Hr Policies in Automobile Sector Essay

20 Tips To Help Prevent Medical Errors One in seven Medicare patients in hospitals experience a medical error. But medical errors can occur anywhere in the health care system: In hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, pharmacies, and patients’ homes. Errors can involve medicines, surgery, diagnosis, equipment, or lab reports. They can happen during even the most routine tasks, such as when a hospital patient on a salt-free diet is given a high-salt meal. Most errors result from problems created by today’s complex health care system. But errors also happen when doctors* and patients have problems communicating. These tips tell what you can do to get safer care. What You Can Do to Stay Safe The best way you can help to prevent errors is to be an active member of your health care team. That means taking part in every decision about your health care. Research shows that patients who are more involved with their care tend to get better results. Medicines 1 Make sure that all of your doctors know about every medicine you are taking. This includes prescription and over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements, such as vitamins and herbs. 2 Bring all of your medicines and supplements to your doctor visits. â€Å"Brown bagging† your medicines can help you and your doctor talk about them and find out if there are any problems. It can also help your doctor keep your records up to date and help you get better quality care. 3 Make sure your doctor knows about any allergies and adverse reactions you have had to medicines. This can help you to avoid getting a medicine that could harm you. 4 When your doctor writes a prescription for you, make sure you can read it. If you cannot read your doctor’s handwriting, your pharmacist might not be able to either. PATIENT SAFETY *The term â€Å"doctor† is used in this flier to refer to the person who helps you manage your health care. 2 5 Ask for information about your medicines in terms you can understand—both when your medicines are prescribed and when you get them: What is the medicine for? How am I supposed to take it and for how long? What side effects are likely? What do I do if they occur? Is this medicine safe to take with other medicines or dietary supplements I am taking? What food, drink, or activities should I avoid while taking this medicine? 6 When you pick up your medicine from the pharmacy, ask: Is this the medicine that my doctor prescribed? 7 If you have any questions about the directions on your medicine labels, ask. Medicine labels can be hard to understand. For example, ask if â€Å"four times daily† means taking a dose every 6 hours around the clock or just during regular waking hours. 8 Ask your pharmacist for the best device to measure your liquid medicine. For example, many people use household teaspoons, which often do not hold a true teaspoon of liquid. Special devices, like marked syringes, help people measure the right dose. 9 Ask for written information about the side effects your medicine could cause. If you know what might happen, you will be better prepared if it does or if something unexpected happens. Hospital Stays 10 If you are in a hospital, consider asking all health care workers who will touch you whether they have washed their hands. Handwashing can prevent the spread of infections in hospitals. 11 When you are being discharged from the hospital, ask your doctor to explain the treatment plan you will follow at home. This includes learning about your new medicines, making sure you know when to schedule follow-up appointments, and finding out when you can get back to your regular activities. It is important to know whether or not you should keep taking the medicines you were taking before your hospital stay. Getting clear instructions may help prevent an unexpected return trip to the hospital. 3 Surgery 12 If you are having surgery, make sure that you, your doctor, and your surgeon all agree on exactly what will be done. Having surgery at the wrong site (for example, operating on the left knee instead of the right) is rare. But even once is too often. The good news is that wrong-site surgery is 100 percent preventable. Surgeons are expected to sign their initials directly on the site to be operated on before the surgery. 13 If you have a choice, choose a hospital where many patients have had the procedure or surgery you need. Research shows that patients tend to have better results when they are treated in hospitals that have a great deal of experience with their condition. Other Steps 14 Speak up if you have questions or concerns. You have a right to question anyone who is involved with your care. 15 Make sure that someone, such as your primary care doctor, coordinates your care. This is especially important if you have many health problems or are in the hospital. 16 Make sure that all your doctors have your important health information. Do not assume that everyone has all the information they need. 17 Ask a family member or friend to go to appointments with you. Even if you do not need help now, you might need it later. 18 Know that â€Å"more† is not always better. It is a good idea to find out why a test or treatment is needed and how it can help you. You could be better off without it. 19 If you have a test, do not assume that no news is good news. Ask how and when you will get the results. 20 Learn about your condition and treatments by asking your doctor and nurse and by using other reliable sources. For example, treatment options based on the latest scientific evidence are available from the Effective Health Care Web site (effectivehealthcare. ahrq. gov/options). Ask your doctor if your treatment is based on the latest evidence. AHRQ Pub. No. 11-0089 (Replaces AHRQ Pub. No. 00-P038) September 2011.

