Analysis David Brooks "People Like Us"

David Brook’s essay, “People Like Us, describes about the tolerance and diversity in the United States. Since the great immigration of the late 19th century, America has been cited as one of the most diverse countries in the world. The United States is home to individuals from many different races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, political views, interests, personalities, and income levels. However, according to Brook’s, instead of the population of the country uniting in its diversity and using it as a strength, individuals are trying to distance themselves from others who are not like themselves, rather, band themselves together with those who are like them. Brook’s notes that, even though most of Americans are doing the right thing by finding locations where they are most comfortable and where they believe they can succeed. Their decisions make them achieve their goals often lead towards their own ethnic or racial extractions. For instance, Brook’s himself confesses that he has in the past gravitated towards places where he believed he could be most comfortable in and where he also felt he could pursue his identity. He further states, that the majority of his friends are middle-income level Caucasians and conservative Christians. Brooks’ main argument in the essay is that many individuals in the United States often do not even bother to show that they would like to

“We don’t really care about diversity all that much in America” (132). In “People Like us” David Brooks takes a logical approach through examining the demographics of our neighborhoods, our educational institutions, and he touches on an emotional approach by having his audience examine their values; he does this with hopes of having his audience question their word choice for the American value diversity, and question if the way they are living their lives invites diversity.

At some point everyone has judged someone or has been judged , and this leads to stereotypes and prejudice. In to “Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee displays how judging a man by his color leads to unfortunate events. Through symbolism , stereotypes, colorism , Harper lee shows that everyone eventually judges even if they don’t see it as judging .

In the story “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the main character Scout realizes the town she lives in is full of bias and prejudice toward negros. Scout, the only daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch, is faced with the activism that follows this prejudice when her father decides to defend a negro, Tom Robinson, in the court of law. She is constantly harassed and tormented by the residence of their small town, Maycom. What Lee is trying to show through these events is that people are always going to have prejudices, and sometimes these prejudices come from the people you least expect it form. In the story, neighbors, friends, and family all show their prejudices about the defendant Tom Robinson to Scout, who finally realize the world isn’t perfect but is, in fact, full of flaws and prejudices.

Some humans can’t accept difference. Most humans are locked up in a world where everyone has to be just like them. The novel Downsiders by Neal Shusterman is an example of this. The novel has the theme that when people separate into groups and cultures, they have a hard time understanding the opposite and tend to judge. But those who accept, benefit greatly.

The United States of America used to be known as the world’s largest melting pot. Meaning many different ethnicities and backgrounds coming and living with one another, and sharing each other’s culture. This can also be defined as assimilation. The United States of America has slowly drifted away from assimilation to isolating those who are different and diverse.

In this generation, we still not have fully gained the rights for people of races, colors and religions. Discrimination is still a huge problem in this society. Problems including racism, civil rights violation, lack of freedom and people clashes that is developing through time to time. A lot of arguments happening if racism is still the problem of this society. Many people do not notice this but the answer is yes. It is till the problem of the society.

In the essay, "People Like us" by the author, David Brooks, the main focus is the diversity in America. The United states has a label as being a country that is very diverse. Our country has many different types of ethnic groups, religions, personalities, interest, etc. so in that case, you really can justify the United states as diverse. Brooks mostly uses logic in his essay to prove that, once you look at the United States with a more magnified view, you might realize that technicalities come into play and change the previous statement to, unfortunately, the complete opposite, a corrupt society with no diversity.

Michael Crichton defines prejudice as “opinion in the absence of evidence”. This theme is embodied in Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird and brims throughout the course of the story. Harper Lee exemplifies prejudice by using the juxtaposition of the unbiased man, Atticus Finch and his disparaging sister, Alexandra. Atticus’s quote “you never really understand a person until you consider things from from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” relates to the quote by Michael Crichton because they both illustrate the theme that you cannot judge a book by its cover.(30)

In Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses Scout and Jem to suggest that discrimination and prejudice mindsets force to choose a herd mentality or to choose individuality.

When scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter we see images of  people who we look up to because of their physical appearance, that we consider beautiful and reject those who don’t meet the “ideal” standards of society because we are ignorant and don’t consider their feelings. Society's standards are constantly changing, as we try to meet them we ignore the value of the people around us. Instead, we should focus and set a goal to get to know people who we think are different from us.  In the novel To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Harper Lee conveys the message of if we humans learn to accept one another and set aside our predisposed beliefs of others we are more likely to understand them better, avoid conflict and gain new perspectives and bonds.

The short story, “Degrees of Understanding”, by Robert Heilman describes the prejudice Douglas County citizens face on a day to day basis. One way the author manages to convey this, is when he had to correct an educated woman because she didn’t understand that art isn’t something you learn, by saying, “‘Just because you’re a poet or a dancer or a sculptor, that doesn’t mean that you appreciate beauty any more than a logger or a field hand does,’”(Heilman, 209). Another way his story accomplished this was when he thought about the conversation he had just had, thinking, “Elitism is a sign of ignorance, an ignorance which is the result of the blinding effects of prejudice, refined and cultured prejudice certainly, but prejudice, none the less.” (Heilman, p. 110.) These statements make the reader think about Douglas County as a culture in which they too, have been prejudiced towards.

Lee writes of people who get judged when they go against the majority's opinion. Harper also shares of people who get judged when they choose not to take up a family tradition and people who are judged because they socially isolate themselves from the public. When a person accepts that

Many Tv shows and movies are based upon middle class or even wealthy people. These people are living extravagant lives, as well as having almost perfect romantic relationships. These shows never depict the real struggles that many other people experience. Shameless is far from any of that, it is a Tv show that illustrates real life situations without censoring anything. It makes its audience feel and think outside of their own comfort zone, to make them see other lifestyles, hardships, and different situations.

In the news article called “ Ohio Town holds rare history : Races mix freely for nearly 200 years” written by the Washington Post, soon adapted by the newsela is an informational article on how much diversity elucidation there is that lies in the ground of this Ohio Town that is called Longtown. Longtown's history founded by James Clemens talks about he believes and has shared this with his families and friends is that even if we look different or we have a different skin tone that doesn’t and shouldn’t matter one bit. That I strongly agree on Clemens belief because it shouldn’t matter how a person looks like to become their friend and it shouldn’t matter what they have or what they think or believe in. What should matter is their personality