Question

Module 04 Discussion 2 - Reflection on Current Events

How might some of the current social events of today reflect those of the 1970's? What can history teach us about our current state of affairs in American culture? 250 word minimum for your initial post.

Student Post:

In my other post this week, I wrote about the few media outlets that were available for the public. Three television stations, print newspapers, and magazines are where most people got their news. Even though the media was limited, they still got their message out to the American people. Now we have an almost limitless supply of outlets to get information. But what hasn't changed? Politics. There is a major divide between many citizens that can be seen in every media outlet, including social media. We have seen a revival of the equal rights movement for both race and gender equality. What we can learn from the lessons I wrote about the media's influence during the Vietnam War, is even more important now. I believe the US military changes some of their war tactics since there were people videoing and reporting what they saw during the war. What we have today would be that scenario on steroids. Now, not only do we have more cameras capturing everything politicians say and do, we can stop, slo-mo, rewind and fast forward the videos to capture every word and facial expression. The distrust much of today's youth feel for our current administration are similar to the youth of the 70's distrust of politicians and the war altogether. What can history tell us about our state of affairs of our current American culture? We will make small improvements in those areas to make people feel better about our progress, then some other wrong will capture our attention, and we will then move to fix the new problem, leaving the racial and gender gaps better, but still not fixed. A little pessimistic outlook, I will admit, but that's what history has shown me. In the '50s and '60s, we started making headway on racial equality, then we moved on to fighting in Vietnam. After Vietnam, we were making a social change again, and then a depression hit and some issues with some countries in the Middle East hit, and we forgot to finish what we started. Whether this is just coincidence, or political strategy, it is how I've seen it happen for my whole lifetime.

Answer 1

Lets talk about diversity at the workplace. In 1970s the USA workplace was quite stereotypical where all the macho jobs were with men and all the mild jobs belonged to the women. Women were usually secretaries, nurses or teachers. But with time, the USA workplace has become quite diverse and inclusive. In the 21^st century, companies are trying to be perceived to have a multiculturalism work culture. With the advent of technological evolution and increase in the level of awareness, companies have become ardent advocates of diversity and inclusion. The companies want to hire diverse workforce. The primary objective behind this is that a diverse workforce at the company facilitates innovative and out of box thinking and helps in strengthening the overall competitive advantage of the company in the market. Multicultural organization is one which appreciated the diverse background of its employees and encourages the employees to come up with unique perspectives based on their varying backgrounds and heritages. Multicultural organizations are great propagators of diversity and inclusion and usually are companies with positive employer brand. However, in my views, the glass ceiling for women has been broken just for namesake and there is much scope left for diversity in the C-Suites of the company.