Health Care Policy

The management would like to inform you that we will change our current healthcare provider starting next month. The initiation of this worthwhile step was in light with the organization’s realization of the cost benefits that will be retrieved from such step. According to the study conducted by the management, the necessity to shift to a new healthcare provider is great on the grounds that the net cost of the new health care provider is relatively low compared to our current partner. That advantage became one of the reasons why the management decided to take the said step. The management knows that you are very satisfied with the services and performance of the current healthcare provider. The management assures you that you will attain the same level of satisfaction in the future as we shift to our new healthcare service provider. The terms and agreement between the management and the future healthcare provider is almost the same with the current one only that our organization would cost less. The saving from this step can be utilized for the further expansion of the company and a better service to you as well as the rest of the employees. You can consult the management for the copy of the terms and agreement of the new healthcare provider. You can also discuss some unclear matter with us referring to the said agreement. In this regard, the management gives you a full guarantee that you will be gratified with this action and you will have no regrets after the initiation of the said step. The management hopes for your cooperation and the both of us will get pleasure from the benefits brought by this matter. Sincerely, [Signature of Supervisor and Title] References 4HB. Sample Business Letters, Retrieved September 11, 2007 from 4Hb.com. Website:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.4hb.com/letters/ UC Davis. Sample Letters to Employees, Retrieved September 11, 2007 from UC Davis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Employee and labor Relations. Web site: http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Elr/Er/Samples Washington County. Sample Letter to Employees, Retrieved September 11, 2007 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Washington County Department of Health and Human Services.    Health Care Policy The management would like to inform you that we will change our current healthcare provider starting next month. The initiation of this worthwhile step was in light with the organization’s realization of the cost benefits that will be retrieved from such step. According to the study conducted by the management, the necessity to shift to a new healthcare provider is great on the grounds that the net cost of the new health care provider is relatively low compared to our current partner. That advantage became one of the reasons why the management decided to take the said step. The management knows that you are very satisfied with the services and performance of the current healthcare provider. The management assures you that you will attain the same level of satisfaction in the future as we shift to our new healthcare service provider. The terms and agreement between the management and the future healthcare provider is almost the same with the current one only that our organization would cost less. The saving from this step can be utilized for the further expansion of the company and a better service to you as well as the rest of the employees. You can consult the management for the copy of the terms and agreement of the new healthcare provider. You can also discuss some unclear matter with us referring to the said agreement. In this regard, the management gives you a full guarantee that you will be gratified with this action and you will have no regrets after the initiation of the said step. The management hopes for your cooperation and the both of us will get pleasure from the benefits brought by this matter. Sincerely, [Signature of Supervisor and Title] References 4HB. Sample Business Letters, Retrieved September 11, 2007 from 4Hb.com. Website:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.4hb.com/letters/ UC Davis. Sample Letters to Employees, Retrieved September 11, 2007 from UC Davis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Employee and labor Relations. Web site: http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Elr/Er/Samples Washington County. Sample Letter to Employees, Retrieved September 11, 2007 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Washington County Department of Health and Human Services.   

Should Parents Send their Children to Private School If They Can Essay

Should Parents Send their Children to Private School If They Can Afford It - Essay Example This essay declares that private schools exist for different purposes, but the intrinsic and core characteristic of all private schools is the need to offer more than what is offered and available in public schools. Private schools offer learning curricula is specific and tailor made to suit the needs of their children as prescribed by their parents. Examples of private schools include convents, military schools and other learning institutions that share the similar characteristics with public schools. The only difference and distinguishing feature is the funding and curricula aspect of these two school systems. Public schools are considered ideal and fundamental approaches towards achieving social progress and reform. This paper makes a conclusion that public schools have been touted for providing a well-rounded education characterized by learning from both the academic and social context. This is attributed to the fact that public schools do not have selection criteria for whom they enroll as long an individual enrolls. The cultural, racial, class and deposition diversity in public provides a healthy environment for students to learn other social life skills that are not learnt in classrooms or close knit groups or private schools. Public schools offer an ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic environment that is a representative of the society that students will have to live in and experience. Thus, this setting is ideal for imparting and exposing students to their real world situation from a tender age where they are able to develop ‘people skills’. ... Examples of private schools include convents, military schools and other learning institutions that share the similar characteristics with public schools. The only difference and distinguishing feature is the funding and curricula aspect of these two school systems. Public schools are considered ideal and fundamental approaches towards achieving social progress and reform (Caldwell 2011, 95). Public schools offer a compact and non-discriminatory education irrespective of students’ socioeconomic background, tradition or culture. Public schools have been touted for providing a well-rounded education characterized by learning from both the academic and social context. This is attributed to the fact that public schools do not have selection criteria for whom they enroll as long an individual enrolls. The cultural, racial, class and deposition diversity in public provides a healthy environment for students to learn other social life skills that are not learnt in classrooms or close knit groups or private schools. Public schools offer an ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic environment that is a representative of the society that students will have to live in and experience. Thus, this setting is ideal for imparting and exposing students to their real world situation from a tender age where they are able to develop ‘people skills’. These ‘people skills’ are essential for someone to be able to effectively cope with the diversities present out there in the real world. Public schools generally have students with a range of abilities and disabilities. As with ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, the diversity introduces students to the communication issues and interpersonal issues that rubbing elbows with people who

Kudler Fine Foods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Kudler Fine Foods - Essay Example , improving the efficiency of its operations and increasing the consumer purchase cycle as a means to increasing the loyalty and profitability of its customer base. It will be shown that Service Request will be implemented in such a fashion that directly reflects Kudler Fine Foods Mission Statement of â€Å"provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment.† Kudler is presently using simple point of sale interfaces to serve its customers and must upgrade its software and hardware system. They do not possess any mechanism to track their sales, their data capturing mechanisms are not good at all. The can use Novell Replication Services to replicate the data between the three servers at each location for redundancy. The WAN connection between the stores is the weak link and thus discourages the use of one centralized server. They require maintaining a distributed database for storing its accounting data from various sites and retrieve consistent data from various sites. The existing hardware must be upgraded to Pentium computers with capacity to support large number of transactions at any point of time. Each location will be on its own subnet for security and easier administration. Smaller networks are easier to manage and troubleshoot; network traffic overall is reduced; network security can be applied more easily at the interconnections (routers) between the subnets (Forouzan, 2003). Each location will do full backups Mon-Fri of their respective servers. The opportunities come in the form of various market success factors and technological advantages that can be exploited in the form of fetching a web interface with various internet technologies at hand. The various opportunities are in the form of: Market strength - Kudler has good reputation in the market for its quality products and services it offers. Further, it may implement an order tracking system to ease the localization of orders

