The American Minorities Studies Course Reflection Essay

Introduction

An admirable aspect of human social life is its diversity, which denotes differences in behavioral characteristics or orientated beliefs. Although community culture almost expressly implies languages, races, and other subtle social practices, modernism has expanded the term to accommodate emerging beliefs and movements. One of the key takeaways from the course is that culture/community is a strong pillar for safeguarding shared beliefs and interests, in addition to being the vehicle on which marginalized groups achieve augmented advocacy. The course has been significant for expanding my worldview on the term “culture/community.” Therefore, this reflection clarifies the importance of studying different communities, especially through interactions, to promote a holistic worldview of the various identities in modern society.

The New Worldview

The course expanded my knowledge of culture, especially the role played by gender and sexual identities in defining and strengthening new communities. The most noteworthy takeaway is that culture is so fluid that any common identity can group people into a community that deserves social acceptance as a movement. An exemplified illustration of the worldview is women’s history in America’s socioeconomic and political transformation, especially in the 20th century.

The National Women’s History Museum (n.d.) investigated how gender influenced the establishment of an immigrant women’s community whose key roles were to create new identities while advocating for their indigenous culture representation. The double roles on women’s liberation reaffirm the fluidity in culture, where people with similar beliefs from different racial or ethnic identities can establish a new community and popularize its civil expectations.

The recent advocacies on LGBTQ rights expanded my worldview of how sexual identity can define a culture/community. One common feature between the immigrant women community and the LGBTQ is that they have unique characteristics in expression and association, with the central goal of equality and autonomy (National Women’s History Museum, n.d.; American Civil Liberties Union, 2022). Each unique community, regardless of its ethnic identity composition, contributes to the social fabric of any country. That implies inclusion is usually the primary concern for culture and communities, where everyone else must acknowledge the need to accommodate differences that make a society complete. Advocacy becomes a necessity when minority communities face prejudice based on their identities.

Culture/Communities Comparison and Contrast

The best choices for a comparison/contrast analysis regarding the new culture/community worldview are the LGBTQ and the immigrant women community, especially between the 17th and 20th century California. The rationale for selecting the two communities is their advocacy for equality and inclusion. Whereas the LGBTQ community advocacy is an ongoing movement, the immigrant women in early centuries America successfully advocated women’s suffrage and established to career inclusivity that women achieve today (Artavia, 2021; National Women’s History Museum, n.d.).

Examples are women’s involvement in scientific technologies and revolutionary innovations in engineering and other fields (Spillyards, 2021). The two groups need supportive environments to exercise personal autonomy and achieve equal rights and protection while expressing themselves freely (American Civil Liberties Union, 2022; National Women’s History Museum, n.d.). The similarities between the two groups’ advocacies imply that diversity is integral for formulating a social fabric where communities deserve equal representation based on their genuine needs.

Connecting Course Learning with Past Experience

Women’s rights advocacy has been a familiar term to me, although I did not understand how women belonging to the majority communities/racial ethnicities in America needed suffrage as much as those from minority groups. The term ‘women in science and technology’ has also been familiar to the extent that there are designated days for celebrating the community. However, since I did not understand the efforts that made it possible for women to get into a career, especially in the technical field, I failed to appreciate the efforts. Connecting National Women’s History Museum (n.d.) ideas with Spillyards’ (2021) article changed my view about women’s liberation, where I get to appreciate that advocacy promoted their inclusion in the American social fabric. Chances are that if there were no movements to establish the women’s community, the identity would have experienced further reduction to mundane duties in domestic servitude.

Learning About Other Cultures/Communities

If there is a crucial lesson to take from the course is that people should learn about other communities, expand their worldview on behavioral identities and groupings, and improve interactions regardless of cultural differences. Developing multicultural understanding can be beneficial for cultivating cultural awareness and sensitivity and addressing voluntary/involuntary biases. Besides the language differences being a barrier that could undermine the efforts to learn from other communities, multicultural education seems to have no drawbacks. The course was an eye-opener that cultural immersion/education is necessary for creating neutral worldviews to understand why communities defend their values and expressions.

Conclusion

Many cultures emerge as subcultures of common groups, although their positions in the minority social scale do not make them less relevant. Culture is so fluid that a member of a majority group, for example, an American White, can belong to a minority sub-culture like LGBTQ. Without learning about the variations in cultural/community compositions, it would be practically impossible to understand how the sub-group contributes to a holistic social fabric. Whereas advocacy can target policy changes, the most effective approach to inclusivity is by challenging everyone to learn about other cultures and integrate the knowledge in expanding the worldview on treating emerging communities.

References

American Civil Liberties Union. (2022). LGBTQ rights. Web.

Artavia, D. (2021). Thinking of coming out to your family during the holidays? Why experts suggest ‘have an ally on standby.’ Yahoo! Life. Web.

National Women’s History Museum. (n.d.). New beginnings: Immigrant women and the American experience. Google Arts and Culture. Web.

Spillyards, A. (2021). TWU all-female team takes home top honors in NASA design challenge. NBCDFW. Web.