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Alexa Starkweather
Professor Maenhardt
ENGL 1050
July 5th, 2016

Othering on the Minority Groups

Imagine a world with no inequality, everyone is on an equal scale. No one thought less of
another person, no one judged another human being on their race, religion or gender. A person
was just a human and had the same opportunity as every other human. What I am referring to is
world without inequality, a world without prejudice, simply a world where people didnt have to
fear that their culture or their heritage will cause them emotional of physical harm. But, this
world I am referring to doesnt exist, it has never existed. Every day I hope our society gets
closer to realizing that judging a persons by gender, race or religion is wrong and every day there
is a news article proving me wrong. My only question is why is it so hard for people to truly rid
the world of inequality. In this essay I will cover how our society has changed its view on
opinions of many minority groups. I will cover how certain views have not changed or views
that have changed slightly, but have almost taken the same negative turn just with a different spin
then the original problem. These two topics will highlight out advances and draw backs with
inequality and how society views certain minority groups.
There was a time were skin color determined someones fate, Americans were in the land
of the free while others had conditions. In 1619 the first slaves were brought to Jamestown
Virginia, stepping off the boat man saw difference. Disgusted by something as simple as the
color of their skin these innocent people were thrown into slavery. Children were taught if you

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didnt have white skin you were not a person. As a society we looked down on people who were
different on the outside not truly understanding that color doesnt determine a human to be good
or bad, that instead you were an object. A slave named Fredrick Douglass went through the
horrors of being stripped of humanization and then to be treated as property. In his speech about
what 4th of July means to a slave he states a sentence that I felt to be very powerful. He says,
that, of one blood, God made all nations of men dwell on the face of all the earth (472). What
this is saying is no matter who you are god created every human on earth, so as a society were
all the same from the same creator. I feel as if weve made some progress for this point. In 1833
slavery was abolished, I feel this was a huge step in how our society saw others because this
meant that a large enough audience viewed slavery as wrong. They felt African Americans did
not deserve to be held as property and that they should be allowed human rights like all other
people in America. Segregated schools have been eliminated allowing all races to take part in
education. Sports teams are no longer separated and children are taught if these historical
accomplishments. Growing up I can vogue that my parents never not allowed me to be friends
with another child of different religion or race. I didnt know that was ever a problem until I
learned about the struggles our society has had. Laws have been placed to stop companies from
discriminating on their applicants religion, gender or race. Businesses arent allowed to refuse a
consumer based on gender, race or religion and if they do the power of media has been such a
strong influence that it can cause a business to lose thousands of customers just by one act of
inequality. Our society has made steps forward by having an African American president for the
first time in history. It has showed racial discrimination has leaned down to the point where as a
society we have now had a president of different race. This presidents stride on inequality has
been noticeable. Media has made a long way as well when it comes to tv shows, music videos

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and movies segregations which is pretty much no longer present. Entertainment companies strive
to display diversity in their work to attract consumers based on majority survey reviews. As a
society, the opinion on inequality has raised many flags and has had many attempts to eliminate
it.
Though weve had many attempts to eliminate inequality among humans it seems to be a
problem that never fully gos away. Things are slowly twisted from one problem to the next. At
one moment slavery is the issue to be abolished, now that is no longer legal the problems has
spread to inequality happening among every multiple minority groups. Societys views on
immigration is being twisted by corrupt politicians. Media is displaying stories of police brutality
towards minority groups. During our first class discussion one my classmates named Amanda
Lente made a good point with police brutality. She talked about how you dont always hear the
full information when big shootings happen. People seem to forget the statistic or get
emotionally involved without hearing all factors of the issue. Though corruption does happen, it
has been documented that both races have corrupt people in them. One bad person doesnt mean
the whole race is bad, people tend to pin someones crime on all others that are similar in race
and that is not fair to any race. Or even how minority groups are starting to slip below the low
income line and there is slowly becoming no middle class. Even society is starting to face gender
bias in many aspects of society. In Margaret Meads article We are all third generations she
gives examples on how society has changed not all changes have been good. I feel societys
opinion on inequality has happened, it has slowly changed and with that change it has brought
good and bad aspects. People still have negative views on the minority class, blaming them for
crime, death, economic problems but on top of that these minority groups are yelling foul play on
societys part. They yell for equality, they yell for a fair chances and they demand fair treatment.

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I agree that there are many cases where minority groups are mistreated. I also feel that there are
many people who cry foul play on something theyre the cause of. For example problems with
police brutality on minorities is a problem that is rapidly growing. Media has distorted so many
facts the public doesnt know what to believe. I feel half of society views minoritys as a problem
and the other half says what is happening is unjust.
As a society were constantly stepping forward one step at a time and then falling back
two steps on the race against inequality. A few bad people in the world ruin life for a minority
group and in return they have to suffer discrimination in all types of forms. This battle will
always be on going if our society cant band together to stop these corrupt factors that are causing
the problem. Its going to take more than one voice to stop a problem this huge. Weve made a
lot of progress that our ancestors would be shocked if they were alive to see today. Weve also
developed old problems in new forms causing inequality to start transforming into new forms
that have never been heard of. Reading through the passage by Fredrick Douglass I saw a line
that I felt most people think they live by, but dont truly understand what that entails. The line
was that we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. (471). This line was something
that made you sit an think am I follow Gods word, or am I putting society rules first. God said to
accept all because were made in the image of him, so why do people consistently judge others
so cruelly. I truly believe if people want peace like we all claim to say then the first step is to
start with yourself. Though one person might not make a huge difference, it does influence others
to follow which in return can make a big impact in societys opinions.

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Rhetorical Analysis
I used a visual text about immigration in America which relates to several of our discussions
involving immigration and how hard it is to become a citizen. After analyzing the picture I can
tell the author is trying to use pathos to emotionally pull in the viewer, which is a tool our media
uses now a days to get viewers emotional invested in a certain cause. Were taught when we were
young that a picture is worth a thousand words. Meaning that one image can have a more
powerful meaning behind it. Take this image above, its showing immigrants going up an
escalator path of citizenship only to be dumped into a big waiting hourglass. Inside the glass
theyre piling up one body after another and only one person is getting through at a time. I feel
this is a strong message drawn in a clever form. Its saying that you may be able to get into the
immigration line, but youre looking to wait extreme lengths of time never knowing when you
will be allowed citizenship. Becoming a citizen has become a harder process over the years, the
conditions are nowhere near to what it was like for Ellis Island but long wait times and
possibilities of never getting accepted are still happening. The author did a good size of the
escalator by making it thin and narrow and the waiting glass is large. It demonstrates how every
single immigrant can ride the escalator to apply for citizenship, but theyll be trapped in slow
accepting process. Bright colors are used to help the reader focus on induvial characters, without
it I probably wouldnt have noticed the escalator is not only full of adults, but a child is on it too.
Which shows that all ages are affected by immigration. Chris Weyant is the author and he drew it
for the company Cagle Cartoons, drawn in 2013. I believe Chris drew this to demonstrate of
immigration is currently for people trying to enter America and how long and disappointing the

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process can be. When I see this image I feel bad for all the immigrants who have had to deal with
this and that is the goal of this image.

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Work Cited:
George, Diana and Trimbur, John. Reading culture:
Contexts for critical reading and Writing, 8th edition.
Pearson, 2011
Reading Discussion 1: Amanda Lente on Police
Brutality.