It is undeniable that language and cultural differences between groups of people create barriers for communication between them. However, many methods of breaking these cultural barriers have been successful. Through the use of educational programs, sports, games, and various other activities, different groups of people are finding similarities between each other.
A situation in which people of different backgrounds are separated because of certain disabilities can be seen in areas such as Glasgow, Scotland, where patients of minority ethnic backgrounds receive less care than people from majority populations. For instance, people such as Hanif Mohammed participate in a dementia friendly group organized by Research in Ageing and Cognitive Health, or REACH, which provides them with an opportunity to engage in activities that are related to their culture and receive support services from people from similar cultures.
Programs such as this highlight the importance of healthcare workers to have the entire community in mind when organizing activities instead of serving just the vocal majority. Glasgow’s Asian community was only beginning to be noticed once it reached its current population of 14% out of more than 1.6 million people. Encouraging diversity within nations will increase awareness for people of all backgrounds.
People also utilize educational opportunities in order to remove disparities between ethnic groups. The Nairobi Play Project aims to support multi-ethnic interaction between children in communities through working together in technology and computing classes. Since its humble start in Nairobi, this program has been implemented in many other areas of the world and has been very successful in developing skills within children that are essential to have for contemporary success.
Since computers are limited in these classrooms, children of different backgrounds are often paired together, encouraging interaction between them. When the students work together to solve problems, they learn to cooperate and build relationships with a diverse set of people. This would not be successful without the facilitation of learning by teachers, who ensure that students are properly interacting with each other and fostering relationships.
Furthermore, educational institutions have created policies that support underprivileged ethnic groups. One organization that has taken measures in this direction is the College Board, which plans to assign an adversity score that ranges from 1 to 100 to each individual test taker of the SAT, with a higher score indicating higher adversity. This score is intended to provide an equal opportunity to test takers that are underprivileged in comparison to more privileged test takers.
However, the College Board’s announcement of its new SAT adversity score has been met with controversy. Some argue that this score does not take into account all of the adversity that a student has to go through in their daily lives, and therefore, no number can be used to measure the difficulties that a person deals with. They add that regardless of the adversity score’s accuracy, it can undermine the efforts of high-scoring, “privileged” students.
Proof of ethnic barriers causing a negative impact on education for some can be seen with a study reported by Maithreyi Gopalan and Shannon Brady, from Pennsylvania State University and Wake Forest University respectively, that discussed the sense of belonging of college students at different types of institutions. They found that “racial-ethnic minority and first-generation students report lower belonging than peers at 4-year schools, while the opposite is true at 2-year schools.” Since an increased sense of belonging correlates with academic success, improving disparities between students is essential.
What action can be taken in order to put everyone on equal footing? While not from an educational perspective, a study carried out by Dr K. Casey Lion et al. at Seattle Children’s Research Institute aimed to identify factors that can be improved upon in order to provide everyone with equal care in hospitals. Socially disadvantaged children more often faced undesirable outcomes when compared to other children. The researchers worked to find correlations between barriers and hospital outcomes.
The study found that out of a total of 10 barriers that were observed in the study, “system barriers, skill barriers, cultural distance, and marginalization were significantly associated with both worse hospital outcomes and social disadvantage.” Attacking these factors through increased inclusion of all cultures in a general area may positively impact the health of children that would otherwise face negative outcomes.
Some politicians serve as examples of people that understand the importance of breaking ethnic barriers, since appealing to the majority of voters is imperative to their success. For instance, Bernie Sanders is heavily focused on garnering the support of Latinos, who could help the Senator win the presidential race in swing states. Additionally, based on a recent study conducted by The Washington Post, Joe Biden is supported by 48 percent of black Democrats, further highlighting the importance of appealing to minority populations.
Further implementation of techniques that have been used to bring people of different ethnicities is essential for progress. More research will provide insight into relationships and interactions between minorities and the rest of the population. Gradually, the world is becoming more unified than it has ever been.