University of Phoenix Material

Appendix D

Part I

Define the following terms:

|Term |Definition |
|Ethnic group |A group set apart from others because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. |
|Anti-Semitism |Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group. |
|Islamophobia |Fear or hatred of Muslims, their culture, or their politics. |
|Xenophobia |Fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. |
|Persecution |The act or practice of persecuting, harassing, or annoying those who differ in origin, religion, or |
| |social outlook. |
|Religious group |A collection of individuals who share a unified system of sacred beliefs and practices that encompass |
| |elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and even fear. |

Part II

Select at least 1 religious and 1 ethnic/racial group not your own from the list below.

• Religious groups (based on http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/affiliations-all-traditions.pdf)

o Christianity

• Evangelical Protestant • Mainline Protestant • Historically Black Churches • Roman Catholic • Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Orthodox (Greek, Eastern)

o Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform) o Buddhism (Theravada or Mahayana) o Islam (Sunni, Shia, Sufism) o Hinduism

• Racial/Ethnic groups (based on divisions in U.S. Census Bureau documents)

o Asian (Asian descent) o Black (African descent) o Hispanic and Latino (South or Central American descent) o Pacific Islander (Polynesian descent) o White (European descent)

Part III

Answer the following questions in 150 to 250 words each about the religious group you selected:

• How does your selected religious group differ from other religious groups (such as in their beliefs, worship practices, or values)?

Buddhism is a religion that I have always found interesting. One thing that I found out is in Buddhism, they have no God and they do not believe there is God. They believe there is nothing to fear that there will be an end of the world and that there will be judgment day for everyone who has sinned. Buddhism does not appear to be an actually religion but more of a relationship to a supernatural being that they believe will give them the strength and inner peace they need. Since they have no fear for a judgment day, then the belief of a "savior" is not needed in Buddhism. Buddha teaches its followers to live a clean and pure existence. A Buddhist follower should have self-discipline, be self-reliant and survivor through their life's.

• What has been the experience of your selected religious group with others that do not share its beliefs or practices?

I do not have any firsthand experience with Buddhism, but it seems to be one of the more popular religions in the nation as far as I can tell. I have heard people say that, people in this religion act weird. They say that there might be a particular religion that has members locking their doors during service to keep people from leaving until they have heard everything. In Buddhism as in with most other religions you can worship without having doors locked as you go in. Buddhism is becoming an even more of an intriguing topic. You even hear about celebrities getting interested in the religion. Even the young adults are more are aware of the Buddhist practices of today and there are younger generations who are now learning and trying to live with it.

• In what ways has the religious group you selected contributed to American culture?

When we talk about religion we seem to always associate it with absolution. Religion

can be a language that denotes purity of everything- man's ways of thinking, beliefs,

attitudes, values, judgment, and so on anything that has something to do with our

personal beliefs and attitudes. Religion has always seemed to be a good subject of

conversation for people and has also been the subject of controversy. Everyone has their

own belief, description of how and what religion is and how it works for individuals.

Religion has always been a part of humanity. People have worshiped statues, animals,

earth, moon and sun. Wars have started and ended because of religion. For the most part

everyone believes that there is a God almighty who oversees our every move while

people who study and practice Buddhism believes that you strive to be one with the

universe. Regardless of whatever the religion you believe in, it does help people rely on

and it gives them strength in knowing what they have to look forward to in the end.

• Provide specific examples of prejudice or discrimination your selected religious group has experienced.

Buddhism is a popular religion in the whole world yet just like anything in this world;

it is not safe from any discrimination as well. One particular discriminating video against

Buddhism was a video created by Ruben Martinez and is called America’s New

Religious Landscape. One part of the video tells a story of the Cambodian Buddhists who

had experienced extreme discrimination from the Cambodian natives and end up risking

their lives. According to the video, almost all races who are experiencing hardness in life

feels so desperate they turn into anything else that can give them hope like religion and

Buddhist in particular. These Cambodian Buddhists seek peace and better life in the

American soil and it was on the 80's when this trend of migration started in the USA. The

Buddhists from Cambodia had a nightmarish experience due to discrimination that they

even have to witness their love ones get killed and die.

• What were the sources of this prejudice or discrimination?