Information Technology Applications in Marketing Research Paper

Information Technology Applications in Marketing - Research Paper Example Gradually, in the month of March, 2010 the developers were provided with a monetary value of US$500,000 for developing the service. It was in this year that Josh Riedel joined the company, developing the first version of the program in January, 2011. He added hash tag providing the facility to discover and find each picture. It was in the same year that the company had also collected an amount of US$7 million valuing it at around US$25 million. It was in April, 2012 that the first version of Instagram was released. However, it was viewed that due to a lack of employees and funds to improve Instagram, the service was sold at US$1 billion to Facebook in cash and in stock (Geron, 2012; Hui, 2012). Reason for Growth/Decline The current features of Instagram can be considered to be the primary reason behind its rapid growth. Instagram is amongst those apps that provides seamless social integration to well-known social networking sites such as Facebook, Tweeter, Flickr and Tumbler. The sim ple interface can also be determined as another prime reason behind the success of the social service. Though there are numerous photo sharing apps available however Instagram is simple and it also provides digital edit options which make it separate from others. It is worth mentioning that though Instagram offers the facility of sharing photos or video taken in other social websites, users can also share their photos on it which makes it a social network platform on its own (Stratmann, 2011; Sengupta et al., 2012). Future The future of a social networking site directly relies on the way innovation is made in it. In this context, it has been viewed that Instagram has been a... This essay stresses that Instagram is recognized to be amongst those social network based services that has flourished within a short period of time. Firstly, it is believed that the business model of the Instagram is comparatively simpler than any other form of social app available in the market. Instagram aims at providing a user-friendly experience to its users by adapting innovative ways or features. Secondly, Instagram can be used as a live coverage tool which provides an opportunity for any user to keep updated of the places where they are at. It is worth mentioning that Instagram also aims at improving it series of functionalities with the growing demand of its users and marketers. Marketers can use Instgarm to share the images or videos of their offered products or services to create significant consumer awareness which in turn can enable them to draw a diverse range of consumers. This report makes a conlusion that the social media vehicle i.e. Instagram has been in continuous discussion amid different social networking gurus since its launch for public use. It has been viewed that Instagram has largely been able to attract a huge extent of user base because of its simplicity and uniqueness. With reference to the above stated discussion, it can be affirmed that though Instagram is considerably new in the social networking market however if it keeps on following its innovative ways of making new changes in the app, this social media vehicle would be able to maintain its eminent position.

Autobiography discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Autobiography discussion - Essay Example Clustering is a process that involves brainstorming over what one intends to write about (Cline et al, Page 10-58). People can carry out clustering on their own or with groups of friends so long as the inspiration connecting various idies is achieved to enable the writer proceed. Clustering enables the writer to jot down short phrases that guide him in the actual writing process. Listing, on the hand, requiers the writer to numerically put down their ideas on paper in terms of priority or chronology. It is usually the first step writers take whenever they want to write an autobiography. Listing helps in connecting ideas and experiences that a writer might have gone through. Freewriting puts the brain in action to undertake the actual writing of the biography (Cline et al, Page 23-74).Writers can undertake freewriting on their own or as a group with the free written paragraphs being read out. This enables the ears to pick out certain patterns that are vital in the actual writing of the autobiography. It also brings out various ideas that a writer might have not thought of at the initial stages. In conclusion, therefore, out of the three strategies employed in writing listing is the most benefitial to a writer as it helps in linking the ideas with the experinces. It also helps in determining the actual flow of ideas in a chronoligical manner thus making the work of a writer more organzied and smoothly flowing in the

Rape and sexual assault Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Rape and sexual assault - Essay Example In this paper I would like to examine what is actually meant by sexual assault. I will then study the statistics and finally the law that covers the sexual assault. The CCR website (1997) defines sexual assault as a physical or verbal act that threatens a person’s trust and safety and is sexual in nature. In a sexual assault the victims, either a girl or a boy, indulge into a sexual activity either forcefully or through deceit. Teenagers are more vulnerable to this act. This is the reason for which a number of cases related to adolescent molestation by a relative or a date make the headlines in the newspapers. Sexual assault often leads to other problems in teenagers as well which may include delinquent behavior, school problems, refusal to accept the authority and eating problems. Sexual assault by an acquaintance is the most common category of the assault. The acquaintance may be a close friend, a date, employer, colleague or a relative. In this category it is always the male who perpetrates the female. It is always the perpetrator, who is responsible for the act regardless of the fact what the victim was wearing or if she expressed her disapproval for the act or not. The CCR website (1997) puts 100% responsibility on the perpetrator. Rape is defined as an act of violence where sex is used as a weapon. In most of the cases the rapists fancy their own myths which they believe justify their act. Most of the rapists are of the view that if they spend money on a woman she becomes their rightful property. Others believe that women find it difficult to accept the offer for sex. Therefore they mean yes when they say no. Some others believe that women love to be aggressively pursued by the males (CCR website, 1997). The CA Code (n.d.) explains unlawful sexual intercourse as a sexual activity where the perpetrator indulges in sexual activity with a person other than the spouse and with a person less than eighteen years of

