Custom «Ethnic Strife in the USA: Possible Solutions» Essay Paper Sample

Ethnic strife was one of the most pressing problems that we had to face in the 20th century, and arranging ethnic conflicts peacefully is still a crucial point in national and international politics. As the USA is a melting pot for many ethnicities, this conflict will not concern us firstly on international level but on national, thus trying to solve this problem -in my opinion - has a priority to other matters.

Even if sociologists like McGarry and O'Leary group their ethnic conflict regulation methods in two big categories (methods for eliminating differences and methods for managing differences), which suggests that there are ways to totally diminish this problem, I think that ethnical differences can not and should not be eliminated, we have to find remedies that help managing the existing situation peacefully.

We must see that ways that are morally unacceptable methods (forced population transfer) shall not be applied in a state of law and even if applied, they prove useless. For example the French government tried to prevent gypsies settling down in France by paying 300 euros for each of them. This case triggered international debates and it is crystal clear that France had broken not only international treaties but offended human rights. Only a fair ethnical policy can mean a possible remedy.

I think that the most useful program would concentrate on giving the different ethnicities opportunities for getting to know the habits and culture of the other ethnicities. We can not solve ethnic strives without the ethnicities understanding each other. Ignorance means misunderstanding, misunderstanding leads to conflict. The circulus vitiosus of conflicts can be broken only at the start, we have to educate people so they can see things from a wider aspect. I share the positivists' thoughts, I think that by knowledge, humankind will move forward and not backwards: by raising educated, well-read citizens the problem of not understanding, misunderstanding each other will be minimized.

Showing mutual respect and understanding is very important. I think that we are already on the path of development - Obama's victory on the elections was a symbolic step in the fight against the ethnic conflicts.

To sum up I think that taking care of the problems of a multicultural country is not easy, but it is also not impossible. It requires patience and a lot of work, but in the end it all pays off - after all seeing our children, grandchildren grow up in a world free of ethnic strives is worth working for.