There are some many reasons why people are discriminated or why people feel some

prejudice towards other people. Discrimination and prejudice come from many different

sources like ethnicity, race, background and religious beliefs. In Cambodia, the story of

Khmer Rouge and the "unpure" minorities are just an example of the people who get

discriminated against every day. The Khmer Rouge grouped people into clean and

unclean and they considered the unclean people as the enemy and eventually put them to

death. The people that were considered unclean were because of their personal beliefs

and the people who were pure ones were considered the chosen ones. This unjust

discrimination against the so called unpure ones went on for over three years and the

majority of them were sentenced to death or killed by the government.

• Does what you’ve learned about this religious group help you understand it? In what ways?

Researching and reading all the information that I have come across concerning all the

different groups and their faith and beliefs helped me in different ways. The information

that I have learned regarding Buddhism and how they practice their religion is very

interesting to me and their philosophy is also intriguing as well. One of the biggest

things that caught my attention was how the people that practice Buddhism endure

persecution for their beliefs. I do not believe that our history books have enough about

this religion and what it has had to go thru. One of the other important things that I

learned about this religion is how united and divided as a group they are. As in other

religions they are broken down into factions and denominations. The story about how

Buddhists of Cambodia and how they persevered and escaped to the United States to live

a free life.

Answer the following questions in 150 to 250 words each about the racial/ethnic group you selected:

• How does your selected racial/ethnic group differ from other racial/ethnic groups (such as differences in ancestry, language, or culture)?

The ethnic group that I chose to discuss is the Asian group. They have an interesting

and colorful history. Asians are considered to be incredible at so many things and in so

many different areas. They have good attitudes towards everyone, the way that they

intermingle with other people. They have incredible minds and their hospitality towards

other cultures and attitudes. They look after one another in their families, they can have

multiple generations living and working under one roof. They have their own languages

and dialects like for Chinese alone, they speak main Chinese, Mandarin, and Chinese

Bangkok among other. It only shows that these groups have a lot of things within them

and within their culture to show the world. As a group, they have a lot of minority

groups out there and each group has its own ethnicity and authentic culture that belongs

only to them.

• What has been your selected group’s experience with other groups?

I researched many different things about the different ethnic groups around the world

and I realize many different things about all the ethnic groups. One case was the Asians;

this was the group I choose to review. The Khmer Rouge suffered the horrible account of

discrimination that lead to the demise and death of most of their race. The reason that

this group went through this was because the majority of them were considered

"Unpure". The diversity among the different groups who are not in the same group has

the leaders beliefs were classified has unpure and were persecuted. Another area that has

discrimination and clashes between different ethnic groups was when the Koreans and

Japanese were in a feud regarding superiority. The Japanese believes that the Koreans

are their descendants hence it is their duty to work for them. This belief made the

Japanese forces some Koreans to work on their mines and even factories that are

manufacturing Japanese products.

• In what ways has the racial/ethnic group you selected contributed to American culture?

The ethnic group I choose has main contributor to many of the cultures of other

countries like the United States. Asian culture is a richer in its history and has flourished

that almost all other countries who have been involved with them get part of their culture

combined with theirs. You have heard of close knitted families of the Asians. No matter

where you go in this day and age, you will always find a Chinatown like atmosphere

somewhere. You will also get to see a Filipino communities everywhere and this is

where Filipinos meet and stay with each other and help one another even if they really

don't know the person as long as they are Filipinos. For the Chinatown the notion to set it

up started in New York and later spread across other states like California. These

communities also influence the American ethnic groups including their foods, their

clothing and the way they talk. Americans actually inherited some Asian culture without

them realizing it because it cannot be denied that Asians exists wherever they are.

• Identify some specific examples of prejudice or discrimination that your selected group has experienced historically.

Aside from the Buddhists, there are also the story of how the Koreans were asked by

the Japanese people to work for them as slaves on their mining and factories. In the

United States, discrimination and prejudice has been happening since the start of their ancestor’s history. For example is when the black Americans were used as slaves to lay

the tracks for the railroads during the “gold fever” for traveling purposes. Although the

United States has been open to all different races and ethnic groups who want to enter

and live in the country, there was a law that was passed in stating "The Chinese

Exclusion Act" causing San Francisco to treat Chinese immigrants like prisoners isolating

them in Angel Island in 1910. Chinese immigrants were checked ad double checked in

the island to make sure no one with unlikely background or criminal record will be

entering the country or the state.

