus, someone whom has also had the love of Commodus Father and fails to connect with his followers. 1.1 Within and under the guardianship of his father, Commodus struggles to attain any of the qualities connected to an ethical type of leadership that was set up by his Father, namely wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance, and with†¦show more content†¦Commodus also went against the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct, which is a shared definition of ethical leadership according to Eisenbeiss (2012), and something that also includes the advocacy of such behavior to followers.(Eisenbeiss 2012:792) Connecting the orientations of justice and moderation, is also applicable here, due to the proposed shift by Aurelius and also something that i.e altered the course of his life drastically and immediately (Eisenbeiss 2012:795) Another aspects addressed in this paper is the dilemma Commodus encounter in his meeting and interaction with Maximus, someone with an authentic leadership style, further contrasting his own shortcomings and strengths. The way that Commodus d ealt with his- what he considered- betrayal, actually catapulted Maximus even further into such a leadership, due to the life changing event that occurred when his family was slaughtered (Northouse 2013:266) The theoretical approach for authentic leadership would have it that such leaders display self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency, all of which can be seen in the character of Maximus even though his processing went through stages where his balance was in questions, naturally due to the loss of his family and being imprisoned and sold like a slave. His moral reasoning, stemming from a military core as well, could have said to have a further impact onShow MoreRelatedOrganisational Behaviour - Movie Review4166 Words   |  17 PagesORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR MOVIE REVIEW ON GLADIATOR GMBA January 2008 Avinash Anand â€Å"We mortals are but Shadows and Dust Maximus†¦ Shadows and Dust!† - Proximo Summary The movie, set in 180 A.D. traces the journey of a man who goes from being a trusted army General to the Emperor of Rome to a Slave to a Gladiator who eventually defies the Empire to exact his revenge and ensure that Rome gets converted back into a Republic. The movie highlights various aspects of inter personal relationshipsRead MoreStatement of Purpose23848 Words   |  96 Pagesdescribe these experiences, and, of course, note all relevant information, including, but not limited to, any of the following: your duties or responsibilities, your research project, your mentors, your writing experience, your skill sets, and your leadership qualities. Show professional growth or development by linking these experiences to what you learned as an undergraduate—and without ―lecturingâ€â€" to a reader who knows more than you. 4. Include special achievements: You might include literary or researchRead MoreAutobilography of Zlatan Ibrahimovic116934 Words   |  468 Pageshad asked for me I never found out. The phone wasn t important to me, and I had no one to speak with at home really, or, well, when there was something serious, dad was there for me. Then he could do anything for me, run downtown with his cocky style trying to settle stuff. He had a way of walking which made people go, like Who the fuck is that? But he didn t care about all the normal stuff, what happened in school, in football and with friends, so I had to talk to myself or get outside