Existence Precedes Essence Essay

Existence Precedes Essence Essay Existence Precedes Essence According to metaphysics, essence precedes existence. This means that any object, if it has to come into existence its idea should exist in the mind of the creator. For example, if we want to build a house, an idea of how the house will look like, its features and location must take place in our mind; its essence should be there before it can come into existence. However Jean Paul Sartre implies that existence precedes essence in human beings. Sartre believes that the self or body or in other words, the existence comes into being first and then after the human being has entered this world; he defines or makes up his essence or nature by his interaction with the surroundings, people and opportunities around him. According to Sartre, every human being is defined or made essentially by development of his character through his time and interaction with the world and its people. Sartre also argues that because each human being is free to interact and make their own choices, the onus of these choices comes in the form of radical freedom and responsibility. Every human being is responsible for their own actions and its consequences through the decisions that have been made by him. Behavior, whether good or bad cannot be justified by making it a part of a human beings nature or essence (Cline, n.d). People make their own choices and decisions and act accordingly and therefore any results that their actions might bear are the sole responsibility of the qualities that have been developed by that person. According to Sartre, the proverb, as you sow, so shall you reap; defines his main idea of existentialism The implication for this comes to the fact that individually we are responsible for our own actions but collectively as a mankind our actions shape the world around us and the future generations will learn from these and shape their characters or nature. Friedrich Nietzsche also believed that people can only be truly free when they free themselves from religion and faith in God. His famous remark ‘God is dead echoes this ideology. The Christian church preached that all human beings were equal and that the after world was essentially of more importance than the present world, this according to Nietzsche undermined a human beings ability to excel and placed him in the same line as a common individual. He was highly influenced by Darwins theory survival of the fittest and believed that this kind of preaching undermined human beings true potential. According to Nietzsche anything that gave power to man and the will to power to deliver those actions was good and any form of weakness which according to him came by being moral and faithful was bad. In this case, since Christianity instilled in its believers moral values and the spiritual way of living, Nietzsche declared that the only way to achieve true potential and endure pain in t he real world and truly live life was to detach from God (Crowell, 2004) Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs which consists of five levels namely physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self actualization which is also the highest level of needs a person can achieve (cited in Burger, n.d). This relates to Sartres thesis that human beings exist and then define themselves by developing their nature and interacting with their surroundings. Maslow is essentially saying the same thing that a person who exists in this world moves towards fulfillment of his personal goals through decisions at varying levels of what he needs from the society in terms of food, shelter and a place among friends and family which helps him achieve the last stage of fulfillment of self actualization where he is able to give back to the society in terms of his experiences and the knowledge and development of ethics and character that has led him to lead a successful life essentially and give back to mankind. References Burger, D. (n.d.).Phenomenological perspectives on change. Retrieved March 22nd, 2010 from http://www.themanager.org/Strategy/Phenomenological_Perspectives_on_Change_-_Daniel_Burger.pdf Cline, A. (n.d.).Existence precedes essence: themes and ideas in existentialist thought. Retrieved March 22nd, 2010 from http://atheism.about.com/od/existentialistthemes/a/existence.htm Crowell, S. (2004). Existentialism.Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved (2010, March 22) from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/

My Dad and the Flat Earth :: Personal Narrative Profile

My Dad and the Flat Earth Today my father tells us the earth is flat. He sits us down, the five of us, sits us down on the couch in the living room and tells us the earth is flat. It's not like he says, "Boys. The earth is flat," and then walks away. It's not like that at all. What he does is he takes the time to explain it to us. Even gives us visual aids. His hands become the earth. With his hands out before us he shows us the exact shape of the earth. It's not flat, really, but saucer shaped. Almost bowl shaped. He shows us with his hands. His fingers bend up slightly and his thumbs bend in towards each other, so that his hands make a kind of bowl. "Where do we live?" my oldest brother Sam asks. "Here," says my father. "in the bowl." "Really?" "Yeah," he says, with total confidence. "Look." He starts pulling his slightly cupped hands upward towards the ceiling, slowly. He doesn't say anything as he performs this move. He wants us to watch it for a while. He doesn't look at his hands, he looks at us. Our reaction. We don't react. "This is how the earth moves," he says. "it travels constantly upwards." "Upward?" says Len, my other older brother. "Yes. Upward." "Towards what?" It's me asking this time. I figure it's my turn to speak. My father looks at me for a moment and I think he's angry. I'm sorry I asked the question. Then this weird smile comes across his face and I'm not sorry anymore. Now I'm nervous. About my father. The thought occurs to me that my father has lost his mind and that this strange half-smile is the half-smile of a madman. "That's a very good question, Rand." "It is?" "A very good question. It shows you're using your mind." "Losing my mind? Why?" "Using," she says. "Oh. Using." "The earth travels upwards but it's not important where." "It isn't?" I was confused. He had just said that it was a good question, now he seemed to be saying it wasn't. "No," he answers. "What is important is what the earth moves in relation to.

