Matthew Becker Professor Porter English 1301 – 30396 26 October 2008 Gender and Race in Our Society Racism and sexism in our country has always been a major issue. Both of these issues were especially bad when we were still a new and developing country. People have always been treated very poorly in this country just because of their skin color or because of their gender. It’s a problem still today but a lot has changed and it seems like the problem has gotten better even though there is still a long way to go. Now over the yearsthings very slowly started to get better. The government eventually made segregation of school illegal but when they integrated schools things did not go so well. In Little Rock, Arkansas the government had to send the National Guard to make sure that the few African American students who did go to predominantly white schools were not seriously injured. African Americans were truly given the right to vote after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 15th Amendment gave them the right to vote but states made other requirements and qualifications to stop them from voting and the Voting Rights Act made it so states could not put those things in place to stop anyone from voting. Today racism in our society has been reduced and not just African Americans butall minorities have a more equal chance at things in this country. There is still people who find ways around all the laws in place that prevent racism in the workforce but it still is a lot better than in the past. Gender has always raised problems in this country just because of the way people think things should be. Women in this country used to always be looked at as house wives and thought of to always be the ones to stay home and look after the family. The men were supposed to be the family provider and they were the ones who went and worked on the farm or in a factory. Even as kids the boys and girls were given different roles in the household. The boys helped the father with...