The Malaysia’s first Prime Minister said “The creation of the name ‘Malaysia’ which has the root word of ‘Malay’ clearly proves that ‘Malayness’ is considered the core of the identity in its long-term cultural and historical frame” (Zurairi, 2013). In Malaysia, the Malay ethnic group is considered to be the original inhabitants of the country and have adopted pro-Malay policies since independence. For major policy matters, “Bumiputera” is the broader ethnic group used to describe the Malays and other indigenous people (M. S. Haque, 2003). The discrepancy in treatment of bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras poses the question of how much ethnicity affects the national identity of individuals in Malaysia. Ethnicity is a complex concept that constitutes …show more content…
However in the case of Malaysia, the difference in rights is segregated by ethnicity and hence complicates the issue of citizenship and national identity. Do Malaysians then only comprise the Malays in the country? According to Census 2000, 65.1% of the citizens in Malaysia were Malays and other indigenous groups, 26.0% were Chinese, 7.7% were Indians and 1.2% were the remaining other ethnic groups. Are these non-Malay citizens just citizens by name? Such policies perhaps justifiable at independence, pose many questions of how we define citizens and nations today. With the lack of rights as citizens, it is doubtful that the non-Malays see themselves as part of the Malaysian community. In fact, some older Chinese Malaysians see themselves only as Chinese but not Malaysians (Miho Goda, 2013). Indian Malaysians on the other hand displayed feelings of injustice in their lack of rights through their votes in the general elections in 2008, where the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a constituent of the ruling coalition government, clearly lost confidence and support from the Indian community (Singh K.,
Omi & Winant, Bonilla-Silva, and Loveman all have different approach in understanding the distinction between ethnicity and race. Omi & Winant and Bonilla-silva all made a distinction between ethnicity and race, and study race through the lens of power relation, while Loveman argued that it is important to study these two side by side. DuBois articulate blackness as both race and ethnicity with the approach of “Double-Consciousness”.
Reading Chapter four of Ethnic Studies Issues and Approaches, by Philip Q. Yang, one receives a profound understanding of ethnic stratification. First of all, Yang describes ethnic stratification as a “institutionalized ethnic inequality” (61). This definition means the system of ethnic/social rules allowing certain ethnic groups to have access to more wealth and resources, which is unfair to the minority groups. There is a division between majority and minority groups, this is based on who is given more power, wealth and resources not because of a larger number of an ethnicity group. According to Yang, White people are the majority in the United States, but they are called majority for their share of wealth/power unlike the minority group.
In any firm, having an effective management culture is critical to a firm’s success. But once you look at this topic on an international scale, culture can change based on what is right and wrong in a different country. To demonstrate this theory, I have interviewed two different people who have either came to work in the United States from another country, or born domestically and have experience working abroad. One of them is my father, James Lai (Exhibit A); he is an immigrant from Hong Kong, China and have worked extensively in the graphics design industry for many large companies. Some of these companies that he has worked for includes the following: Toymax (now currently a subsidiary of Jakk Pacific Inc.), TecnoZone, The Zone & ENE Group
Race and Ethnicity is a widely discussed issue in our society and in the world we live in today. Often times there are two alternatives on race and ethnicity, whether they are fixed or fluid. This discussion over time has lead to the different paradigms attempting to explain race and ethnicity and how sociologist feel they apply to people (Cornell and Hartmann, pg. 44). A more popular fluid approach at race and ethnicity is the assimilationist perspective. This perspective was first introduced to debunk the biological/social darwinism perspective, instead of defining racial and ethnic differences due to biological terms researchers now introduced these relations according to cultural differences. The assimilationist perspective allows us to
The article, “RACE AND ETHNICITY- CHANGING SYMBOL IS OF DOMINANCE AND HIERARCHY IN THE UNITED STATES” by Karen I. Blu is an exceptional work that clearly expounds on the racial and ethnic groups especially in America. Racial and ethnic groupings are gradually becoming popular in the public arena, in which people are shifting their focus on classifying other people on the basis of racial groupings to rather classifying them on the basis of ethnicity. Moreover, race grouping is slowly submerging into ethnic grouping with Black activism being the role player in this (Blu, 1979). The following is a summary of the aforementioned article in how it relates to racial and ethnic groups and response regarding its views.
Through the selected readings it becomes clear that race is not only a social construct but also a value that changes depending on the region in which one inhabits. Despite the lack of scientific support for race as a biological phenomenon, race still results in misfortune for many minorities. This present throughout everyday life in terms of job opportunities, education, and life experiences.
