Diversity Case

DIVERSITY

BY: JEANNIE GILMORE

What information about diversity in the United States has helped you better understand or relate to others in ways that you may not have in the past? The information about diversity in the United States has always been present and readily available for anyone interested in knowing. Since beginning this class, I have learned that prejudice and discrimination are as factual to date as they were in the past. Discrimination and prejudice will forever be a part of our history; people are human and will constantly form opinions for or against one another. For the most part this class has brought back to mind a valuable childhood lesson taught by my grandmother: “God is the only one who can judge people, not people judging people.” I have always tried to treat any other person fairly and look at the individual and not the circumstances of their being. This class has been a great reminder of just how cruel others can, have and will continue to be treated because of who they are or where they came from.

Have you learned something new about your own racial, ethnic, or cultural history? The one thing I did learn about being a white female catholic person of Irish decent is that throughout history not only being a female, the catholic Irishman have been persecuted for just being here like many others cultures. Prejudice and discrimination has come a long way as far as religion in many cases but being a female and the ethnicity is another. I am one of the fortunate ones, being female still in certain areas needs revising, progress has been made even a few years ago we had a female running for Vice President, ethnicity I fell will be forever an issue, this change will be very slow in coming but our society has proven some changes have been made and more are to come in the future but when these changes will occur is unknown.

Trends in immigration will continue to shape the demographics of the United States. What will the U.S. population look like in the year 2050? Why do you think so? According to an article found in the 40th Anniversary edition of the Smithsonian magazine (July-August 2010), the United States population will expand by 100 million people over the next 40 years. The United States is expected to grow somewhat older meaning; the portion of the population that is baby boomers age, the population of working and young people is also expected to keep rising, in contrast to most other advanced nations. America’s relatively high fertility rate hit 2.1 in 2006, with 4.3 billion total births, the highest birth levels in 45 years. This is largely due to the recent flow of immigrants, who tend to have more children than residents whose families have been in the United States for generations. Moreover, this nation is on the verge of a baby boomlet, meaning as a baby boomer my children are soon to be having children. Between