Leases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leases - Essay Example IAS 17 has undergone many revisions in the past to improve its application. However, even with all the amendments and revisions, it still has some issues that cause problems in its application in accounting for leases. The purpose of IAS 17 is to classify leases and provide the policies to guide how a firm treats leases in its financial statements. The standard has a few exceptions concerning some lease agreements. Some assets are also not part of the standard, therefore, their recognition and treatment do not fall within the standard. For the leases and assets that qualify within the standard, classification divides them into finance and operating leases (IFRS, 2013a, p.771). The determination of the class of a lease as either a finance lease or an operating lease is at the commencement of the lease agreement. IAS 17.4 defines the two classes of leases giving their characteristics. The substance of the transaction, as opposed to the form, determines whether a lease is a finance or operating lease (IFRS, 2013a, p.772). The treatment and accounting for the two classes of leases differs. The lessee recognizes operating leases as an expense. The lease payments appear in the income statement as an exp ense over the lease term and follow a straight-line basis. The lessor recognizes assets under lease in the balance sheet. The income statement of the lessor recognizes the lease income on a straight-line basis. As for finance leases, their accounting involves recognition both as an asset and liability in the books of the lessee. The value to appear in the books is either the asset’s fair value or the present value of the minimum lease payments, whichever is lower. The lessee also accounts for the depreciation of the asset in accordance with the existing depreciation policies and apportions lease payments between the reduction of the outstanding liability and the finance charge. On the lessor’s books, the accounting for a

High School Cliques Essay Example for Free

High School Cliques Essay The school environment causes natural polarization of peoples with similar backgrounds, attitudes, or any other factors that would form certain peer groups, or ‘cliques’. This is particularly observable in the High School setting, as the predominant social groups are composed of adolescents who are beginning their socialization process. This socialization forms various groupings or factions that are highly noticeable in High School. The modern media, who continually builds on and establish the perceived cliques and groups in movies, shows, and other media venues, is repeatedly echoing the reality. This has created stereotypes of High School cliques, such as: (1) the popular group, (2) athletes, (3) nerds, (4) racial segregation, (5) pop-culture groups like rockers and hip-hop, (6) outcasts, and (7) other groups. The converging elements of a particular faction can be varied and numerous. These cliques can be students who eat together, or hang out with each other after class. Racial profile can also be a strong factor, as with the social class and background. Even personal preference and culture can bring together different kinds of peoples. High school youth converge because of the reason that they find something in common with the group that they are with. The first clique in High School is the popular student. Usually they are the student leaders or even cheerleaders and well-known members of the student body. They can be socially advantaged as they are driving newer cars or organizing fancier parties. They can be part of the group on the merit that they are simply popular in the batch. These students are usually the first ones remembered and recalled in reunions or gatherings. They are seen as role models, or at the other extreme, a source of jealousy and hatred. The second group, the athletes, can overlap with this first group, because basketball and football players can be highly popular in High School. Another High School clique are the nerds, who are the most participative in class or gets the highest grades in any subject. They would congregate in the canteen and converse about math or politics or any other academic topic. They are stereotyped as being shy and wearing big glasses, and are very grade conscious and studious. Apart from this group, other cliques can be divided according to culture lines, like rockers or hip-hops. They are usually secluded and non-conventionalists, and would gather on their own parties and gatherings. Another notable group are outcasts, who are usually the but of jokes, and would have severe emotional and psychological problems. Some would also note that racial background would be a strong determinant in formation of cliques. Asians or African Americans or Caucasians would most likely hang-out with each other, which does not imply discrimination, but merely cultural identification. They also form different and very distinguishable cliques in High School. High School is the stage of life wherein social interaction is at its most dynamic, as young adolescents are placed in a social environment outside their homes, and forced to polarize into different groups. Although these High School cliques can be regarded as mere stereotypes that may not always necessary be apparent in a social context, there is a ring of truth in the observations. Since the school is a hodgepodge of different backgrounds and cultures, it is natural for the youth to find people they are familiar and comfortable with. This reality, coupled with media hype, reinforces the perception that different High School cliques do exist.

The same positive comments could not be made concerning the employment of black women Essay Example for Free

