...ENGLISH ONLY COURT CASES INVOLVING THE U.S. WORKPLACE: THE MYTHS OF LANGUAGE USE AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF BILINGUAL WORKERS’ IDENTITIES KARI GIBSON University of Hawai‘i Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, religion and national origin. However when the judicial system has examined English only workplace policies in light of Title VII, it has generally determined that such policies are not discriminatory if an employee is able to speak English. Although plaintiffs have argued that language is inextricably linked to national origin and cultural identity, the courts have stated that the use of a language other than English is detrimental to the morale of monolingual English speakers and a single language is necessary to ensure workplace harmony and proper management. This paper examines the court cases where English Only workplace policies have been challenged, and identifies the prevalent myths and ideologies held by businesses and the courts about language use, identity, and bilingual speakers. Through the process of homogeneism, linguistic diversity is rejected as monolingual English speakers are able to create and enforce rules that favor themselves as they construct the identity of “American” in their own image. Language is a central feature of human identity. When we hear someone speak, we immediately make guesses about gender, education level, age, profession, and place of origin....
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...America and Diversity Kathy McGowan ETH/125 February 2, 2014 Shanna Birkholz-Vasquez America and Diversity Over more than two hundred years, the United States has grown from a fledgling nation to one of the most powerful countries in the world. The principles which established this nation attracted many different groups to its shores. Principles of freedom of religion and speech bought refugees from different ethnic groups. While other groups came to seek their fortune in the “land of opportunity”, one group came to the America under duress. Each group found prejudice and discrimination. As the years passed and the country continued to grow, the barriers of prejudice and discrimination were beginning to crumble. The different groups began to accept the differences that accompanied the diversity of the nation. These changes bring up a question. Has the United States finally overcome our fear of diversity? If we examine the cultural background of Americans, we will discover many are of European descent. Many of our ancestors came looking for religious freedom. Others came to settle debts they had in their homeland. Some citizens are descendants of slaves who were sold to affluent citizens and plantation owners. The circumstances around people in these groups arrival resulted in prejudice and ethnocentrism. Prejudice was not just directed toward African Americans during the 19th century. German, Irish, Polish, Chinese and Italian immigrants found themselves...
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...Arc of Justice- Residential Segregation The Arc of Justice depicts the struggles, injustices, and hatred experienced by ethnic minorities in the United States during early part of the 20th century. Throughout the book, author Kevin Boyle shows to us the violence and oppression endured by blacks as they strived towards success and racial equality. A key struggle for many African American families trying to improve their lifestyle and social status in northern American cities, was finding a place to live and raise their families. Those who dared to move from the cities’ black quarters into white neighborhoods faced fierce opposition from white supremacist groups and residents alike. An analysis of the Arc of Justice shows us that social, cultural, and economic forces challenged the African Americans’ fight against residential segregation. In his introduction to the book, Boyle paints the situation that black Americans faced in the 1910’s and early 1920’s. Looking to escape the prejudices, oppression, and low working wages of the south, many individuals looked to the North as a gateway to financial stability and independence. With the emergence of the steel and automobile industries, thousands upon thousands of black men and women were drawn into the northern cities of Chicago, Detroit, and New York by the opportunities to earn higher wages and provide for themselves. There they faced the reality of what their life would be like. Blacks were often restricted to living in overcrowded...
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...Arc of Justice- Residential Segregation The Arc of Justice depicts the struggles, injustices, and hatred experienced by ethnic minorities in the United States during early part of the 20th century. Throughout the book, author Kevin Boyle shows to us the violence and oppression endured by blacks as they strived towards success and racial equality. A key struggle for many African American families trying to improve their lifestyle and social status in northern American cities, was finding a place to live and raise their families. Those who dared to move from the cities’ black quarters into white neighborhoods faced fierce opposition from white supremacist groups and residents alike. An analysis of the Arc of Justice shows us that social, cultural, and economic forces challenged the African Americans’ fight against residential segregation. In his introduction to the book, Boyle paints the situation that black Americans faced in the 1910’s and early 1920’s. Looking to escape the prejudices, oppression, and low working wages of the south, many individuals looked to the North as a gateway to financial stability and independence. With the emergence of the steel and automobile industries, thousands upon thousands of black men and women were drawn into the northern cities of Chicago, Detroit, and New York by the opportunities to earn higher wages and provide for themselves. There they faced the reality of what their life would be like. Blacks were often restricted to living in overcrowded...
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...America in 1900 ELAC History 12 January 26th, 2016 8am The President of the United States that guided the country into the 1900’s was William McKinley. He was a civil war hero, after the civil war he dedicated his life to study law to become a lawyer. He was a quiet reserved man, and had an incredible quality of persuading people. McKinley was charismatic and many Americans around the country went to the white house to see him. He was elected in 1987 and led the country out of the worst depression they have passed. In 1900 was election year, and because of the good growing economy and good administrative results people wanted him to run for presidency again. However, his wife Ida Saxton was very sick and he did not know if she would be able to be with him in a new mandate. She was a very beautiful, strong woman when they met. McKinley fell in love with her very quickly. Rapidly after they got married, Ida Saxton had their first baby girl. Then, she was pregnant again of her second baby. During labor of the second child, she had convulsions that affected her second baby lifespan. Shortly, after six months her baby died and her life changed forever. She kept having convulsions, which doctors diagnosed as being epilepsy. Years later, her first daughter also died. As a consequence, Ida Saxton went to a deep depression. Even though she was very sick, she kept by McKinley side. She accompanied him all the events that he needed to present. The United State was the most...