• What were the sources of this prejudice or discrimination?

We understand that every human being has the tendency to be judgmental and in the

past month that we have been studying and reading about ethnic groups, I learned that

there are so many reasons why other people from different culture feel prejudices towards

our Asian brothers and sisters. It came from stereotyping to the act of applying it which is

discrimination and how it affected our ethnic and religious group. In the long run though,

this course helped me understand how to reduce or lessen my discriminating tendency. It

seems to me that discrimination happens because these people are our exact opposite in

everything. The good thing is there are things that we can do to reduce discrimination.

Though it is beyond reality seeing the world with no prejudice sounds great to me and

maybe to all of us. People need to try to absolutely change the way to think in order to

achieve that change. It's hard to change the minds of the people who have felt and

witnessed prejudice in such an early age.

• Does what you’ve learned about this racial/ethnic group help you understand it? How?

The researches, readings and discussions when had about ethnic group helped me

identify myself with the said groups and the experiences they had. It is surprising to know

that our Asian ancestors has been there and were the first one to build those towers and

buildings even bridges. This opened my eyes as to why there are some westerners who

doesn't feel good and doesn't treat well the immigrants. It also helped me appreciate the

fact that our Asians would really take family's safety first above all and would keep

family close to them like communities and towns that are exclusively for them

(Chinatowns). There were sad stories too and there were facts that made us realize that

their past is not good especially for the immigrants yet it is not the end yet and we can

still make amends. Today, I know that I won't look at my ancestors again in the eye with

disrespect because all I have for them is now respect above all. Maybe by doing so, we

can make a small step to change the way ethnic groups are being treated.

Part IV

Answer the following questions in 150 to 250 words each:

• How are the prejudice and discrimination experienced by your selected religious group and racial/ethnic group similar?

If we will look at the experiences that the religious group of Buddhists in Cambodia

and those Asians in the United States, we can actually see similarities on what they have

to endure like being hated for what they are and their effect in the community hence

people around them just wanted to laugh at them or worst get them killed them. However,

one sad thing about it is how they were treated by other group from the same category

like in California; the Chinese are being prejudiced by the ethnics of San Francisco

whose ethnicity trace back as far as old ethnic groups as well. Hence it appears that an

ethnic group is discriminating another ethnic group. Since there are so many root causes

of prejudice and discrimination, it is still shocking to know that most majority group

discriminate other minority group because they feel superior when it comes to status quo,

their economic standing or their social status.

• How are they different?

Identifying the difference of the two notions is very interesting and challenging for me

because it is not every day that we can get to encountered this word and the actions

corresponding with it. Discrimination on the other hand is how we react towards them as

result of what we believe about them. For example, you think of black as dirty hence

every time you see a black person, you feel dirty regardless of where you see him or her

or if who the person is. This thinking transpires to your behavior towards any person of

the group that when you see a black human being, the first thing you do is walk as far

away as you can because you fear getting dirtied. That is now discrimination. This is very

simple classification of prejudice and discrimination and the same applies to ethnic

groups or religious groups. The two terms are always interrelated and the only way to

avoid them is to know how to understand it.

• Can you draw any conclusions about discrimination from this comparison?

Discrimination and prejudice in general can be the cause and root of all hatred that

people feel. Why does religion means a lot to people? Well I guess because it has a

purpose that everyone feels so self-satisfying. Say you are looking for a purpose in life

and you might find it through the path set but Buddha. Say you want to have something

to hold on and you believe on eternal peace and purity as the effect of following the

"right path". It only shows that this group gives us sense and identification and it

something that everyone really likes to have. The same thing can be said true about the

ethnic groups that we have. They identify us through our race and our skin color and this

becomes us, they become us and we in return represent them. Once our sense of one's

belongingness gets too strong and then we come across another group that has very

different beliefs than use, then the issue of having indifferences arises and we start to

think negatively about them and in the end will hate them. This can again lead to violence

if both groups eventually meet in between and clash with the beliefs they have.