The human species is made up of those who dared to immigrate to the rest of the world from Africa. Most of human ancestry dealt with migration by venturing into the unknown and eventually establishing a culture that begins to create social mores that the population begins to believe as fundamentally theirs and what their country represents. The majority always seems to have a mob rule in cultural etiquette. By comparing the concepts of ethnicity, nation and nationality I will cover the similarities and the differences that make up each of the given terms for a culture. In a culture, groups that may not think that they form a circle for their existence will be discussed in my review of “Focus on Globalization: The Gray and the Brown” (Kottak,
This type of exclusion comes under the political bracket, as it includes the rejection of citizen rights, such as the right to vote, freedom of speech and equal opportunities. Bhalla and Lapeyre (1997) argue that political exclusion ‘involves the notion that the State, which grants basic rights and civil liberties, is not a neutral agency but a vehicle of the dominant classes’, thus, exclude some social groups and include others. However, one must note that citizenship is not only political, as social citizenship refers to ‘the rights and obligations that determine the identity of members of a social and political community and which as a result regulates access to the benefits and privileges of members’ (Turner, 1997). Thus, citizenship is centred on the capacity of using individual and collective rights, and inequalities which can cause a social hierarchy, created of first class and second class citizens. When individuals are made unequal before the they do not have access to public goods, which consequently leads to alienation from society, and lack of opportunities freedom. T H Marshall divided citizenship into three aspects; civil (the right to certain freedoms), political (right to take part in elections) and social (the right to some economic welfare and to ‘share to the full of the social heritage and to live the life of a civilized being accorded to the standards prevailing in the society’(Marshall,1963). Citizenship should be a status enjoyed by the members of a political and social community which is attached to rights and obligations, without these one is excluded from society and isolated from society and oneself. The exclusion of ethnic minorities comes under the bracket of the problem of citizenship. In Britain, the Social Exclusion Unit of the government stated in 2000, that ‘In comparison to their representation in the population, people
In a world where society is mostly driven by our faults, family can be a relative term that brings it all back down to earth. Since societies can be extremely divided at times, it is important to have a back bone and a community that understand your own values, customs, and practices. It has been said that “minority group” families, which in Canada or the United States, could be considered anyone who isn’t Caucasian, are less stable in form and function than families who are a part of the general societal “majority”. Throughout this essay, I would like to discuss how untrue this statement is. From racial and cultural differences, to relying on each other and to growing as a unit, it is evident that minorities can have an even stronger relationship than those from the majority.
Owing to India’s diversity, these identities are determined by caste, ancestry, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation and geographic location, and play an important role in determining the social position of an individual (Anne, Callahan & Kang, 2011). Within this diversity, certain identities are privileged over others, due to social hierarchies and inequalities, whose roots are more than a thousand years old. These inequalities have marginalized groups and communities which is evident from their meagre participation in politics, access to health and education services and
Lastly, but most importantly, understanding the culture and its background provides a valuable insight and an ‘umbrella theme’ of a country. According to Geert Hofstede’s Cultural dimensions, Malaysia has one of the highest power distance index in the world, with one of the lowest uncertainty avoidance index. It is highly related to the beliefs of Islam and this creates a society where leaders have virtually ultimate power and authority, and the rules, laws, and regulations developed by those in power, reinforce their own leadership and control. It is not unusual for new leadership to arise from armed insurrection – the ultimate power, rather than from diplomatic or democratic change .
Nationality is between a country and a person, sometimes the people who are no relate to any country, call stateless. Also some of the stateless can be refugees, these two groups of people is care by UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Nationless is a very big problem; it may affect more than 10 billion people in this world. Everyone in the world can be having their human right, but some activity in country only able nationals to participate, for example: election. Also much of the stateless didn't have their right, they may never get the ID of the country, just get in to jail, losing the chance of education and health services or can’t get a job (UNHCR, 2014).
Hefner, R. W. (2001). The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Jali, N.H.M., M. Redzuan, A.A. Saman, and I.H.M. Rashid. 2010. Malaysian Studies: Nationhood and Citizenship. Petaling Jaya: Prentice Hall.
Our increased mobility has given us greater access to the world and the diverse people that inhabit it. With that mobility comes the shared responsibility to negotiate with people who may initially seem unfamiliar and learn to express the experience. The word “ethnicity” is used to describe a specific population’s characteristics of fundamental aspects that all humans share. When applied loosely, ethnicity becomes a blanket term to define large populations, undermining the worth and the diversity within that group and emphasizing the differences between cultures. Yet those differences come down to matters of preference and socialization within each culture. The dominant themes that rule human nature persist in every society – wondering where we came from and why we exist, social mores to guide how we relate to people or situations, and primal motivations such as hunger, fear, and a need to be loved and accepted.