The same positive comments could not be made concerning the employment of black women Essay This was a major exclusion, for Rosie the Riveter was just as likely to be black as white. Of the one million additional black workers who joined the labor force during the war, 600,000 were female, and much has now been written concerning this group of workers. Qualitative changes were, though, marginal. The raise in the number of black women workers in manufacturing was half that of black males, and most of the gains came late in the war and particularly occupational areas. Most of the new jobs were in greatly male areas of work, outstandingly the foundries and shipyards; advances for African Americans in customary categories of female employment were negligible. The utmost area of employment for black women was still the service sector, but there was a shift from private domestic service to public service. The failure of black house servants was much bemoaned: one white Alabaman recalled her black servant giving up her employment for $15 per week to earn $100 per month in the torpedo factory. In such instances it might be said that if Lincoln freed the Negroes from cotton picking †¦ Hitler was the one that got us out of the white folks kitchens. On the whole, however, as Karen Anderson accurately suggests, rather than a Second Emancipation what is significant about the war experience for black women is the degree to which barriers remained intact. 10 One of the most significant and liberating consequences of the war for black women and men alike was the movement of population. As one black woman recalled that during the war we got a chance to go places we had never been able to go before, another spoke for various Americans regardless of race when she said, The impact of the war changed my life, gave me an opportunity to leave my small town and discover there was another way of life. Of course, African Americans had experienced a Great Migration during World War I, and the emigration from the South had quickened in the 1920s. Throughout the Depression the number of African Americans leaving the former Confederate states fell from 749,000 between 1920 and 1930 to 400,000 in the thirties. In that sense, the movement of half a million blacks, (17 per cent of black Southerners as opposed to only 3 per cent of whites) during World War II was simply a resumption of the pre-Depression trends. In the period after World War II, resistance to racial stratification and racial exclusion became major political issues. Anti-colonial and civil rights movements fought for national independence and democracy more severely than ever before. They challenged the expropriation of southern resources land, labor, and primary goods by the northern metropoles. They required an end to the political dominance and exclusion that had differentiated colonial rule and racial subjection. They questioned political practices and global social structures that had suffered for centuries. These opposition movements were color-conscious, but they were usually not racially homogeneous. Indeed, anti-racist movements could typically count on a varied assortment of allies. Of course, consciousness of race and racism counted; had not the colonial and slavery-based regimes that initiate movements for racial justice also been color-conscious? This dawning anti-racist politics took diverse forms and emphasized different issues in the various settings where it emerged. Often anti-racist mobilizations overlapped with labor movements—socialist, collective, or simply trade unionist—in their condemnations of the conditions under which colored labor was presented for utilization in the former colonies as well as the metropoles. These anti-racist movements were largely harmonious with democratic ones: they condemned the old forms of political prohibiting as dictatorial, inconsistent with the libertarian and participative rhetoric that the mother countries, the winners (generally) of the recent global conflict had claimed they were fighting to protect. The global anti-racist challenge also called into question whole panoply of normal cultural icons: long established artistic, linguistic, scientific, and even thoughtful verities were revealed to be extremely problematic racially. And beyond all this, on an entirely practical level the anti-racist movements of the postwar world drew on general experiences. Millions could recognize with their political demands—most particularly those who had undergone military mobilization followed by become disillusioned return to a segregated or colonized homeland. Movement adherents and activists not simply remembered the democratic ideals they had fought for, but also sought to apply those ideals to the anti-colonial and anti-racist norms they met at home. Wartime experience gained in resisting the Axis powers translated moderately directly into national liberation and democratic movements as veterans were demobbed: in South Carolina or Vietnam, in South Africa or Indonesia, in Senegal, France, or Trinidad. The anti-racist and anti-colonial movements that sprang up all over the postwar world attained a recently transnational character, as growing northern labor demand and southern poverty sparkled widespread migration to the worlds metropolis. The world had been transformed by the war, and was enduring significant changes in the wars aftermath. The result was a strong enthusiasm, an influential summons, to complete the democratizing work begun a century before with slaverys abolition. Demographically, socioeconomically, politically, culturally, there was a worldwide break with the usual practices and established institutions of white supremacy. The racially based democratic movements that arose with this rupture demanded a series of social and political reforms from nationwide governments around the world. These ranged from decolonization to deferred enfranchisement and the granting of formal citizenship rights, from the delegitimation of state-enforced (de jure) racial isolation to the creation and completion of a politics of recognition 11 that attempted to valorize such norms as multiculturalism. These reforms were finally undertaken, although unequally; they were implemented, but less than thoroughly. Still, although framed in uncertain and sometimes incongruous ways, a great wave of racial reforms swept over the world in the postwar decades, notably from the sixties on. By the end of that turbulent decade, the descendants of slaves and ex colonials had forced as a minimum the partial taking apart of most official forms of discrimination and empire. In great numbers they had left their native reserves and isolated communities, migrating not simply to their countries urban centers but overseas to the metropoles from which they had been ruled for centuries. They had begun to participate in the limited but real new political and economic opportunities on offer in numerous national settings (notably in the northern, post-imperial countries). In those countries where relentless racist and dictatorial regimes still held sway, movements for racial equality and inclusion were revitalized by the successes achieved elsewhere, redoubled their activities in the seventies