Minority Rights Revolution The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s brought about several concordant social changes in the United States. What began as primarily an attempt to liberate African-Americans from continued systematic oppression in the form of school segregation Jim Crow laws turned out to be as much of a boon to American women and minority groups other than blacks, especially Latinos. Among the issues shared in common by all oppressed groups include voting rights, equal access to education, and equal employment opportunities. Creating social programs and institutions to provide especially for the needs of all minority groups was a logical extension of the Civil Rights movement, which appealed to women and Latinos as well as to African-Americans. The design of blanket-institutions and legislation was definitely a step in the right direction, as oppressed groups do suffer from similar forms and consequences of discrimination. However as John D. Skrentny points out in his book Minority Rights Revolution, the needs and experiences of women and Latinos differed in some significant ways from the needs and experiences of African-Americans. As the author states in the book's introduction, "Being analogous to blacks served as an initial classification, but groups retained distinctiveness. Equal opportunity meant different things depending on the group in question," (Skrentny13). Moreover, not all minorities are visible minorities; in most cases it is be easy to distinguish a woman from a man, or a black person from a white person, but especially within the Latino community, skin color is not necessarily a feature of the minority group. Also, Latinos in particular have had to deal with different types of discrimination based on language, while women have contended with deeply-rooted social prejudices and stereotypes against their entire gender, prejudices that transcend race or ethnicity. Therefore, the creation and evolution of social programs...
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