People whom I interviewed
A- a student of engineering
K- a professor of Business
E- my trainer of speaking
- Do you think that the American government is diverse enough? Why? Why not?
<A>No. I think taking a parliament perspective where each three gets equal representation based on the percentage they make up of the country would make more sense, and currently, that’s not quite true.
<K>Not enough yet. I would say that compared to the diversity of the citizens, the race of those working in government is still skewed. Lots of improvements have been implemented so far, but it’s not enough.
<E>No. Come close to correcting the historical equity that has been there and groups who are in power and trying to stay in power so there’s been a lot of pushback and a lot of backlash about further diversifying the government. I feel it’s improving, but I don’t think there’s enough diversity in government as it is.
- Do you think that the American government should continue to accept immigrants? Why? Why not?
<A>Yes. Immigrants contribute a lot to the culture and society of America. America is a country of immigrants there really aren’t any other countries like it except maybe Canada. So the U.S. government should continue to keep it.
<K>Yes. we used to have the idea immigrants are all good to come here but now we’re like no stay away and I just I don’t think we’re as strong unless we have more people because we don’t have thousands of years like you do we only have 200 years we’re very young so we need I think we need more and I think future America is not all white it will be more mixed everybody will be more mixed.
<E>Yes. because I feel like politics and boundaries and borders aside, it’s more important to treat people like human beings than anything else. My personal feeling is that it is for the good of humanity we need to continue to accept each other from wherever. I also feel like diversity is very important and that one of the major ways that you build diversity in a population is to accept people from other places.
- If you are an officer of the government, how do you address the problem of illegal immigration?
<A>I would make it easier for people to get into the country legally but that’s kind of a cop-out answer. But genuinely I think if you just make it easier to have immigrants come into the country documented, you’re not gonna have an issue with people trying to sneak into the country.
<K>I would work with poor countries to make them better so people want to stay and build that country. I would invest money, knowledge, and expertise so they have a good life where they are and then we could be trading partners. People will always leave if it’s bad and immigrants are brave enough to come to a strange place.
<E>I would first make the process of becoming an American citizen simpler and easier. The primary reason why people are so concerned about illegal immigration is that there’s a threat to their employment or their jobs or whatever. I think the bigger issue is that there are a lot of large powerful corporations in America that were like heavily on illegal immigration in terms of the labor force because it’s easy to take advantage of, to pay very little, and to ignore federal labor law.
- Do you agree or disagree with the opinion that the number of race problems in the U.S. has increased?
<A>I think they’ve steadily been decreasing with time, but people are not as shy to talk about them, so it feels like there are more problems, but it’s the same amount we’ve always had.
<K>I think it has increased sadly. I think some of our politicians encouraged that and it’s a terrible thing. but I think still the majority of people say it’s not acceptable to behave that way toward people different people so I still think most people just think everybody is the same. Race tensions are much higher than they’ve ever been.
<E>I honestly don’t know but definitely, the types of problems we have with race in the United States have been different. I don’t necessarily know others more or less there may be more there were at least more um more types or more ways in which people have gotten people have gotten a little bit more creative in their oppression of other people.
- How do you feel to hear “white privilege”, which is the tendency to see the world through the lens of white culture and power?
<A>It certainly does exist to some degree. Simply based on the fact that most white families are more established in America, so they have more money going back further, there are very poor white families just as they’re poor black families or Mexican families or Asian families.
<K>I recognize it’s real. even some of our religions enforce the idea that white people are somehow better but that’s not true. if we don’t talk about it some people don’t like to talk about they don’t want to admit it admit accept so yeah awareness I think I think so too yeah yeah it is and try to make sure everybody has a chance for good life education safety everybody you know so that’s what I’m thinking yeah
<E>I know that there are people who think that privilege, in general, doesn’t exist especially you know particularly white privilege or male privilege, but I find it difficult to argue that it does not exist. if you look at a lot of historical trends and who’s in positions of power and who has maintained it, how they will take positions of power for so long.
This assignment was really interesting and worth doing for me. Especially since I’m not a U.S. citizen, I could learn the real voice of locals here from the three. I would say this should be continued because students can find new thoughts through talks with other people.