and after, and ultimately won democratic reforms as well. And yet the break was curtailed. The rupture with the white supremacist past was not—and could not be—total. in spite of these epochal developments— decolonization, the performance of new civil rights laws, the undoing of long standing racial dictatorships, and the acceptance of cultural policies of a universalistic character—the global racial order entered a new period of volatility and tension in the last decades of the twentieth century. Though enigmatic and unjust, the racial categorization and racial hierarchization of the world was a deeply recognized sociohistorical fact. No popular movement, no series of political reforms, no encounter with the moral negligence implicit in the comprehensive racism of the modern epoch, would have been enough to undo or remove it. Still, reform was preferable to in force or intransigence, even if it was also inadequate to the task of undoing the varied legacies of centuries of racial hierarchy, exploitation, and exclusion. With retrospection we can see that the various movements for inclusion and democracy would simply be partially satisfied by the reforms they could achieve. We can understand today, better than we could in the heat of political struggle, why these movements found it hard to sustain their impetus in the aftermath of reform. Most centrally, racial domination was still very much present in the reform process: the diverse states and elites that had been tackled by anti-racist opposition demonstrated their capability to withstand it by incorporating it, at least in part. In the result of such transformations—which were the very heart and soul of the break, the real meaning of attaining racial equality, of overcoming the heritage of racism, became controversial. What Du Bois had theorized approximately a century earlier as â€Å"the veil† the weird membrane of racial division that traversed both societies and individuals proved difficult to lift 12. And was its lifting even desirable? In a situation where significant racial inequality and injustice continued, where both identities and institutions still bore the indelible mark of centuries of racial domination, the claim that racism had now at last been remedied would certainly ring hollow. The veil might well survive half-hearted, symbolic, or co-optative gestures at removing it. Though many blacks remained in the South, a substantial number still moved from the country to the city as a result of the further disintegration of sharecropping and the increase of job opportunities elsewhere. The intensifying urbanization of southern blacks contributed to a breakdown in traditional race relations and, with the wider effects of the war, formed a mood of change. Jo Ann Robinson, for example, recalled that the Womens Political Council began in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1946 after the arrest of people challenging isolation on the buses. By 1955, we had members in every elementary, junior high, and senior high school, and in federal, state, and local jobs. 13. Therefore the foundations of the Montgomery bus boycott could be said to have been laid in the postwar era. Other proof of the new black mood in the South could be seen in the 10 per cent rise in the number registered to vote. Urged on by the Supreme Courts decision against the all-white primary in Smith v. Allwright in 1944 (the culmination of the NAACP campaign which began in 1923), African Americans in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia, and South Carolina organized voter register drives and other political campaigns. Such campaigns were often led by or implicated returning servicemen, a group that has been seen as having a momentous role in shaping the new postwar mood of black Americans. Nothing so summarized the ambivalence of wartime experience for blacks as military service, and the history of African Americans in the armed forces persists to be a subject of great interest. The permutation of political pressures and the practical demands of winning the war helped convey about a considerable shift in military policy. The protection of segregation was declared to be official policy in 1940, and at a conference for the black press in 1941 in Washington, D. C. , War Department officials persisted that the military would not act as a sociological laboratory. Though, in practice segregation proved to be inefficient, not viable in some areas, and clearly harmful to black morale. In one example George Flynn pointed out, The armed forces could not build their Jim Crow facilities fast enough to cope with the inevitable operations of the drafts selection by numbers, and so slowed the recruitment of black servicemen 14. The incapability to provide segregated recreational facilities for all those in camps led to the beginning of an open access policy in 1944. Conflict over transportation between Southern military bases and neighboring towns led to the overture of a first-come, first served service with no segregation the same year. The most essential departures were, of course, those that came in the Navy and in the Army during the Battle of the Bulge. By the end of the war more than one million African Americans had served in diverse branches of the military. Despite the changes there can be little doubt that for many armed service was a bitter and disenchanting experience. Despite such comments, though, a recent study of the attitudes of black servicemen suggests that a much higher percentage of blacks than whites (41 per cent to 25 per cent) predictable to be better off as a result of their service, and that for many black soldiers service were an eye opening experience. Really, as one soldier wrote, black soldiers fight because of the opportunities it will make probable for them after the war. How are we to explain this obvious disagreement between the attitudes of black servicemen and their experiences? It appears that whatever the limitations and undoubtedly there were many—military service gave numerous African Americans a modicum of self-respect and often give training and skills. Service outside the South or even overseas (in Britain, for instance) provided a first taste of parity which could have a lasting effect. John Modell and his associates have shown that black veterans were twice as likely to have moved to a different region after the war as whites, and by 1947 it was estimated that 75,000 black veterans had left the South. There is also evidence of attitudinal change: Modell suggests that the impact of military service influenced the structure of [black] aspirations in a way that contributed to their unwillingness to accept the prewar structure of racial dominance. 