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...Syllabus College of Humanities HIS/125 U.S. History 1865 to 1945 Professor Jewell gjjewell@email.phoenix.edu 843-863-0102 Copyright © 2012, 2009, 2007 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course provides an overview of the social, political, economic, and global events affecting U.S. history from the Civil War through World War II. Policies Faculty and students will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Schultz, K. M. (2012). HIST2, volume 2 (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. All electronic materials are available on the student website. Week One: Reconstruction and the New South Details Objectives 1.1 Evaluate the outcomes of Reconstruction. 1.2 Summarize the economic, political, and social characteristics of the New South. 1.3 Explain the populist response to late 19th-century developments. Read the course description and objectives. Read the instructor’s biography and post your own. Read Ch. 16 of HIST2, Volume 2. Read pp. 318–325 in Ch. 19 of HIST2...
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...speak of history every day even in simple conversations about what we did a year ago or when we were children, the events we witness today is our children’s history and it is made every day. This class has opened my eyes to take a closer and awareness at the things that are happening around us today and in the past. Now that the class is about complete I am not sure how anyone may have negative views on history, no matter what had happened in our history it has been done and we must see it for the positive things we can take from our past. The debate on immigration can be seen and actually felt when traveling to different parts of our country and abroad. Listening to some of the fascinating tales on Hawaiian history it was not that long ago Americans and Europeans were trying to mass populations, mainly military, to Hawaii. The Asian influence came in the late 1800’s when they needed people to work on the farms; several hundred thousand of the local population had died from diseases brought to the islands from other countries. I use this as another example of looking at our own immigration situation in America. We started by using the Hispanic...
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...Yenay Gonzalez Ms. Rushfeldt English, Block B February 26, 2024 Justice For Jews: The Liberation of Concentration Camps in Europe If you were to endure years of extreme, inhumane treatment from an overpowering regime- just because you’d be considered a minority- how would you imagine yourself feeling the moment of liberation? Take a moment to picture this in your mind: after being in the concentration camp where you’d starve, be mistreated, and abused, you hear rumors of foreign troops on their way to free you. Consequently, upon hearing this, the cruel Nazi leaders tried to move you all from the camp, where hundreds died on these death marches, and yet they still tried to destroy all the evidence of their crimes that they could. The soldiers came and freed all the people in the...
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...Year 10 Revision Timelines: The Roaring Twenties Women Before First World War * Women could not vote. * Middle/upper class women did not work but had the role of mothers and housewives. Working class women had low paid jobs such as factory work and cleaning. * Women usually wore full length dresses, wore no make up and had their hair tied back in buns. * Divorce was very rare and so was sex before marriage. * Women did not smoke or drink in public. * They had to go out with a chaperone (a family member) when they met their boyfriend. How did the First World War change the lives of women? * During the war, women began to work in areas like heavy industry. They proved they could work as well as men. By 1929, there were 10 million women workers; a rise of 24% since 1920. * Working gave women independence and they began smoking and drinking in public. * Women were given the vote in August 1920 but few were chosen to be actual politicians. * Production of consumer goods such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines meant women had more time for leisure activities. * Flappers emerged in the 1920’s = women from middle and upper class families from the Northern States. They cut their hair in short bobs, wore make up, short skirts and bright clothes. They also smoked and drank in public, went to speakeasies, danced the Charleston with men and listened to Jazz and drove cars and motorbikes. * BUT many groups, particularly...
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...|[pic] |ETH/125 Syllabus | | |Axia College/College of Humanities | | |ETH/125 Version 6 | | |Cultural Diversity | Copyright © 2010, 2009, 2007 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course is designed to educate students about issues of race and ethnicity by presenting historical and modern perspectives on diversity in the United States, and by providing tools necessary to promote a respectful and inclusive society. Students will complete several activities that allow them to examine their own values in relation to the values of various other racial and ethnic communities. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure...
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...born in 1977 in Nigeria, the fifth of six children, to Igbo parents. She left for the United States at the age of 19, and by the time she was 21, she had published a play, For Love of Biafra, and a collection of poems, Decisions. She eventually earned master’s degrees in creative writing, from Johns Hopkins University, and in African studies, from Yale University. Adichie writes on her website, “I didn’t ever consciously decide to pursue writing. I’ve been writing since I was old enough to spell, and just sitting down and writing made me feel incredibly fulfilled.” Adichie writes about ethnicity and its importance, both in Africa and in the United States; her stories and novels also detail the hardships endured by first-generation immigrants. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, treats themes of family, religion, politics and tolerance. Her second book, Half of a Yellow Sun, takes place before and during the Biafran war and deals with questions of gender, race and class. Her work has won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. It has been translated into thirty-one languages. Adichie writes, “I just write. I have to write. I like to say that I didn’t choose writing, writing chose me. This may sound slightly mythical, but I sometimes feel as if my writing is something bigger than I am.” In “The Thing Around Your Neck,” the title piece of Adichie’s short story collection published in 2009, a young woman emigrates from Nigeria to the...
