African-American Women Understanding The Problems of...

African-American Women: Gender and Race Introduction African-American women have often been an overlooked group with the larger context of American Society. Historically, oppression has been meted out to the African-American woman in two ways. Historically, everything afforded to African-American, from educational and employment opportunities to health care have been sub-par. As women they have been relegated even further in a patriarchal society that has always, invariably, held men in higher regard. Throughout history black women have been referred to as â€Å"slave†, â€Å"wench†, â€Å"nigger† and â€Å"mammy† amongst other things. Her children have been referred to as â€Å"pickaninny† and â€Å"niglet†. They have been beaten, routinely raped and abused in†¦show more content†¦In terms of mental, emotional and physical health how does the African-American woman compare with other cultural groups? How does she cope? How does she view herself and her circumstances? Where is sh e now in terms of employment and educational opportunities? Historical Overview The first Africans landed on the shores of America in 1619, there were 17 men and three women. When they arrived these Africans were not considered slaves, they were instead identified as indentured servants. This would eventually change and by the time slavery ended in 1865 it is estimated that more than 500.000 Africans had been imported to America as slave labor. Although there were many common factors within the institution of slavery for both men and women there were also circumstances that were unique to women. â€Å"The first slaves to be brought to the British colonies of North America were disproportionately male. Considered more valuable workers because of their strength, enslaved men performed labors that ranged from building houses to plowing fields. When the Dutch brought African and Creole women into New Amsterdam in the late 1620s, they did so not to supplement their workforce, but to provide company for their black male slaves† (Hallan, 20 04). This tells us that from the beginning the African woman was less valuable and her treatment by the slave owners was a direct reflection of this. â€Å"The slave owners exploitation of the blackShow MoreRelatedUnderstanding Gender Identity and Sexuality1083 Words   |  5 Pagesthe terms â€Å"gender† and â€Å"sex† are often used interchangeably, the two words have significantly different definitions. One could argue that sex refers to biological essentialism and the idea that we are who we are because of our genetic material. On the other hand, gender is associated with the social constructionist theory, which argues that the way we are is dependent on our race, class, and sexuality. 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Roth The Stain of Mankind Essay - 1589 Words

The Stain of Mankind In life you are faced with many challenges and hardships. It is these experiences and how you react to them that shapes and gives you your character. The Human Stain, a novel by Philip Roth is a detailed account of the past of the characters and how the choices that they made build them to be the person that they are today. Everyone has things that they are not proud of from their past. These are essentially the human stains that Roth used as a foundation for The Human Stain. These stains are not limited to a specific person, gender, race, or even society. The prominent stain that affects the protagonist is with his own race. Many of the past experiences that the characters go through take place during America’s†¦show more content†¦I had no idea what color these students might be† (Roth 6). After he was fired, he and his wife Iris became targets of scrutiny. Shortly after the â€Å"spooks† incident Iris passes away and Coleman claims that the â€Å"spo oks† incident led to her death. Following her funeral Coleman visits the novels narrator Nathan Zuckerman, a professional writer. He asks him to write his story of Coleman Silk. â€Å"I had to write something for him – he all but ordered me to†¦ [I] had to put aside whatever else I might be doing and write about how his enemies at Athena, in striking out at him, had instead felled her† (Roth 11). The â€Å"spooks† incident posed a paradox situation of irony because Silk is living a fallacy with his very own life. Silk is actually a light skinned African American living as a Caucasian because of his disgrace to his own heritage. It was this lie that he was living hat caused him to lose everything dear to him. Silk’s stain destroyed the image that he once had. But over time, he experienced second chance at life. He reveals to Zuckerman, â€Å"I’m having an affair Nathan. I’m having an affair with a thirty four year old woman. I can ’t tell you what it has done to me† (Roth 26). The woman’s name is Faunia who is a janitor at Athena College. He tells Nathan about Faunia’s life shortly after he reveals the affair and states that she was abused by her

