Minorities in the US and Germany

“When different cultures and races around the world clash, there will always be some issues”.

In the U.S. there are many different ethnic minorities. The three biggest groups are the Native Americans, the African Americans and the Hispanics. Each one of these groups has been treated very badly in the past and still today in different ways. The Native Americans have been slaughtered and robbed of their land (since they were the first human beings in the U.S.). The African Americans on the other hand were brought to the U.S., against their will, as slaves. The Hispanics, however, chose to come to the States, because they lived in very bad conditions in their home countries (mostly Mexicans) and they had no other prospective in life so they tried to cross the border illegally, in order to have a better life.

There are many undocumented Hispanic workers, especially in the south of the U.S.. They are cheap workers, for instance, in the garden or the household. On TV I saw a report on Mexican immigrants who come to the states illegally to work for white Americans. They never complain about the little money they get because they are afraid that somebody will deport them. Sometimes they don’t even get paid for their work. I also saw a white American lady talking about going to the store and get some groceries and also three Mexicans to help her with some work in the garden and to clean her car. This was very shocking to me that this lady talked about the Mexicans as if they were some kind of objects.

Hispanics nowadays are treated worse than Native Americans and African Americans. There are still many issues the other ethnic minorities have today but this would stretch my blog out into infinity.

In Germany there are only two big minority groups; the Turks and the Russians. They came to Germany as guest workers. Companies were looking for cheap laborers, mostly Turkish, Russian or even Polish men. After some time they brought their entire families to Germany or some of them moved back to their home countries. Those Turkish and Russian families are already in their second or third generation. Their children grew up with two languages but do not speak either one (German/Turkish or Russian) perfectly. They have their own German slang and they are viewed as uneducated. Those children have big problems assimilating to the German culture and can neither identify with the culture of their parents home countries.

This situation of the Turkish and Russian people in Germany can be compared to the situation of the Hispanics, Native Americans and African Americans in the U.S.. It is quite similar and this phenomenon occurs in many other places around the world too. To my mind these problems that occur when people from different races and cultures meet will always continue to exist until all races have mingled and there will be no distinction between colors anymore.

The Ropes Course

1. What was the experience like for you?

Being on the ropes course was a great experience for me. It was so much fun seeing my other classmates in another situation as well as location.

2. Where there any benefits to you as an individual?

Yes, there were a couple of benefits for me. Although I have already been on a similar course I learned different things in this ropes course. The other one was more about overcoming fear from height for example. This one was more about strategies and teamwork. I learned that I am a kind of person who likes to give contributions and suggestions but not necessarily being the leader of the group.

3. What were the benefits to us as a class?

The activities on the ropes course made me to get to know my classmates better. This could be helpful with the group work in class, since we feel more comfortable with each other now.

4. Compare and contrast how this activity relates to the themes in Ch 4

On the one side the activities on the ropes course relate to the themes Inventiveness and Can-Do-Spirit in Ch 4. We realized that every problem, like the wooden boards for instance, has a solution. On the other side the concepts of Self-Reliance and the Rugged Individualist was left out, since we were supposed to work in teams.

5. Is this activity uniquely "American" or is this something your culture has or could have as well?

We also have similar courses like that in Europe. It's definitely not an "American" thing. Our ropes course was a lot more dangerous than this one and a lot bigger. I am really not afraid of height but sometimes I had to overcome many fears.

Homecoming 2010 in Eau Claire

I was really excited about my first Homecoming in my life. I had a lot of expectations because I have just heard about it, but never really knew what it was. This semester I finally had the chance to make this wonderful as well as shocking experience and I am going to share it in the following.

Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back former alumni of a university. The elections for the Homecoming queen and king took place a week before Homecoming even started. You would see a lot of creative and funny posters all over campus to make people vote for the Homecoming queen and king. You could also hear the marching band practicing. I never saw it but I could hear the music from across the river.

My Homecoming weekend started with the short but nice parade. We could see the marching band and also a couple of dancers, soldiers again and some students performing.

I could also see that there were a lot of house parties going on all over Eau Claire. Everywhere you could see fenced off areas around houses and people standing with the typical red cups and drinking alcohol. It was only 10 o’clock but the most shocking part was that the bars opened at 7 o’clock on this day and people already started having some drinks at the bars. People from everywhere participated in this event. Even people, who have never belonged to the university. Unfortunately this event is mostly used as an excuse to get drunk all day long.

Furthermore I noticed that everyone wore a t-shirt which either said: Homecoming 2010, UWEC or Blugolds. Almost everyone was wearing Blue and Gold clothing. I really liked this because it shows the strong cohesion of the Americans through events like the Homecoming.

Homecoming usually includes activities for students and alumni, such as sports. Like the football game we saw on Saturday. It was the first football game that I saw in my life and the experience was great, even though I was not able to really understand the game, but the feeling was unforgettable. The marching band and the cheerleaders were amazing. One just gets carried away by the mood and everything.

All in all I thought that Homecoming was a really great experience and I am sad that we do not have something like that in my home country.