King Lear and the Drawer Boy Comparative Essay Essay

Sometimes, unconsciously, role play is used in our daily lives to assume or act out a specific role. The role play portrayed in Shakespeare’s King Lear and Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy is best defined as the acts or attitude of a person differing from normal in order to attain a better point of view, social interaction, or a goal. William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1564, is known world-wide for his talent for writing plays and poems (William). Shakespeare’s King Lear was officially printed in 1608 (King Lear). This play follows the life of a headstrong old man, King Lear, whose mental state is disturbed by his two selfish daughters, Goneril and Regan. Lear’s other daughter, Cordelia, is loyal to her father, but is disowned for her simple, yet honest response to her father’s question in Act one. The daughters must flatter their father in order for him to decide who gets the most desirable part of his kingdom, but this only elicits lies and cruelty from Goneril and Regan, eventually leading to Cordelia’s and Lear’s downfall. Meanwhile, Gloucester, the father of Edgar and Edmund (his illegitimate son), is blinded by lies as well. Edmund manages to trick his father into disliking Edgar in order for him to take over Gloucester’s power. Michael Healey reflects on betrayal in the form of a stage play, The Drawer Boy, a story told with humour, but also about loss and love. Healey, a Canadian playwright and actor, was born on August 25, 1963 in Toronto, Ontario (Nothof). He based The Drawer Boy on a group of actors who went to farms to research rural life in Southern Ontario and collectively produce a play called The Farm Show. The Drawer Boy is a full length play that focuses on a young actor from Toronto, Miles, and his experiences while visiting a farm owned by two older men, Morgan and Angus. Morgan cares for his close friend Angus, who has brain damage and memory loss which happened during the bombing of London in the Second World War. By the end of the play, these three men create and interpret reality through storytelling and role play. It is obvious that both works use role play as an important device that helps develop the topic of deception. Although the essential nature of role play in King Lear is mostly corrupt, in contrast to the innocent intention in the Drawer Boy, both forms of deception have positive consequences. These positive consequences are what allow the characters to act morally and to understand the value of others. Everyone has an individual role that has the ability to influence other lives. Being capable of role play can have negative and positive effects, depending on how it is used. In King Lear, Edmund is described by his father as the â€Å"bastard son†, and that is the exact role he plays. This role was given to him at birth. Although Edmund is cruel and manipulative in nature, he does find a means for redemption. When Edmund is defeated by his brother Edgar, he still has the chance to kill Cordelia and King Lear, but instead, he makes an attempt to save them by calling back his soldiers before they follow orders. Although the attempt is unsuccessful, a different side of Edmund is revealed during this final act, and he admits to being out of character. â€Å"I pant for life. Some good I mean to do, despite of my own nature,† he declares (5. 3. 291-292). This self-awareness is significant because Edmund acknowledges how his role has affected others, and takes advantage of the opportunity to make a moral decision. This form of justice is also portrayed by the character Miles in The Drawer Boy. Miles’ task is to go to a farm and study how farm-life works in order to create a play about it back in Toronto. The more he gets involved with the lives of Morgan and Angus, the more intrigued he is by them. Although there are a few humorous references to farming, the main attention of this play is on Morgan and Angus’ history together. Miles decides to use the original story he overheard Morgan telling Angus one night as a part in his play. After attending Miles’ rehearsal, Morgan is not impressed by how invasive the play is, but Angus is excited by the reanimation of his life. When Miles discovers there is more to the story, such as sadness and loss, he declines Angus’ offer to use their story in his play. â€Å"Thanks. But—thanks†(Healey 188), Miles says as he hands over his notebook. Miles decides to give up the whole play, even if it means it will jeopardize his career as an actor. When Miles hands over his notebook to Morgan it symbolizes the ethical decision he is making. Even though his role in the play is to investigate farm life, he steps out of that role to do what is right. Edmund and Miles are characters that can be easily compared. They both show that a specific role is not given to someone; instead, people can determine how flexible and adaptable their role in life is. The