What do childrens experiences of race tell us about the social Essay

What do childrens experiences of race tell us about the social psychology of racism Discuss with reference to empirical research on race and multiculture - Essay Example Through the process of identifying certain biological human characteristics, the population of the world started being classified into separate groups. Miles refers to this process as racialisation and defines it as one which characterizes meanings â€Å"to particular biological features of human beings, as a result of which individuals may be assigned to or categorized into a general collectivity of persons reproducing itself biologically† (Miles, 1989). Research on children’s racialised thinking conventionally used numerous theoretical and interpretive paradigms that intended to explain the development of racial attitudes. Some of these models connected children’s racist beliefs to personality troubles and gave details of the appearance of prejudiced attitudes in relation to rigid cognition credited to strict parenting style (Adorno, 1950). Some recent researches put forward that children play a dynamic role in their own learning and expand knowledge through social interaction. Furthermore, children also have a certain amount of ability that permits them to understand process and express their needs and knowledge (Connolly, 1996). Thus children are not merely seen as submissive receivers of racist beliefs, but as vigorous agents who struggle to deal with conflicting information they obtain in relation to the racial ‘other’ so as to make sense of the social world around them. Because of this, they do not just imitate racist viewpoints to which they are exposed, but actively strive with their contingent and often opposing nature, while trying to make sense of their social world (Connolly, 1998b). Children establish their racialised notions of diversity and social relations within the specific framework of their daily experiences and that these experiences are socially planned, determined by social events that expand

Gun Control and Its Effects on Crime Rates Research Paper

Gun Control and Its Effects on Crime Rates - Research Paper Example Keeping this in view, many countries across the world banned the acquisition of harmful weapons on civilians. Logically speaking, if B accompanies A most of the time and one does not want B then one should be more likely to avoid A, too. Similarly, if crimes involve armed weapon and if someone wants to lower down the criminal activity, then the logical course of action should be to ban the possession of armed weapon. However, ironically, opposite is true. The phenomenon of gun control, which is the ban on supply or usage of guns by civilians, correlates highly with the increase of crime rates. This theory faces great opposition by pro-gun control schools of thought, which maintain that less weapons means less crime. This paper addresses this debate in a more enlightened space substantiating each point with relevant evidence. However, the paper holds and attempts to prove that gun control does, directly or indirectly, leads to increase in crime rates. Before diving into the actual debate, a glance at the background of the issue and historical anecdotes will clear the space for the discussion to build up in a more neutral, bias-free fashion. Gun control has been a popular topic of discussion and argument since a century. Nazis and Fascist were strong proponents of enforcing gun control to disable the civilians to counterattack. Therefore, people belong to anti-Hitler clan usually oppose the enforcement of fun control, saying that this is remains of the brutality of fascism (Wilson, 2007). On the other hand, US have a strong history of gun control, especially with respect to its Civil Rights Act and racial discrimination against African Americans. After the slavery abolished and Reconstruction was underway, slavery codes were replaced with Black Codes, which contained laws only for African Americans. These codes include gun control. Later on, when Black Codes were deconstitutionalized and racial