The Responsibilities of a Business Leaders Free Essays

In the past, people that were above average in one area of leadership skills could survive as a leader. Technology has forced an adaptation in practically all aspects of the business environment over the past decade. The level of skills for leaders in the 21st century will need to adapt as well. We will write a custom essay sample on The Responsibilities of a Business Leaders or any similar topic only for you Order Now Tomorrow’s business leaders will need to possess a much broader range and higher level of leadership skills. First of all, good human relations skills may be the baseline characteristic of tomorrow’s leaders. If an individual does not have good human relations skills or just does not get along with other people, then they will probably be doomed as a leader from the beginning. It is hard for an individual that does not get along with others to motivate anybody to do anything. Therefore, a good idea may be dismissed, if one is unable to generate some excitement or motivate others to jump on board. This is why being able to motivating people is such an important aspect of being a leader. Tomorrow’s leaders will also transition more power from themselves to the people. Leaders will need to recognize and utilize through empowerment their most talented people. Acting as a role model will help demonstrate leadership styles and be the example for other people to emulate. Secondly, better time management skills are another characteristic that will be required of the future leaders. Managing and using hours efficiently on the telephone, doing paperwork, attending meetings and working on the computer is critical. Leaders waste time everyday by attending non-productive meetings, working on non-value added paperwork and even little things like using email inefficiently. This time adds up quickly and the costs associated are significant, since most leaders earn relatively large salaries. For instance, look at any CEO of a large corporation that probably earns at least $2,000,000 per year. This calculates to about $16 a minute. If the CEO wastes just 15 minutes per day, it cost the company and shareholders more than $60,000 per year. The same holds true for all employees, but the dollars wasted are much more significant with the middle managers and up. Next, the leadership characteristic that has been changing the most rapidly over the past decade is technical skills. Technology, and more precisely the use of computers, has increased dramatically over the last five to ten years. Much more information on a wide variety of subjects is at everyone’s fingertips. Leaders that know how to access and use this information will be ahead of the rest when it comes to possessing critical knowledge. This will also make it easier for tomorrow’s leaders to be thinkers and doers rather than just thinkers. In the past, leaders would just command people; there was not a great need for the leaders to be doers. But, by being a doer, tomorrow’s leaders will set an example for other people or doers to follow, rather than just barking out commands. Finally, having good problem solving and decision-making skills are two more key characteristics for tomorrow’s leaders. As people, technical, time management and any other types of issues arise, one must be able to evaluate a problem, then develop and implement a solution. By possessing a broader range and higher level of leadership skills today, the leaders of tomorrow will evolve. How to cite The Responsibilities of a Business Leaders, Essay examples