way that Edmund and Miles adapt to their surroundings by changing characters in order to make a just decision is heartening. Valuing other people for their individuality or specific characteristics is essential to positive interaction among humans. When people take on the role of someone else they lose their individuality and worthiness of true self-value. This type of deceiving interaction is seen in both King Lear and The Drawer Boy. Lear’s flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances over reality. Using role play to their advantage, Goneril and Regan are villainous and use Lear’s blindness to their true natures against him. They alter their characters to flatter their father, who is too full of pride to recognize deceit. Cordelia’s sincerity is misunderstood and Lear banishes her because she does not compliment him like her other two sisters. Both Goneril and Regan have altered their personalities to gain all of Lear’s powers, and it is not until they take everything away from Lear, that he realizes Cordelia is the only daughter who truly loves him. He begs for forgiveness as he cries to Cordelia, â€Å"If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me; for your sisters/ Have, as I do remember, done me wrong† (4. 7. 82-84). Although Lear believes he has done Cordelia wrong and deserves to be punished, Cordelia has no desire for revenge, or any need to make her father suffer for having misjudged her. Goneril and Regan make their father believe they are someone else, but in the end, Lear is able to made amends with Cordelia and value her compassion and honesty. Thi s family journey reinforces the idea that at the heart of every betrayal lies a skewed set of values. Similarly, Morgan values his life-time friend Angus, but does not fully appreciate him until the end of the play. Morgan hides the truth from Angus for a couple of reasons: Angus hit Sally during one of his headache episodes and that’s why she and Frances left the farm. Morgan alse wants to protect himself from his guilt over being responsible for Angus’ accident that caused the headaches and memory loss. When Miles and Angus push Morgan into finally revealing the true story, Angus is overwhelmed, but understanding. Morgan explains, â€Å"I told you the story of the black car crashing for the first time. I told it again, and you stopped crying. I told it again, and you fell asleep. I kept telling it ’cause it made you feel better. Goddamn it, it made me feel better† (Healey 187-188). By telling Angus the truth, Morgan shows how his protective role overpowered his role as a friend. He was, in a way, being selfish by hiding this secret from Angus because he felt guilty for being the one who made Angus go out to the car to get a bottle of brandy when the accident occurred. Angus, however, is not mad at Morgan, but upset with himself for hitting Sally, which caused both Sally and Frances to leave. Both men feel guilty and sorry for one another and for what they have done. Angus had the right to know the truth and Morgan realizes that after seeing how his friend handles it. Morgan now has more respect for Angus, especially after they make a promise to tell the story every day even if Angus forgets. Angus plays a unique role in this play because he is lacking memories of his past with Morgan. Even with memories missing, he still acknowledges the importance of Morgan in his life, and vice versa. The characters recognized the value of others near the end of both works. Truth comes out by the end of King Lear and The Drawer Boy that draws attention to the real role of characters. These character traits are what reveal to the audience each character’s true nature and this realization is what brings those characters closer. Although in The Drawer Boy, Morgan already valued Angus for who he is, it is not until the end of the play that he can explain why he values his friend so much. Whereas throughout King Lear, Cordelia is wretched compared to her sisters, and Lear does not realize how important she is until the very end. In conclusion, while King Lear have more sinister intentions of role play, it is easily comparable to the role play in The Drawer Boy. Characters from both works change their behaviour to accomplish tasks which lead to important results. The results are identified as the characters making moral decisions, and developing a new appreciation of others. In King Lear, the good are misjudged as evil and the evil are accepted as good. In The Drawer Boy the effect of loss and love overwhelms the reader. Two intriguing pieces of writing that are different, but similar in many ways, use an important device, role play. Role play can be as simple as a child playing â€Å"Doctor†, or it can be as serious as altering one’s entire personality to be someone else. In either instance, it is an effective tool that can have many advantages or disadvantages. How people decide to use this ability that defines them and the outcome.

