The first thing that someone may wish to know is what multiculturalism is exactly. According to Webster’s Dictionary multiculturalism in a nutshell means of, relating to, reflecting, or adapted to diverse cultures. I don’t know about other people but that type of definition is a little complicated for someone to take in at one time. So I tried to see if I could find another one. So I took at look at the definition provided by dictionary.com, and their website says that multiculturalism is the conservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a united society, as a state or nation. But there is one question that everyone wants to know and that is the concept of multiculturalism a wise choice in modern day society?
But in order to truly know the answer to this question I have presented to you we have to know how multiculturalism impacts certain areas in our lives. The thing that I want investigate is how multiculturalism impacts the business world. To some people multiculturalism is a fact of life in the business world. While to others they feel that multiculturalism can destroy businesses. You can really see multiculturalism in international businesses. In some business situations multiculturalism is a good thing. For example, we as Americans traditionally put people at ease in business situations through our friendliness and informalities. When people often associate multiculturalism with the business world they come across the term outsourcing.
In order to know what outsourcing means I want to utilize the same method I used to find the meaning of multiculturalism. So again the definition of outsourcing that Webster’s dictionary gave us was, to obtain as some goods or services needed by an organization under contract with a remote provider. To me this is all you really need to know about outsourcing because this is it. But there is another given by dictionary.com, they say that outsourcing is to get hold of goods or services from an outside source. Outsourcing has been around for many years.
This started during the 1980s. Basically companies delegate their non-core operations to an outside source that specializes in the needed operations. Often companies outsource because it’s more efficient than having everything done in one location. And on top of that it’s more cost effective for the companies themselves. In my own opinion, outsourcing is important because many companies rely on it in order to get many different products or services to their facilities on time and in good condition. Outsourcing is a big part of the business industry today. Any business can be affected by outsourcing. No matter how big or small a business is a business is able to outsource services that they could not be profitable on their own with.
Now I want to take a look at how multiculturalism impacted our media. The first thing that I want to investigate is how different races are portrayed by the media. And when I’m saying the media I don’t just mean the news, I mean regular television shows, sporting events, etc. But there is one thing that we must realize first before I go on, and that’s stereotypes; particularly in media is something that sadly cannot be stopped. Stereotypes in media are like a quick reference for the audience about a person or group of people. Stereotypes are very troublesome because they can be responsible for social injustices and inequality.
Now let’s take a look at stereotypes in media. I especially want to take a look at how minorities are portrayed in modern day media. For instance minorities; especially African Americans are often portrayed as being part of the low or middle class citizens. They are shown to be living in a bad part of the neighborhood and they are portrayed as being part of a crime or being accused of some crime they did not commit. They are usually not portrayed as being able to help themselves. In addition, African Americans are not portrayed well in the news. Time and time again the media stereotypes certain crimes with certain minorities. For example, there are lots of stereotypes like that black people are associated with gang violence and theft. Then there is also a common stereotype that all Hispanics are associated with stealing cars.
While doing research I found out before the world was as diverse as it is today there were thought to be only four races in the world. In 1758, the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus claimed that there were only four human races in the entire world: white (Europeans), red (Native Americans), yellow (Asians), and finally black (Africans). In order for you to properly understand this you must first know what race is. Race is a word used to divide people into to larger and smaller groups. Back when the four human races when put into play this made most people culturally ignorant. But now in our modern day world the views have change. Our world is now a culturally diverse one. But people are still plagued about races especially those of us who are biracial. In certain situations we feel that we must choose which race we should be part of. And when you do choose a race the people of that race feel that all you’re doing is trying to pass.
On the whole, my answer to the question of whether or not the concept of multiculturalism a wise choice in modern day society is yes. But in order for us to make this happen we have to really work hard to get rid of things like stereotyping in media and also teach the history of not just one race but as many as we can.
Bibliography
- http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/
- http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outsourcing
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/multiculturalism
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/outsourcing
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multiculturalism
- http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-Multiculturalism-Destroy-a-Business?---Nu-Leadership-Series&id=271107
- Barbara C. Cruz, Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity, Enslow Publishers, inc., 2001
- Stephen Fain, Multiculturalism, World Book Encyclopedia, 2001 Edition
- Herbert Douglas, Taking Sides: Race Ethnicity, McGraw Hill/Dushkin, 2005
- Fred Whitehead, Culture wars : Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, 1994