Professional Environment Busta Bigwig Alice

Question: Describe about the Professional Environment for Busta Bigwig Alice. Answer: Is there an Ethical Dilemma? After getting a mail from Busta Bigwig, the owner of the ACE, there were certain questions that Sheila should resolve while considering the whole matter again about dismissing Alice from the job and hiring her again. With the legality she also needs to discover whether there is any ethical dilemma that needs to be look closely. The very first thing she does is to look upon the laws governing the situation. She has find out that there are certain laws which could assist her to deal with the issue. The main issue was that whether it was right to fire Alice from the job without looking into the whole matter closely and the program she has to offer.(Relkin, 2006) Sheila knows that it is legal as Alice was fired formally by issuing employment termination letter. After ensuring the legality, Sheila still feels that there is an ethical dilemma which needs to be addressed.(Shinder, 2005) Ted rejected Alices program by regarding it as dangerous due to its validation feature and also terminated her from the job without any valid reason. Both the situation raises an ethical question. Sheila felt that there is something wrong with Alices termination. Sheila prefers to keep quiet about the original entity of Lock-Smith and the termination of Alice when Busta asked her to hire Lock-Smith for ACE. But still the direction is not clear. So she decided to go for more formal guidelines. Does the act consistent with the corporate policy? Sheila find out that corporate policy does not allow for unreasonable termination of any employee and the act violated the ethical code of conduct also. Now the guideline asks does the act violate the Golden Rule. It means, Sheila must ask herself if she would want this to be done to her. Would she want to get terminated without any valid reason and further reviewing of the matter? Alice has to know the reason of her termination which is violated. Also as a head, it is Sheila's duty to review the matter closely which was not met. If everyone acted the way like Ted did then it might happen in the future that other employees are also fired without any valid reason. At this point, it is clear to Sheila that there is an ethical dilemma. To determine a specific course of action, now she moves to examination of ethical principles by application of four-step process. 2: Four-steps of Ethical Analysis and Decision Making Process Step I Understand the Situation 1A: List and number of the relevant facts ACE Inc., one of the major graphics software providers in Australia. Alice is a system programmer at ACE who currently assists in computer security matters and has an extensive knowledge of all the problems concerned with ACEs security procedures, systems, and networks. Due to her interest and knowledge in systems security software, Alice developed an anti-virus program at home. To make her program stand out from other competitors, she designed it and makes it operate in a network environment. Most important feature of the program is validation. This allows the user to copy and modify the virus to any quarantined memory location. After successful trials, Alice approached her manager Ted and offered the program to ACE as she was aware of the virus infections of ACE and that this program could greatly improve ACEs security. Ted examined Alices proposal and denied to buy it by calling it as very dangerous program. (CalChamber, 2016) Due to unreasonable rejection of her program she decided to become a consultant named Lock-Smith on the internet and released her program on a Bulletin Board System under the name Safe-Tee. After knowing about Alices consultation service and who actually Lock Smith is, Ted immediately fired Alice (by formally issuing her with the required notice of employment termination) and informed his manager, Sheila Silk. Sheila Silk, the executive Head of IT at ACE, considers Alice as a disorganized person and always has a high opinion of Ted. She supported Teds decision to sack Alice with no further review of the case being necessary. Busta Bigwig, the owner of the ACE, instructed Sheila to find Lock-Smith and offer him a position in ACE. Sheila knows who Lock-Smith actually is and decided to consider the situation. 1B: Which of these raise an ethical issue? What is the potential or resulting harm? Number potential or resulting harm 5 users can use the feature for wrong purpose 9 does unreasonable termination provides job security to employees 10 personal disliking causes the case to remain unsolved and company losses its faithful employee 1C: List the stakeholders involved Alice Ted, the Head of I.T Security at ACE, Sheila Silk, the executive Head of IT at ACE Busta Bigwig, the owner of the ACE ACE as a corporation All ACE employees ACE customers People taking consultation services from Lock-smith Society as a whole Step II Isolate the Major Ethical Dilemma Should Sheila review the case and the program before terminating Alice from the job so that a valid reason of dismissal can be stated? Step III Ethical Analysis Consequentialism: If action in Step II is done, who will be harmed? No one will be harmed. If action in Step II is NOT done, who will be harmed? Alice would be harmed as she loses her job. Which alternative results in the least harm? Alternative A will result in least harm. If action in Step II is done, who will benefit? ACE would be benefited as after proper review, the company will not lose its faithful employee and also the program developed by Alice would be beneficial for ACEs security. Also, other employees will get assurance of proper review of any such issue in future. If action in Step II is NOT done, who will be benefited? No One will benefited Which alternative results in the maximum benefit? Alternative D will result in maximum benefit. Consequentialism Comments (on the choices at C. and F.) If Sheila reviews the whole case and the program, less or no people will be harmed as compared to when she does not review the case. Selecting alternative A and D will result in considering the valid reasons of termination and also helps in differentiating the good and bad features of the program (Sheldon, 2016). Rights and Duties: List relevant abridged rights and neglected duties Employees have a right to know on what basis they have been terminated. ACE has a right to protect its employees from unreasonable job dismissal and support them for their new inventions. Ted, as a head of IT department, has a duty to take any decision after considering all the facts properly. Sheila, as an executive head, has a duty to ask Ted the valid reason for any of his action. ACE has a duty to not offer any program to its user which can be used for any wrong motives. (Howe, 2016) Rights and Duties Comments: From the above it can be said that certain rights and duties are in conflicting position, such as ACE has a right to support its employees for new inventions but at the same time has a duty to not offer any dangerous program to its user that can be misused. Kants Categorical Imperative: (Kant, 2016) If action in Step II is done, who will be treated with disrespect? No One If action in Step II is NOT done, who will be treated with disrespect? Busta Bigwig, the owner of the ACE Which alternative is preferable? Alternative H is preferable If action in Step II is done, who will be treated unlike others? Alice. She will get special treatment as Busta wants Sheila to offer position to Lock-Smith in ACE. If action in Step II is NOT done, who will be treated unlike others? No One Which alternative is preferable? Are there benefits if everyone did action in Step II? Yes. Employees will have chance to prove their part and proper review would result in right decision Are there any benefits if nobody did action in Step II? No. unreasonable termination will lessen employees trust Which alternative is preferable? N Step III Discussion. Looking to the above analysis, it can be said that the main issue is to consider the whole case of Alice termination and at the same time review the features of the program that Alice has to offer so that dangerous feature, if any, can be removed. It is clear that bringing Alice and her expertise to the ACE again and purchasing the program that provide good security to ACE outweigh the dangerous feature of Validation contained in the program because that feature can be removed with some negotiations but losing faithful employees without any valid reason is not ethical(Kallman Grillo, 1996). The conclusion is D, G2 and N should be given the priority and Sheila should review the case as well as program features in detail. Step IV Making a decision IV A. Make a defensible ethical decision Sheila should review the whole case properly and also consider all the features of the program that Alice has to offer to ACE. If anything seems dangerous about the program then she can ask Alice to remove that feature from that program by giving valid reasons(Gilbert, 2012). IV B. List the steps needed to implement your defensible ethical decision Sheila will call Alice and examine all the features of the program Alice has to offer. She will also ask Ted to give reasons for rejecting Alices program and her termination. If she feels that validation feature is actually dangerous then she will ask Alice to remove this feature from the program so that users will not misuse it and will get ready to purchase the program. Sheila will also inform Alice and Ted about the instructions from Busta and offer a good position to Alice in ACE again. References CalChamber, 2016. Employee Termination. [Online] Available at: https://www.calchamber.com/california-employment-law/pages/termination.aspx [Accessed 17 september 2016]. Gilbert, J., 2012. Ethics for Managers: Philosophical Foundations and Business Realities. Routledge. Howe, R., 2016. Corporate Rights Duties. [Online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/corporate-rights-duties-70463.html [Accessed 17 september 2016]. Kallman, E.A. Grillo, J.P., 1996. Ethical Decision Making and Information Technology. McGraw Hill. Kant, I., 2016. Chapter 2: Ethical Traditions. [Online] Available at: https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT/Chapter_2_Ethical_Traditions/Categorical_Imperative.htm [Accessed 17 september 2016]. Relkin, J., 2006. 10 ethical issues confronting IT managers. [Online] Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ethical-issues-confronting-it-managers/ [Accessed 17 september 2016]. Sheldon, M., 2016. Establishing a Termination Policy Guidelines. [Online] Available at: https://www.thehartford.com/business-playbook/in-depth/employee-termination-policy-guidelines [Accessed 17 september 2016]. Shinder, D., 2005. Ethical issues for IT security professionals. [Online] Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2557944/security0/ethical-issues-for-it-security-professionals.html [Accessed 17 september 2016].