Native Americans
For ages now, Native Americans, just like any other minority group in America, have been marginalized from society due to their strong but different cultural traditions. Instead of including and embracing others’ differences, our current society pushes them away while still teaching on how-to live-in harmony. During decision making, only the majority’s rights and needs are considered. This is one of the reasons why Native Americans are rarely discussed in contexts of diversity. I also believe that the negative historical relationship between the Native Americans and the government has contributed to the seldom inclusion in diversity discussions.
Americans have always tended to ignore the diversity of the people who had previously lived in their states. And in the current American society, we still do; some certain experiences common to the survivors of these tribes still exist to date. It seems that even After giving up their culture to live the European ways of life, this did not solve even half of their problem. Settlers relocated them occupied their productive land with growing cotton; according to the Indian, Americans were an unfamiliar group of aliens who occupied land that they badly wanted and would do anything to have. As a result, white settlers decided that the best way to have the land was to civilize the Native Americans. They pushed them to convert to Christianity, speak English as well as to adopt European economic styles.
However, it turned out that the white settlers’ intentions were not purely to civilize the Native Americans but to lure them into giving out their land. They did not value their diversity then, and this has persisted even to date. This is one of the reasons why Native Americans are seldom discussed in contexts of diversity. There is still a stereotype that brings negative attitudes towards Native Americans. According to a focus study group conducted by the non-partisan public agenda organization, 2007 it turned out that Native Americans continued to come along prejudgments and maltreatment in their daily lives. This makes me believe that prejudice could also be why Native Americans are seldom discussed in the context of diversity.
The diversity between these tribes existed way before the Europeans sought to civilize them. Linguistically the Native American tribes used to speak a different language, and up to date, they have the most brilliant language skills. Their diversity has been there for ages only that the Europeans have been blinded by discrimination and prejudice not to notice. They spoke different languages, and their lifestyles differed much. Some of the tribes were domestic while others were nomadic, and others relied on hunting and fishing. But due to their uncivilized nature and strongly believe in their traditional ways, the Europeans marginalized them and discriminated against them, Sensoy, Ö., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Many non-native Americans, as per the research carried out by Public Agenda organization, acknowledged that they came across Native Americans in daily endeavors.
In the current American employment sector, where attention to diversity and total inclusion of all citizens in the organization is a policy, there is little or no Native Americans representation. This omission of Native Americans is so great that some diversity and inclusion website metrics represent them in those organizations by less than a centile of the total employees. At times they are not represented at all, and this absence of the Native Americans in the organization’s diversity is quite normal and degrading (Closing case). Out of the 320 million people (approximated) of America, Native Americans make up only 9% of the population, which equals 2.9 million. However, in 2016, the unemployment rate for Native Americans was the highest among all the ethnic groups.
As a Human resource manager, the best strategies to ensure that more Native Americans applied for positions in my organization will be creating equal employment opportunities and exercising measures adopted to curb discrimination. The next step would be carrying out research to locate the Natives, create awareness, and investing an equal amount of personnel pointed out by the organization’s charter of diversity.
In conclusion, diversity efforts towards the Native Americans need to be improved to make them feel appreciated and recognized as belonging. Besides, their strength in cultural tradition, language skills, and entrepreneurial skills are important to improving any economy. For ages, the Natives have faced many challenges ranging from stereotypes to prejudice and bias. Besides, their inclusion and diversity rights have been looked down upon by non-native Americans and employment organizations. To ensure that they have always discussed in diverse contexts, Hr. Managers need to revise the employment strategies of their organizations.