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...[pic] FIRST ARMY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY REPRESENTATIVE COURSE STUDENT GUIDE TO CULTURAL AWARENESS INDEX LESSON TITLE PAGE 1 Philosophical Aspects of Culture SG- 3 C1 Native American Experience SG- 4 C2 White American Experience SG- 23 C3 Arab American Experience SG- 43 C4 Hispanic American Experience SG- 53 C5 Black American Experience SG- 76 C6 Asian American Experience SG-109 C7 Jewish American Experience SG-126 C8 Women in the Military SG-150 C9 Extremist Organizations/Gangs SG-167 STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BEING FAMILIARIZED WITH ALL CLASS MATERIAL PRIOR TO CLASS. INFORMATION PAPER ON THE PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE Developed by Edwin J. Nichols, Ph.D. |Ethnic Groups/ |Axiology |Epistemology |Logic |Process | |World Views | | | | | |European |Member-Object |Cognitive |Dichotomous |Technology | |Euro-American |The highest value lies in the object |One knows through counting |Either/Or...
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...Australian Education Review Second Languages and Australian Schooling Joseph Lo Bianco with Yvette Slaughter Australian Council for Educational Research First published 2009 by ACER Press Australian Council for Educational Research 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell, Victoria, 3124 Copyright © 2009 Australian Council for Educational Research All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers. Edited by Carolyn Glascodine Cover illustration by ACER Project Publishing Typeset by ACER Project Publishing Printed by BPA Print Group National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Title: ISBN: Series: Notes: Subjects: Lo Bianco, Joseph. Second languages and Australian schooling / Joseph Lo Bianco ; Yvette Slaughter. 9780864318374 (pbk) Australian education review ; 54. Bibliography. Language and languages--Study and teaching--Australia. Language and languages--Study and teaching—Bilingual method. Education, Bilingual--Australia. Other Authors/Contributors: Slaughter, Yvette. Australian Council for Educational Research. Dewey Number: 370.11750994 Visit our website: www.acer.edu.au Acknowledgment The Author and Series Editor wish to acknowledge the contribution...
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...Research Paper The experience of ethnic minority workers in the hotel and catering industry: Routes to support and advice on workplace problems Ref: 03/06 2006 Prepared by: Tessa Wright and Anna Pollert (Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University) Funded by Acas and the European Social Fund For any further information on this study, or other aspects of the Acas Research and Evaluation programme, please telephone 020 7210 3673 or email research@acas.org.uk Acas research publications can be found at http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=405 ISBN 0-9554830-0-X ISBN 978-0-9554830-0-4 The Experience of Ethnic Minority Workers in the Hotel and Catering Industry: Routes to Support and Advice on Workplace Problems Ref: 03/06 2006 Prepared by: Tessa Wright and Anna Pollert (Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University) Funded by Acas and the European Social Fund Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the European Social Fund and Acas for providing financial support to the project, and Acas staff also for their guidance during the project, in particular Margaret Fox, Anthony Gould and Gill Dix. The project benefited greatly from the contributions of the Project Advisory Group, both in suggestions made on methodology, access and content at meetings, and help in accessing research participants. Many individuals and organisations helped us in gaining access to workers to interview...
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...Beshears, Laura: Honorable Style in Dishonorable Times: American Gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s Journal of American Culture (33:3) [Sep 2010] , p.197-206. Honorable Style in Dishonorable Times: American Gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s Laura Beshears. The Journal of American Culture. Malden: Sep 2010. Vol. 33, Iss. 3; pg. 197, 10 pgs Abstract (Summary) Prohibition, which came into effect in July of 1920 with the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment, also illustrated the progressives' idealism, as many believed that the elimination of alcohol, because it allegedly created "poverty, marital distress, and negligence," would cleanse society (Mordden 141). [...] the birth of the radio and the movies as well as the development of flight induced excitement and fostered a vision of a society engaged in perpetual technological advancement (Mordden 47). [...] Horatio Alger, Jr. and his late nineteenth-century books- portraits of men who, born underprivileged, rose to wealth and success through hard work, honesty, self-confidence, commitment, and a bit of luck (Weiss 53-54) - characterized the progressive spirit, as it encouraged people to work hard for a better future and for the fulfillment of the American dream. Full Text (5892 words) Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Sep 2010 "You don't need to be ordering fancy duds," Frankie Rio advised his boss as a tailor took measurements of Capone's swollen physique at the Lexington Hotel. "You're going to prison. Why don't you...
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