15 Aspirations in a way that put in to their unwillingness to recognize the prewar structure of racial dominance. ‘A former member of a black tank crew expressed this more obviously when he said, After the close of hostilities, we just kept on fighting. Its just that simple. There was much left to fight for. though many white Americans supported racial change, the professional and demographic changes affecting African Americans almost always met with some confrontation from whites, mainly in the South. Of course attempts to keep Negroes in their place in the South were not new—they were often obvious amid the uncertainty and economic antagonism of the Depression years—but they reached new levels and were perhaps even more widespread during the war years. The Rankins, Bilbos, and Talmadges were enthusiastic in their defense of white supremacy, and challenges to the color line were often met with violence. Pete Daniel lists six civilian riots, above twenty military riots and mutinies, and between forty and seventy-five lynchings occurring all through the war 16. As Mark Ethridge, first chairman of the Fair Employment Practices Committee and a Southerner, declared, All the armies of the world could not force southerners to end isolation 17 Of course, the very fact of heightened white confrontation was a sign that things were changing. In innumerable ways white Americans were encountering blacks in new roles at work, in cities north and south, in politics, and in the armed services. numerous did not like it. A theme which had its origins in the 1930s and which would achieve greater strength in the postwar era was already evident, specifically the charge that those demanding developments in Americas civil rights were the crackpots, the communists, the parlor pinks of the country. ‘The more extensive mood, however, recognized the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom abroad as denying it to African Americans at home. Even Frank Dixon, the former governor of Alabama, recognized that the Huns have wrecked the theory of the master race. As President Truman declared in his message to Congress in February 1948, the world place of the United States now necessitated action in race relations. Trumans record on civil rights is still much debated. For the majority historians his actions appeared more representative than real, calculated to gain the black vote and yet not estrange the white South. Despite their limitations Trumans actions marked important new initiatives which set the program for future reform. It could be argued that the failure to turn principles into practice and deliver substantive change added to the aggravation which was to explode in the mid-1950s. Certainly any optimistic view of the postwar period has to be qualified. The occurrence of racial violence in both North and South must not be ignored: Arnold Hirsch points out, for example, that in Chicago 46 black homes were attacked between 1944 and 1946 and a total of 485 racial incidents were reported to the Chicago Housing Association between 1945 and 1950 18. But Hirsch also points to a significant change in mood and belief among African Americans in Chicago, and it is clear that the response of both blacks and whites to postwar racial conflict was affected by wartime experiences and Americas position in international affairs. Regardless of what the reservations, the catalogue of racial progress made throughout the 1940s, from the Fair Employment Practices Committee through to the beginning of integration in the armed forces, the establishing of a civil rights committee, and a series of Supreme Court decisions against favoritism in higher education and housing, coupled with employment gains, encouraged a mood of both optimism and determination among African Americans. At one point or another in U. S. history, thirty-eight states have passed anti miscegenation laws. In some instances, couples were factually roused from their bed and arrested. In 1959, one such case involved a husband and wife from the state of Virginia. Richard Perry Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a woman of African and Native American descent, had gainned a legal marriage in neighboring Washington, D. C. Believing they had not broken the law since they had taken their marriage vows in Washington, the two were impolitely surprised when they were awakened and arrested in the middle of the night for violating the state of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws. Unbeknownst to them, the state law integrated a decree that disallowed Virginia couples to marry across racial lines out of state and then return to Virginia to reside. The Virginia judge in the Loving case was a brutal defender and enactor of anti-miscegenation legislation. Over and above stating the fact that Virginia state law forbade whites and blacks from intermarrying, the judge reasoned that this decision reflected God’s intentions. â€Å"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay, and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the intrusion with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix† 19. The Lovings were given the choice of either leaving the state for twenty-five years or serving a prison sentence 20. This decision was just one in a long list of cases in which antimiscegenation legislation was upheld by state supreme court decisions. However, despite still comparatively high levels of social disapproval, increasing numbers of Americans have started interracial relationships. Several structural and cultural reasons put in to this increase in cross-racial couplings. The first and foremost legal influence is the 1967 Supreme Court decision to overturn the Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia decree and overthrow laws that made interracial marriage a crime. Sixteen states still had anti-miscegenation legislation in 1967. An increase in interracial marriages followed the Loving verdict that repealed this legislation. A â€Å"biracial baby boom† began shortly subsequently. Close to fifty thousand children were born to black/white, interracial marriage partners in nineties alone 21. The legalization of interracial marriage approved people all across the United States the legal authorize to marry whomever they choose (assuming they were heterosexual). With this decision, interracial marriage could no longer be viewed as unusual behavior. Deviant behavior itself was touted throughout the decade of the sixties. Protests from sit-ins to draft card burnings flourished all through that era. Tradition was suspect. Many of the youth of the day came to the conclusion that following the status quo had produced both domination at home and abroad. Civil rights, anti-war, and Black Nationalist protests takes in the sixties. The Civil Rights Movement, culminating with the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965), resulted in equality under the law for blacks and other racial minorities. Protests against the Vietnam War revealed that it is excessively the poor and minorities in America who bleed in U. S. wars. The Black Nationalist movement turned racism on its head with shouts of â€Å"black is beautiful! † Spurred by aggravation at demands not met by the Civil Rights Movement, advocates of black independence gained wide support throughout the African American community in the late sixties and early seventies. Movement leaders, inspired by Malcolm X, adopted the name â€Å"black† in place of â€Å"Negro. † Malcolm X evidently differentiated between the Negro who â€Å"apologizes for his black skin† and has a â€Å"begging attitude† and the proud black man who, to a certain extent than apologizing, sees himself as â€Å"part of the vast majority [of the world] who