Free Essays on Can Computer Think

Most people think computers will never be able to think. That is, really think. Not now or ever. To be sure, most people also agree that computers can do many things that a person would have to be thinking to do. Then how could a machine seem to think but not actually think? Well, setting aside the question of what thinking actually is, I think that most of us would answer that by saying that in these cases, what the computer is doing is merely a superficial imitation of human intelligence. It has been designed to obey certain simple commands, and then it has been provided with programs composed of those commands. Because of this, the computer has to obey those commands, but without any idea of what's happening. Indeed, when computers first appeared, most of their designers intended them for nothing only to do huge, mindless computations. That's why the things were called "computers". Yet even then, a few pioneers especially Alan Turing envisioned what's now called "Artificial Intelligence" - or "AI". They saw that computers might possibly go beyond arithmetic, and maybe imitate the processes that go on inside human brains. Today, with robots everywhere in industry and movie films, most people think Al has gone much further than it has. Yet still, "computer experts" say machines will never really think. If so, how could they be so smart, and yet so dumb? ================== CAN MACHINES BE CREATIVE? ================== We naturally admire our Einsteins and Beethovens, and wonder if computers ever could create such wondrous theories or symphonies. Most people think that creativity requires some special, magical "gift" that simply cannot be explained. If so, then no computer could create - since anything machines can do (most people think can be explained. To see what's wrong with that, we must avoid one naive trap. We mustn't only look at work... Free Essays on Can Computer Think Free Essays on Can Computer Think Most people think computers will never be able to think. That is, really think. Not now or ever. To be sure, most people also agree that computers can do many things that a person would have to be thinking to do. Then how could a machine seem to think but not actually think? Well, setting aside the question of what thinking actually is, I think that most of us would answer that by saying that in these cases, what the computer is doing is merely a superficial imitation of human intelligence. It has been designed to obey certain simple commands, and then it has been provided with programs composed of those commands. Because of this, the computer has to obey those commands, but without any idea of what's happening. Indeed, when computers first appeared, most of their designers intended them for nothing only to do huge, mindless computations. That's why the things were called "computers". Yet even then, a few pioneers especially Alan Turing envisioned what's now called "Artificial Intelligence" - or "AI". They saw that computers might possibly go beyond arithmetic, and maybe imitate the processes that go on inside human brains. Today, with robots everywhere in industry and movie films, most people think Al has gone much further than it has. Yet still, "computer experts" say machines will never really think. If so, how could they be so smart, and yet so dumb? ================== CAN MACHINES BE CREATIVE? ================== We naturally admire our Einsteins and Beethovens, and wonder if computers ever could create such wondrous theories or symphonies. Most people think that creativity requires some special, magical "gift" that simply cannot be explained. If so, then no computer could create - since anything machines can do (most people think can be explained. To see what's wrong with that, we must avoid one naive trap. We mustn't only look at work...

