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A term paper on mediation
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Mediation and Race:
Potential Barriers to Mediating with African American Participants
Mediation is defined as a process in which an outside party works with individuals in conflict to help them change the quality of their conflict interaction from negative and destructive to positive and constructive, as they explore and discuss issues and possibilities of resolution (Bush & Folger, 2010). Communication is essential to this process. In order to do this, the mediator must create an environment that is comfortable for the participants. Being race is a historically sensitive topic, especially concerning relations between the African American and Caucasian communities, it is important to be conscious of avoidable problems. Though most people
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Many Americans view colorblindness as helpful to people of color by asserting that race does not matter (Tarca, 2005). But in America, most underrepresented minorities will explain that race does matter, as it affects opportunities, perceptions, income, and so much more. When race-related problems arise, colorblindness tends to individualize conflicts and shortcomings, rather than examining the larger picture with cultural differences, stereotypes, and values placed into context (Tarca, …show more content…
A lack of awareness alone can cause unintentional tension. For example, let’s say the mediator is in a situation where one party does have privilege and the other party does not. The privileged party and the other are coworkers and both got caught drinking on the job at lunch, which there is a strict rule against. He was not fired but the other was. The privileged party suggests that his coworker was fired “simply” because he must have done something to cause it. The mediator could be innocently probing deeper, if following a model that allows such, by asking “Was there something you did?”. This could damage the rapport, as the non-privileged party may view this as
examines the effects of the colorblindness approach to achieving a post-racial society. Wingfield, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of numerous books and articles concerning racism in America, focuses her research around the effects of the colorblindness ideology on individual cultures and social issues. This article appears in The Atlantic, a left-leaning news source, along with a collection of Wingfield’s other articles, mostly covering issues concerning racism and segregation in America.
Race has been a difficult topic to discuss and grasp ever since race problems began. Not only is it a sensitive topic that carries a lot of baggage to the name, but it is a continuous problem that we still today, after many years, battle with. “The Code Switch Podcast, Episode 1: Can we talk about Whiteness?” is a podcast with many speakers of different colors that discusses white ignorance and white uncertainty of talking about racial issues.
However, this general knowledge is not apparent to White people. Similar to microaggressions, John F. Dovidio discusses the concept of aversion racism, “a subtle, often unintentional form of bias that characterizes many White Americans who possess strong egalitarian values and who believe that they are nonprejudiced” (90). Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Sue both demonstrate from their research that Whites do not comprehend the impact of their unconscious biases. These biases towards students of colour in a white-based post-secondary school environment can result in stress and weak interracial relationships. This is an issue since the significance of these everyday actions are not fully recognized and acknowledged. I will elaborate on a variety of examples, specifically the influence of the peers, and
Colorblindness is a defect in the perception of colors, caused by a deficiency in specialized cells in the retina that are sensitive to different colors. The term is often used today during political discourse, often by members of some factions of liberalism, when claiming that one’s race should be irrelevant to any decision making process. It is a form of moral posturing; that one should see an individual as simply an individual, but not as part of any larger group or culture. As if this philosophy will enable us to bridge any gaps between races, this thought attempts to focus on how we are all the same, rather than how we differ. Teachers and administrators are required to complete coursework pertaining to multicultural education with the purpose of enabling them to better understand the students whom they teach. It is believed that when one understands the culture from which a student belongs, the teacher will be able to reach that student in a more effective manner. But how does this notion of “understanding” a student’s race or culture, thereby individualizing that student based on their race, reconcile with the idea of being colorblind in the classroom; that people are people and we are all the same? To properly educate students, a teacher must be allowed to recognize and understand the race, culture or ethnicity of those students.
Many people in the United States society believe that people of all cultures, races, and ethnicities are now on an even playing field. People with this belief support their logic with the argument that since equal rights for people of color and women have been required by law for some time now, we are all inherently as equal as claimed in the Declaration of Independence. Many believe that race is no longer an issue, a viewpoint frequently referred to as color-blindness. National polling data indicated that a majority of whites now believe discrimination against racial minorities no longer exists. (Gallagher, 96) Color-blindness allows a white person to define himself or herself as politically and racially tolerant and then proclaim their adherence to a belief system that does not see or judge individuals by the “color of their skin.” (Gallagher, 98) Many Caucasians in particular are of the opinion that because they listen to hip-hop or cheer for their favorite black, professional sports player that they are not racist. Still others believe that because they have a black president, we see black people in the commercial of products we consume, or enjoy television shows with black people that they are actually acknowledging race. In order to examine and dismantle this series of misconceptions, we will turn to the work of various scholars of social justice and privilege, including Peggy McIntosh, Patricia Hinchey and Johnathon Kozol as well as the story of Patricia J Williams. Through a careful examination of these works with the support of some key statistics, it is the goal of this paper to demonstrate the existence of a privileged and unprivileged America, despite the color-blindness many may profess to have integrated into their p...
