Prejudice In Canada Essays - Discrimination, Abuse,

Prejudice In Canada The topic of my position paper was supposed to be most people in Canada are not prejudiced towards minority groups but I find it virtually impossible to argue this because everyday I witness multiple occurrences of prejudiced behaviour. My textbook stated that most prejudice is found in people who have little education or come from lower-income families, but this statement does not seem to be true. The newspapers I read, and things people around me say and do show that prejudice is around and likely always will be. The people who have been deemed prejudiced because they are from lower-income families or have little education have been raised to fend for themselves. Therefore, they may think of immigrants as a threat, and believe they take jobs and money away from whites. Also, due to their lack of education they may not be aware that many immigrants start businesses of their own and employ many whites therefore creating more jobs. Unfortunately, it is not just people in this group that are prejudiced. The newspaper is a key piece of media that is often prejudiced, you just need to read between the lines to realize this prejudice. Just yesterday I was flipping through the Toronto Star and a certain headline caught my eye -- Parents of murdered child express their Jewish anger and I thought to myself, their Jewish anger? I wasn't aware that Jewish people had a different type of anger than any other ethnic group. Prejudice is also all around me on a daily basis. I hear words like paki, chink, wop, Jew bastard and nigger hourly when around friends and classmates. These racial slurs are thrown around without a thought of the true meaning of them. It is unfortunate that parents do not seem to have raised their children to instinctively know that using these slurs is completely inappropriate and wrong. The most important role a parent can play in their children's life is that of a role model, but many parents, rich and poor, speak or behave with prejudice regularly. Most children grow up to have many of the same morals and beliefs as their parents, therefore this chain of prejudice will likely never end. I wish I could say that most people in Canada are not prejudiced towards minority groups but I fear that this just i Sociology

A Needle Exchange Controversy essays

A Needle Exchange Controversy essays Needle Exchange Programs: The Best Solution? The United States of America has been contending with adverse social and economic effects of the drug abuse, namely of heroin, since the foundation of this country. Our initial attempt to outlaw heroin with the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 resulted in the U.S. having the worst heroin problem in the world (Tooley 540). Although the legislative actions regarding heroin hitherto produced ominous results that rarely affected any individuals other than the addict and his or her family, the late twentieth century brings rise to the ever-infringing AIDS epidemic in conjunction with heroin abuse. The distribution of clean needles to intravenous (IV) drug users is being encouraged in an attempt to prevent the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from sharing "contaminated needles" (Glantz 1077). It is the contention of this paper to advocate the establishment and support of needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users because such programs reduce the spread of HIV and d o not cause an increase of drug use. This can be justified simply by examining the towering evidence that undoubtedly supports needle exchange programs and the effectiveness of their main objective to prevent the spread of the HIV. Countries around the world have come to realize that prohibiting the availability of clean needles will not prevent IV drug use; it will only prevent safe IV drug use (Glantz 1078). Understanding that IV drug use is an inescapable aspect of almost every modern society, Europeans have been taking advantage of needle exchange programs in Amsterdam since the early 1980's (Fuller 9). Established in 1988, Spain's first needle exchange program has since been joined by 59 additional programs to advocate the use of clean injection equipment (Menoyo 410) in an attempt to slow the spread of HIV. Several needle exchange programs sponsored by religious organizations in Australia have "reporte...