Broadsheet newspaper on the same day Essays

Broadsheet newspaper on the same day Essays Broadsheet newspaper on the same day Essay Broadsheet newspaper on the same day Essay Comparison of the front page of a tabloid newspaper and the front page of a broadsheet newspaper on the same day. The following piece of work will reflect the differences between a broadsheet newspaper (The Independent) and a tabloid newspaper (The Mail). It will comment on the variations in the way the two newspapers present the Headline, photographs, layout, journalistic styles fact and opinion and the angle of the report. Newspapers have been in circulation a long time, this year being the newspapers 300th anniversary. The Daily Courant was the very first newspaper, printed in 1702, and is still in print today; even though The Stanford Mercury claims it was first printed in 1695. For some years now there has been growing fears that the television, and the Internet will end the spell on newspapers, but in 1999 there was still ten British morning newspapers; between them selling over 13,000,000 copies a day. Newspapers first started with the coffee house society. Upper class citizens would meet in the coffee houses and want to be seen reading the daily news. National papers are usually divided into two categories, Tabloid (or popular press) of which there five. The two most popular are The Sun and The Mirror, between them selling six million copies a day. These are often called the red tops, because of their red mastheads. They include news, but also gossip about celebrities, pictures and shorter articles. Their readership, unlike broadsheet newspapers, is generally the working class public. The Daily Mail and The Express are both called the middle market, they sell over 3 million copies a day, and contain a balance of news, photographs and features. The five qualities (or main broadsheets) are the Daily Telegraph the Times, The Gardian, The Independent and The Financial Times. In these papers there is a lot more news covering political foreign issues, which tabloids sometimes neglect. These newspapers have a more high brow readership. The Broadsheets arent as popular as the tabloids, but all-in-all news papers are still a crucial way of obtaining the news. September the 11th is synonymous with terror, destruction, death, despair, hatred and pain but also with courage, determination, freedom and love. The first anniversary of September 11th provided the Broadsheets and Tabloids with a golden opportunity to focus on the human interest aspects of the tragedy. The news value of September 11th is unquantifiable, as it marks that day never to be forgotten in history. So every newspaper will be competing for the readership on this day, as it strikes a close relationships with the reader which would have affected them in one-way or another. The headline for The Independent is simply September 11 in big, bold, clear, black font. This headline is simplistic yet in the readers mind it conjures up a personal response of what was happening this time last year. The journalist avoids use of puns, alliteration and emotive techniques but it still highly effective. The headline for the Daily Mail is WHERE THE HELL IS HE NOW? With a subtitle: Armageddon a year on. But as the west prepares for war, the question remains.. . This headline is much bigger in font size than the Independents and is underlined. It is also in big, bold capital letters, which is extremely eye catching and uses a rhetorical question to personalise it to the reader. It also uses sensationalism as the west arent actually preparing for war its there to grab your attention. The headline is in white font on top of a black background which makes it somehow gloomy, on the other hand the picture for the Independent is of the New York skyline a year after the terrorist attacks. It is directly under the headline and the skyline is beautiful, clear and calm yet without the two magnificent twin towers. This picture is highly emotive, and by far the most effective of the two pictures, as it is such a contrast of the skyline a year ago as the dominant familiar feature is missing, the sky is also impossibly blue making you wonder will history tragically repeat itself a year on. The Daily Mails picture is a large, close up picture of Osma Bin Laden, the man behind the terrorists attacks. This picture dominates the whole front page and links up with the headline. Both the Mail and the Independent have avoided showing pictures of the plane flying into the towers, and have instead gone with a more emotive approach of making the reader conjure up those images. The photograph of the skyline in the Independent is in full colour and is dislocated from the masthead. In the Mail the front page is given to the picture and the choice of colours are red, black and white, which are all very bold colours and stand out well. As the whole front page is given to the picture in the Mail it has no room for a article unlike the Independent. The article begins with the five Ws (who, what, where, why and when) which are used in journalism in order to quickly inform a reader of the gist of the article and to gain interest. When four hijacked aircraft swept from an impossibly blue sky to kill 3,000 people and transform America today. This statement contains descriptive writing enticing the reader. Like most broadsheets newspaper newspapers, the facts and opinions provided in the Independent are very much impartial. It contains mostly facts with very little opinion, and provides the story, with the only opinions contained in quotes used in this article, nothing is left out as to influence the readers opinion on the story. As a result, it is less sensational and more factual. The Independent, being a broadsheet, has very little emotive language exploited by its journalists, and is almost a neutral source of information, like wise The Mail has no by-line, as it has no article, caption, advert, columns, index or blurb, whilst the independent has all of these things- but you must take into consideration the size difference between a broadsheet and a tabloid. The broadsheet still gives the majority of the front page to the lead story, although it can still afford to have a support story about Parliament to be recalled after Blair bows to pressure for debate, because of its sheer size. The overall layout of the Independent article is simplistic, the print size is small, but normal for newspapers and even the headline uses a relatively small font. It is set out in columns and isnt as eye catching and the Mails huge headline and picture. It is obvious, from comparison of the two newspapers and the different way in which they deliver the news, that the Mail and the Independent are worlds apart. As the tabloid newspapers are selling millions more copies than the broadsheets I wonder do people, on the whole, want facts and figures that the broadsheets provide, or do they want gossip, opinion and bias? Do they want to be shocked and entertained, which is what the tabloids aim to do. I think the answer to that question is to be found in the sales figures.

