Ethics

Culturally speaking, I hail from a dominant white group in the United States in a cultural context. Having roots set once the migrants where settling in the newly discovered United States, my cultural affiliation lies with the white settlers who were the first settlers in the United States. These people were the ones who established the cities and businesses and wrested the lands from the wild locals, the Native Americans to be exact, and developed the basic structure of the United States.

As was common with all the cultures in the United States, sans the Native Americans, my cultural affiliation lies within a group which immigrated to the United States escaping persecution in their own home country due to their religious affiliations and poor living conditions. Therefore, the group immigrated to the country in its early years.

Once the settlers arrived in America, they were subject to a racial conflict with the locals and a very tense period was observed where the hostilities were high between the two races and there were numerous losses between the two different races. However, due to the sheer volume of immigrants and the increasing number of settlers day by day, the locals were overcome and even slave raids were conducted throughout the nation and the Native Americans were made into personal slaves in the early periods.

Since the country was being established and was being built from scratch, the white supremacy and the pride of the immigrants was in their race and they considered themselves more civilized as compared to the savage locals and dominated over them through their technology and improved weaponry and numbers. Racism was high during this era as slaves were employed commonly, mostly captive Native Americans and African slaves brought over by boats. There were also large numbers of Chinese immigrants who were made to work for the White people and your skin was a fair indicator of what type of treatment you were to receive in society. My cultural group luckily happened to be on the higher side of the cultural pyramid than the others.

The group itself was subject to racism in the manner that it was constantly attacked by the Native Americans as intruders and the locals felt that the new people had no right to exist in the country.
Reverse racism Reverse Discrimination were commonly practiced by different minorities in the country and my cultural group was treated with contempt by the minorities. When any law was passed in favor of the minorities it was taken as an offensive measure and most affirmative action programs introduced to benefit the minority groups, led to the increased resentment towards the Caucasian race (Lipsitz, 2006). Affirmative action and similar policies led to favor others lead to the increased reverse discrimination against my racial affiliated group.

There were no glass ceilings for my group, and the persons potential coupled with hisher group affiliation allowed a comfortable life and relatively less difficult lifestyle. Unlike the minorities which have been subject to barriers to entry and to do business in the country, since the early days, the Caucasian race has fared well and has never felt hindered or burdened due to their racial affiliation.
Whether or not there has been institutional discrimination by the Caucasian race against other racial groups is a subjective question. Even the earliest laws enforced equality for all and equal rights as citizens yet the general observation has been that the minorities and other racial groups have been limited in their options for lifestyles due to certain factors. Meanwhile the Caucasian race has fared extremely well for itself.

The mainstream culture of the United States has now become a tolerant culture where a persons race and culture have moved to the back seat while their potential and skills have taken a more frontal position. The country has become more lenient to other races and the instances of racial or cultural discriminations have sharply declined as minorities have gained more rights and powers than ever before.

I culturally identify more with the United States mainstream culture of a live and let live style than the ethnic group with which I hail from. Race does not play a strong role in determining my attitude towards others and my actions towards others are a reciprocation of their attitude towards me.

Since the country has now become so culturally and racially mixed, dividing amongst oneself on the basis of race or ethnicity has become ridiculous as people have had intercultural marriages and people now are descendents of a mixture of races and cultures. Since a small age I have also been exposed to the different races and cultures in my social circles as I have studied with and been friends with children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Unlike the past where people were unaware of the other races and felt their own race superior towards others, I hail from a more moderate world view holding cultural group.