Race has been a controversial issue throughout history and even more so today. The idea of race has contributed to the justifications of racial inequality and has led to the prejudice and discrimination of certain racial groups. Race and racism were constructed to disadvantage people of color and to maintain white power in America. Today, race has been the center of many political changes and actions that have affected people of color. The idea of race has played a role in how people from different racial groups interact amongst each other. Interactions within one’s own racial group are more common than interactions among other racial groups, at least in my own experiences. Therefore, because I have been positioned to surround myself with people from my own racial group since a very young age, I have internalized that being around my own racial group is a normal and natural occurrence.
In the U.S. race-based affairs are often difficult to address because society has made racism a taboo topic and therefore has avoided discussing its fundamentals. Many would agree that disregarding the root of the problem is a faulty and counterproductive solution. Yet several people take this approach when confronted with racial matters by using colorblind ideologies as both a defensive mechanism and a way to avoid the conversation about race all together. Ignoring the prominent inequalities amongst racial groups only encourages the artificial idea that the U.S. is some kind of utopia that has politically overcome racism. The theory of color blindness is grounded on the idea of discounting race-based differences as a way of combating racism; the idea that
A mediator assists couples in coming up with ideas for mutually beneficial, long-lasting agreements. It allows the couple to focus on important issues and arrive at pro-active decisions about child custody, co-parenting and finances. Since information is out in the open and freely exchanged, the couple will be more willing
In her article “The Abandoned Promise of Civil Rights,” Zulema Valdez investigates racial disparity and finds that compared against whites, people of color are no better off than they were during the Civil Rights Era. She finds a plethora of reasons behind this, including a lack of resources to attain skills to acquire better jobs, as well as the “development of a color-blind perspective,” among
Racism within the black community is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. In the black community, African-Americans are discriminating against each other, putting those with lighter skin complexions against those whose skin is darker. In the African American community, it’s like a battle of the skin tones. This type of racism is also known as colorism, the belief that those with lighter, fairer skin are treated with a higher respect than those with darker skin, this issue has been happening for a long time within the African American community. This form of racism is more offensive, severe, and different than the common traditional racism.
It is no secret that for many, many years, the African-American community was seen as nothing more than simply dispensable hand help. These people were placed in fields and regarded as something less than what they were: human beings. It is no secret that there are still forms of discrimination in the twenty-first century. Simply turn on the news one night and I guarantee you will be bombarded with the consequences of this racial discrimination. While there are people that are stuck in the old ways, a majority of people are now on the move to make steps of progression past the era of inequality. But in this fight, there is a long list of questions. Heading off the list, is that of what to do with this background? Do we use this history to be a constant reminder of what we have done and encourage the youth to realize what wrong has been done by our kind? Or do we move past this and try to look forward and know that it happened, but not dabble with it in our lives? Is this history that happened, or do we allow it to be a prevalent part of our everyday
Throughout the history of the country, America has been considered a fairly racist union. From the workplaces to the society, as an Asian, I felt there's a strong barrier between white and black people, although I felt a little bit of racial among us. In this essay, I will talk about the major racial issue of this country through out my experiences.
Ott, Marvin C. "Mediation as a Method of Conflict Resolution: Two Cases." International Organization 26.04 (1972): 595-618. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.
Racism is still a very prominent yet controversial topic in the United States today. Discrimination in the United States dates back to the 1500s when America was first founded. As generations passed, it has become a social norm to believe that darker skin tones are less desirable to society. The foundation of this country was built upon the false impression that Whites were superior to not just blacks, but all other ethnicities. From this, the idea of white privilege was derived and is still prevalent in society today. Those who are victims of discrimination are sometimes not aware of the psychological effect and the overall impact it can have on one’s life. The persistence of racism over generations has been in correlation to adversely affect the mental health of the victims economically, socially and in turn physically.
Mediation is a way to solve a dispute without having to resort to court procedure which sometimes could turned out to be rigid, formal and time consuming especially when it needed a lot of paperwork and the possibility of adjournment which could consume years. Besides that, unlike in court, mediator as a third impartial party did not acted as a judge who decides on the resolution however, the mediator will help the parties to explore the needs and issue which before preventing them from achieving a mutual resolution and settlement. The mediation process gave the authority towards the parties to agree with each other and open up the chance for the parties to meet with a resolution at the end of the mediation session.