Types of therapy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Types of therapy - Research Paper Example (Berger, 2006, P.p 31-40) The substance of this prose will state and describe the different types of therapies to help clients resolve their issues. The treatment regimes that are designed to help clients overcome their issues and problems, this form of psychological intervention is either referred to as ‘Counseling’ or ‘Psychotherapy’; the latter form was devised by Sigmund Freud. This form of therapy was further developed by Carl Rogers, who laid great emphasis on a client-centered approach to further enhance the treatment. (Berger, 2006, P.p 31-40) In all psychological treatments there are a number of factors that are synonymous with all treatment and these factors include a close rapport with the therapist that is characterized by a deep confiding relationship. The therapy is conducted in a secure setting that is the therapist’s office or generally a closed environment. The therapist’s behavior is also of key importance here, as it speeds u p the process of treatment and enhances client adherence to the regimen. Therefore the therapist must always adopt an empathetic and positive attitude towards the client. As mentioned earlier there are a number of therapies that are suitable for various mental disorders. The first category of therapies is defined by the biological paradigm, whereby the client is prescribed psychotropic drugs such as anti-anxiety, anti-depressive or anti-psychotic drugs that alleviate the symptoms of the disorder. However, there are a number of drawbacks that are associated with this mode of treatment as many of these drugs may give rise to addictive behaviour and sometime the side-effects are even more adverse than the symptoms of the disorder itself. However, drug therapy has been very popular in mental and physical health settings. (Berger, 2006, P.p 31-40) Therapists have devised supportive psychotherapy that involves one-on-one counseling sessions between the clinician and the client. Analogous to the drug therapy, supportive therapy is used by clients suffering from chronic stress and other mental or physical illnesses. Supportive psychotherapy is characterized by a number of sessions over a long period of time. During these sessions the therapist carefully listens to the client, encourages emotional expression and provides an outlet for the client to get rid of the pent-up emotional and mental trauma as a result of the client’s life situations. (Ingram, 2006) This is a client-centered approach and usually ends with the therapist psychoeducating the client and advising him or her accordingly. Such client-centered counseling is effective in dealing with clients, who need social support or an outlet for their emotional ordeal. Client-centered counseling is widely used by pastoral counselors and social workers, who incorporate a non-directive approach to help the client and calmly listen to the client. The counselor clarifies and helps the client understand various is sues but leaves the choice and the entire decision-making power to the client. The prime focus on the client’s dilapidated self-esteem and increase his or her confidence. These sessions effectively help the client achieve self-actualization. (Ingram, 2006) Though, most of the therapy sessions are based on a client-centered approach, however, in Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) is quite different; it is based on the cognitive model of psychiatric disorders and proposed by Albert Ellis and Aaron T. Beck. The therapy is largely applied on people suffering from depression

Diversity's impact on Society Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Diversity's impact on Society - Term Paper Example This implies the different composition that makes up society. That is the cultural, ethnic, racial, and religious differences. However, in the U.S. context, the term diversity will be used to mean the racial and ethnic composition that makes up the country. This paper will describe the diversity and inclusion concepts in the context of U.S. and global society and culture. The paper will mainly focus on African-Americans and the Spanish-Americans in terms of their cultural diversity. It will also discuss how the two diverse cultures and the events contributed to the US society and culture by describing their origins and contribution to the development of the U.S, and how the events that they experienced led to their inclusion into the US society by 1870s (Graen, 2003). The world is a diverse society made of different cultures, ethnic, religious, racial and languages. This is eminent in all parts of the world be it Africa, Asia, America or Europe. The diversity exists mainly due to the different characteristics, beliefs, and religious affiliations. For instance, Muslims poses certain beliefs that are very different from those of their Christian counterparts. Different people are also different in their own way due to their ethnic and cultural background, while in some societies, diversity exists because of racial difference ((Essed, 1996). The U.S. is one country that is highly rich in diverse cultures. It is imperative to state that diversity in the context of the U.S. mainly refers to the racial and ethnic diversity. The U.S. Census Bureau statistics for 2000 reveals that the population of ethnic and minority cultures in the U.S. accounted for over 30% of the U.S. population (Graen, 2003). This translates to more than 100 million diverse racial and ethnic groups. Richard Rodriquez attributes this high number to the high rate of immigration, which began a long time ago