outnumber whites, and therefore [do not] have to beg the white man for anything 22. Black nationalists demanded, rather than implored for equal rights. Black pride was manifest in the coronation of Robin Gregory as homecoming queen at Howard University in 1967. Traditionally, homecoming queens at Howard were students who came close to typifying the European style and fashion of female beauty. Most were light-skinned, with straightened hair and European features. Robin Gregory was a black activist who wore her hair in an Afro. Her election as Howard’s homecoming queen was a â€Å"pivotal point† in the history of the university. A student-led drive to transform Howard into a symbol of black pride broke forth at the coronation. Shouts of â€Å"Black Power! † spread throughout the packed auditorium as Gregory was revealed the winner of the homecoming queen election 23. Blackness, rather than whiteness, became Howard’s symbol of beauty. While many other and varied stabbings on authority and tradition took place after the Civil Rights Movement peaked, it was the successes of the Movement that encouraged the latter challenges to the status quo. The Civil Rights Movement was a watershed. The roots of the current revolution of black-white racial identity can be traced back to it. On the structural level, legislation was enacted throughout that era that encouraged the treatment and discernment of blacks as equal to whites. Culturally, the turbulence and protests of the late fifties and sixties throws in to an atmosphere in which interracial marriages and their biracial offspring were increasingly accepted by normal white America. As the sixties progressed, and Civil Rights protests were both convoyed and then followed by the War on Poverty, the Vietnam War, widespread experimentation with drugs, and sexual freedom, Americans began to turn inward. They were forced to confront defeat in both the domestic and the foreign war and frequent social upheaval at home. Throughout the seventies, individualism and interest group politics were spawned. â€Å"The Black liberation movement, the women’s movement, the lesbian and gay movements, and others that emerged in the fifties, sixties, and seventies were part of a new tradition that embraced an ‘identity oriented paradigm’† 24. Identity-focused politics overwhelmed U. S. culture. It was out of these movements that today’s multiculturalism was born. Prior to the subsistence of multiculturalism, there was little debate on how biracial persons must identify themselves. Black nationalists opposed interracial marriages. Many professed a black person marrying across the color line as a denial of blackness. In turn many African Americans, embracing â€Å"black pride,† maintained that the offspring of these parents must embrace their black heritage and identify with it completely. Meanwhile, whites continued to presume that if anyone had a black parent they were de facto black. Biracial Americans were ethnically defined by both blacks and whites as simply black. Today, though, racial identity is neither so promptly nor so easily defined. Just as the protests of the sixties challenged custom and encouraged interracial relationships, multiculturalism has expectant the affirmation of all racial combinations. Noted psychologists and psychiatrists have come â€Å"to the opinion that for a person of mixed ancestry to abandon one or the other parent’s identity [is] to detract from a clear racial identity. † Biracial support groups â€Å"came into existence in the early eighties on the explicit premise that both Black and non-Black identities [are] necessary to the well-being of both interracial marriages and their offspring† 25. The result is that biracial Americans no longer have an obvious racial identity. Lots of older children of interracial marriages cling to the belief that, in our racially divided society, the only healthy way a biracial person can racially recognize is as black. On the other hand, a rising number of younger biracial Americans are opting to recognize both sides of their racial heritage. References: References: 1. Bouvier Leon F. Peaceful Invasions: Immigration and Changing America. Lanham, Md. : (University Press of America, 1992). 49. 2. Marger Martin N. Race and Ethnic Relations. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1994. 3. Mills Candy. (Editorial) Interrace. (December 1994/ January 1995), p. 2. 4. Russell Buchanan, Black Americans in World War II, (New York, 1977) 35. 5. Richard Dalfiume, The Forgotten Years of the Negro Revolution, (Journal of American History, LV, June 1968), 6 6. Josh White, Defense Factory Blues', Opportunity, (July— September 1944), 143. 7. August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, The Origins of Nonviolent Direct Action in Afro American Protest: A Note on Historical Discontinuities, in Along the Color Line: Explorations in the Black Experience, Urbana, Ill., Chicago, and London, 1976, 345. 8. Sitkoff, Harvard, Racial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War, (Journal of American History, LVIII, 3, December 1971). 9. Sybil Lewis, in Harris et al. , The Home Front, 251. 10. Karen T. Anderson, Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War II, (Journal of American History, LXIX, 1, June 1982). 35 11. Taylor, Charles, et al. Multiculturalism and The Politics of Recognition. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 31. 12. Du Bois, W. E. B. The Talented Tenth. In Booker T. Washington et al. The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative American Negroes of To-Day. (Miami: Mnemosyne, 1969 [1903]), 172. 13. Jo Ann Robinson in Henry Hampton and Steven Fayer, eds. , Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, (New York, 1990), 22. 14. George Q. Flynn, Selective Service and American Blacks During World War II, (Journal of Negro History, LXIX. 1, Winter 1984), 19. 15. John Modell, Marc Goulden, and Sigurder Magnusson, World War II in the Lives of Black Americans: Some Findings and an Interpretation, Journal of American History. LXXVI, 3, December 1989, 845. 16. Daniel, Going Among Strangers: Southern Reactions to World War II, 905-8. 17. Ethridge quoted in David Southern, Beyond Jim Crow Liberalism, (Journal of Negro History, LXVI, 3. Fall 1981), 211 18. Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960, Cambridge and London, 1983, 52- 53. 19. Henriques Fernando. Children of Conflict. (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1975), 25 20. Henriques Fernando. Children of Conflict. (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1975), 30 21. Sandor Gabrielle. The Other Americans. (American Demographics, June 1994), 16( 6):36-43. 22. Henriques Fernando. Children of Conflict. (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1975), 91, 92 23. Henry Hampton and Steven Fayer, eds. , Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, (New York, 1990), 435,436 24. Schwerner Cassie. Beyond Socialism and Identity Politics: The U. S. Left after the Fall. Pp. 32-45 in Whats Left, ed. Charles Derber, Amherst, Mass. : (The University of Massachusetts Press, 1995) 32-45. 25. Spickard Paul R. Mixed Blood. Madison: (University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 339.