Prompt: In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian the characters face many issues that are common amongst Native Americans. Read the article included below and find two issues that you think are the most pressing. Compare and contrast those two issues facing Native Americans today with one issue facing another marginalized group. Your essay needs to be well edited and needs to use concrete evidence to support your point.
Choose two issues from the article that we went over in class together.
From each of the sections you would like to choose, cut and paste
Summarize in at least two paragraphs
The Native American people suffer through hardships, as have many other marginalized groups; however not as many people are informed about Native Americans.
One of the main issues that Native Americans face is that their communities are poor and there is not much they can do about it. Because most Native Americans live on reservations, jobs are very hard to find. Says Tom Rodgers, “The Economic Research Service reports that Native American communities have fewer full-time employed individuals than any other high-poverty community (Rogers).” This shows how Native American reservations are even poorer than other communities in poverty. In fact, more than one in four Native Americans lives in poverty. One of the reasons for the Native American’s poverty is due to the lack of jobs. There are no positions open to Native Americans and if there were, the companies would most likely hire someone else. People do not seem to want to hire Native Americans “and even when American Indians are similar to whites in terms of factors like age, sex, education level, marital status and state of residence ... their odds of being employed are 31 percent lower than those of whites (Algernon Austin).” This statistic proves that Native Americans are less likely to be employed than their white counterparts. People claim that racial discrimination is over, but it never really stopped. In many ways, Native Americans’ struggles are very similar to African Americans’. African Americans also struggle with lack of jobs and racial discrimination. In 2012, unemployment rates for Native Americans was 12.3% and for African Americans was 13.8%. These were the two highest rates of the races included in a graph made by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both were much higher than the unemployment rate for whites (7.2%). This data shows how much Native Americans and African Americans suffer. It also shows how the unemployment rates for Native Americans and African Americans are almost double the rates for whites.
Someone once said, “Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain”. There are innumerable ways for a country to be considered corrupt. The cause of corruption is seemingly unknown, and it is virtually impossible to tell what exactly causes a country to become corrupt. The leaders of countries are often the ones who cause political corruption. People in the ultimate power positions become corrupt, but people in any position of too much power will always corrupt.
If a person has no power, they are unable to do anything. Power is what enables humans to do horrible things. Of the people in jail, most are bad, but they have no power, so they can’t do anything. A person with power will turn bad and will want to do bad things, but they can’t do anything if they have no power. This is because power permits us to do the horrible things and leads to corruption.
In past situations, people given too much power have repeatedly gone corrupt. People in the past given full power have always become corrupt. An example of someone who’s power went to his head would be Hitler. Hitler went insane and murdered thousands of innocent people because of their religion. Even in books power corrupts, Voldemort grew up as the perfect child but when he is given power becomes corrupt. As you can see in the examples, when given absolute power, any person will abuse their position and use their power for maliciousness.
Current successful governments have power distributed to several different people in charge. Spreading political control to numerous amounts of people helps a government endure challenges. For example, the power in the USA is disseminated between three different branches and a president; no one person is given full control. This way of distributing power has helped the US government stay strong for hundreds of years. No important political decisions can be made without the agreement of multiple people. This allows several different views to be heard and the best decisions to be made. Because no person is given absolute power, the government has been able to run smoothly.
Some people think that absolute power doesn't always corrupt. There have been times where giving one person full political control has worked. The catch is that it doesn't last. For example, several monarchies have flourished, but haven't lasted. With one royal family holding all governmental power, there is eventually someone who didn't use their power for good. This leads to their downfall. Power doesn’t always corrupt immediately, but given time it always will.
Corruption is always achieved by giving someone too much power. In the past, we have seen numerous governments crumble because of the lack of shared power. Only governments with power split between several people have been able to survive for prolonged periods of time. Knowing that giving one person too much power will end in disaster is important for all current and future governments. The peril of full control is best illustrated by Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”