Ethnicity and Activism

The wave of Black Power reached not only white Americans, but also awoke national pride in such groups as Native Americans and Mexican Americans.

In the 1950s, the US government provided a policy of assimilation toward Indians – they were forced to move to cities to adjust to American style of living. The policy proved to be a failure – the uprooted Indians had difficulty adjusting to urban life and suffered from the loss of land. By 1961, the United States Commission on Civil Rights noted that for Indians, "poverty and deprivation are common".

Inspired by the Civil Rights movement and dissatisfied with the life conditions, in the 1960s, Indians began to demonstrate their cultural pride demanding "Red Power" and insisting on the name "Native Americans". They claimed that Indians suffered the worst poverty, and the poorest education and housing in the USA. Following the African-Americans' example, Indians practiced "fish-in" demonstrations – they fished in the Columbia River to assert old treaty rights, and the Wampanoag Indians in Massachusetts transformed Thanksgiving Day into a National Day of Mourning. A radical organization AIM (the American Indian Movement) was founded to protect Indians from police harassment.

Indian activism brought results – other Americans became more aware of Native American needs. Officials in all branches of government had to respond to pressure for equal treatment, and in 1992, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado was elected the Senate's first Native American member.

Whites' dominance was also challenged by Mexican-Americans, who were led by a charismatic leader Cesar Chavez – a migrant farm worker since childhood. Chavez created the National Farm Workers Association which aimed to improve working conditions for Mexican-American farm laborers. This organization helped to get better wages for field hands and stimulate ethnic conscience and pride. By the mid 1960s, young Hispanic activists insisted on using the term "Chicano" to name people of Mexican and Latin-American decent. They called for bilingual education, rejected assimilation, and fought for Chicano studies programs.

The same kind of movement was founded by Asian Americans, who rejected the pejorative term "Oriental" and tried to signify a new ethnic consciousness among immigrants from the Far East. They also campaigned for special educational programs and wider opportunities for Asian Americans.

All these movements showed the growing consciousness of the ethnic groups that led to the change of the attitude of society toward them.

The Rise of Feminism

Like other "minority" groups, women stared to resent their secondary roles in the working place, homes and government. They faced barriers in getting a job, and when they had a job, they were paid far less than men doing the same work: in 1960, women earned 60 cents for every dollar paid to a man. Married women could not get credits in their own names even if they had jobs of their own.

In 1963, Betty Friedan published the book The Feminine Mystique, describing the narrow roles imposed on women by the society. Her critique of middle-class lifestyle, which gave women only a chance to find a husband and raise children, encouraged many women to seek professional growth and development. The book quickly became a best-seller and galvanized movement for women's rights.

The movement gained power after the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966 and the women's rights demonstrations were organized all over the country. By 1970, NOW managed to win some court battles for equal pay for equal work.

During the period from 1960s to present, many important laws that gave women equal rights with men and a wide range of life choices were introduced. In 1965, the Affirmative Action policy was started to prevent discrimination based on gender. It required institutions and employees to give women the same employment and educational opportunities as white males.

The other key decision came in 1973, when in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court essentially legalized abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. The ruling gave women more legal choices when faced with pregnancy. In 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act banned employment discrimination against pregnant women. Under the Act, a woman cannot be fired or denied a job or a promotion because she is or may become pregnant, nor can she be forced to take a pregnancy leave if she is willing and able to work.

Women's fight for their rights continues today, giving new opportunities and chances for those who could not dream about them before.

Task 1. Fill in the table and compare the goals and accomplishments of the most important movements of the 1960–1970s.

Movement	Goals	Accomplishments
The Civil Rights movement
Black Power
Native Americans' movement
Chicano movement
Feminist movement

Trying to Diminish Discrimination

During the next decades the impact of segregation was being diminished through the Affirmative Action program, however, there was also much controversy over the issue of Affirmative Action itself.

The Affirmative Action policy aimed to prevent discrimination based on race and equal the employment and educational opportunities of women and ethnic minorities to the opportunities of white males. It was introduced to ensure that blacks and other minorities enjoyed the same opportunities for promotions, salary increases, career advancement, school admissions, scholarships, and financial aid that before had been the nearly exclusive for the white males.

The Affirmative Action quotas brought to the universities many blacks, Chicanos, Native Americans and women. At the same time many white males felt underestimated, and having fewer opportunities in life.

In 1978, Allan Bakke, a white male, had been rejected two years in a row by a medical school that had accepted less qualified minority applicants – the school had a separate admissions policy for minorities and reserved 16 out of 100 places for minority students brought the issue to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court recognized the case of reverse discrimination – an unfairly discrimination against the white applicant.

Today Affirmative Action is still torn both in the courtroom and in society. In many cases white students are filing lawsuits against educational institutions for not excepting them on the bases of reverse discrimination while some African-American students feel that Affirmative Action is embedding more racial tensions on campuses across the country.

Task 2. Express you opinion about the Affirmative Action program taking into consideration the following opinions:

• Affirmative Action is a necessary equalizing device needed in the society.

• Affirmative Action gives more opportunities for historically disad- vantaged groups of population.

• Affirmative Action is an instrument of "reverse" discrimination, when people are judged not by their abilities but by gender and the color of the skin.