Doing Business in China :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Doing Business in China How to do Business in China Overview: China remains an untapped market with great growth potential for companies seeking to do business in there. Be aware that the Chinese community is weary of companies entering the country because they believe that most companies are there to make a fast dollar. However, if a western company follows a few simple rules and adheres to some cultural outlines, success in China can be achieved. Culture: Building relationships are crucial in China. Also known as guanxi. It would be helpful to build a few relationships with companies prior to even suggesting that you want to operate in China. A person known to both parties should arrange introductions to a Chinese company. Chinese business people are unlikely to meet with strangers. Westerners will find that production, distribution, and advertising of a product or solution flows easiest once crucial relationships have been built. A large amount of business is conducted at after hour’s entertainment gatherings. Do not hesitate to bring small gifts as mementos of your visit. Learn the language. Although the country has many dialects, Mandarin is the official language of China. Lastly, do not be rigid in your ways. Deals are often delayed in China. Learn to be flexible. Meetings: The first rule of a business meeting in China is to be punctual. If a meeting is set for 8am, then be there at or before 8am. It is customary for the senior member of a group to enter a meeting room first. This member also guides discussion during the meeting. Government: Never underestimate the power of the Chinese government in business. Remember, the communist party is still the biggest company is China. Remember that a network of business executives in China extends not only throughout the corporate world, but also throughout the government bureaucracy. Many Hong Kong entrepreneurs will freely admit that it's important to grease the wheels of government bureaucracy with well-placed gifts and personal relationships with those in power. Proceed with extreme caution when it comes to gifts.

America Does NOT Need Gun Control Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Es

America Does Not Need Gun Control    There are presently in excess of 200 million guns in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms   Each year this number grows by 4 to 5 million. There are 60 to 65 million legal owners of one or more guns.1   There is a firearm on the premises of more than half the households in America.   Most gun owners keep guns for protection.   Others keep them for hunting, target shooting, collecting, and similar pursuits. In recent years nearly 35,000 people have been killed annually by guns in the United States.   These deaths include 15,000 murders, 18,000 suicides, and 1,500 accidents.2   It is because of these statistics that many would like to ban guns altogether. But is that really in your best interest?   Would it really benefit this country, or reduce the number of murders in this country? Consider the evidence   in this article and you will see that guns should not be outlawed and that less gun control in necessary to preserve what the founders of this country believed in. Guns are Beneficial Guns can help prevent crime.   This is a view held by many opponents to gun control.   The criminals themselves agree. As part of   a three - year study by the U. S. Department of Justice, criminals in prisons across the nation were interviewed.   Sixty percent feared being shot by an armed citizen more than being shot by the police.   fifty - three percent did not commit   a specific crime because they were afraid the victim was armed.  Ã‚   Fifty - seven percent of them were scared off by an armed victim who either brandished a gun or actually fired it.3   This alone shows that crime would drop if more citizens owned, carried and knew how to use guns. One   such case involved e... ...and less gun control in necessary to preserve the idea and philosophies set out in the constitution of the United States. Endnotes    1.   Ted Gottfried,   Gun Control and The Right to Bear Arms   (Brookfield, Ct.: Millbrook Press, 1993 ),   pg. 13 2.   Ibid   pg 17 3.   Ibid   pg. 48 4.   Neil Bernard,   Gun Control   ( San Diego, Ca., Lucent Books, 1991 )pg. 68    5.   Ibid   pg. 56 Bibliography Aitkens, Maggi.   Should   We Have Gun Control.   Minniapolis, Minn:   ., Lerner Publications. 1992. Bernard, Neil.   Gun Control.   San Diego, Ca.:   Lucent Books.   1991. Gottfried, Ted.,   Gun   Control and The Right to Bear Arms.   Brookfield, Ct.: The Millbrook Press.,   1993 Gottlieb, Alan. Gun Rights Fact Book   Bellevue, Washington:   Merril Press,   1988. Robers, Joseph Jr.The Armed Citizen.   Washington D.C. :   The Nation Rifile Association of America. 1989.

Employed vs Self-Employed Essay

Many people have a variety of goals and personal preferences when it comes to employment. While some people enjoy less stress, which comes from being provided with an average job and being told what to do. Others would agree that self-employment is better. Being self-employed is better than a nine to five job because it allows one to follow one’s own schedule and enjoy being able to achieve his own goals. First, being self-employed allows people to have a wide window of flexibility. On the other hand, a normal nine to five job requires mployees to be at the office by a specific time and they can leave until they are told to do so. There are very strict rules about the numbers of breaks employees may take and lunch hours must be taken within a specific time frame. Employees are given a certain amount of sick days and vacation. Employees are given very little choices and must follow all of the rules. Violating rules may result in verbal warning or even termination of employment. However, those that are self-employed can make all of the decisions without risk of consequence. Being self-employed allows people to completely set heir own schedule and have control of their own work life. Second, being self-employed allows people to focus on achieving their own goals. When one is not self-employed, he must follow and complete the task given by his supervisor. If employees try to pursue their personal goals during working hours it will likely result in termination of their employment. Employers have very little regard for the goals of their employees; their primary concern is their business. However, those that are self-employed are free to pursue whatever goal they want to achieve. If a specific task or rocess dose not fit what they have in mind the self-employed can immediately adapt or change to something that is more appropriate for them. In conclusion, People have a wide variety of employment preferences: while some people want the safely of a regular paycheck, others prefer the freedom to pursue their own goals. It is better to be self-employed because of the additional flexibility to pursue one’s own goals no matter what they may be. Being self- employed also allows a person to pursue his dreams and goals rather then being stressed at work, working paycheck to paycheck working under someone.

Personal Writing †Learning to understand Essay

As usual George stopped at the local sweet shop on his way to school. It was the same old woman at the counter: Mrs. Meridew. She never smiled or thanked anyone. Gorge was not really bothered by this since he only went to the shop to buy sweets. â€Å"50p of ‘Cola Bottles’ and 20p of the ‘Suga Snakes’.† George always ordered the same thing so the old woman had started packing his sweets before he had finished telling her his order. As he headed out of the door, with the sweets safely in his pocket, he saw his older brother, David, walking to school with a girl he had never seen before. She was short, about five feet tall, with auburn hair. She was walking behind David and she occasionally ran ahead to say something and then returned to her position, behind him. He watched them both turn onto the school road and then made his way to the school as well. He got to the school gates just in time to see them both entering through the main entrance and going to their separate classrooms. He didn’t see either of them for the whole day. George got home at around 4 o’clock and called for his brother who appeared not to be home. His parents were at work so it was just him and Ginger, his old and fragile cat. He got changed and made himself something to eat when he heard the front door open and the voice of his brother calling for him. David was not looking his normal self. His face was seemed as though he was hypnotized and his eyes were full of exhaustion. He dropped his bag and without another word, he made his way upstairs, supposedly to his room. After about half an hour, George decided to check on how his brother was. He quickly climbed up the stairs and walked into David’s room without knocking. David was at his desk and as soon as he saw George standing in the doorway, he rushed to clear everything, from his desk, out of site. â€Å"Why didn’t you knock?† David screeched. â€Å"Why does it matter? It only could if you had been doing something, eh?† George was getting cheeky. There was just a look of plain rage on David’s face. George thought it would be the best thing to leave the room, so he did, and went downstairs. He knew now that there was something suspicious going on between David and the girl he had seen walking with him. He just needed to read those letters to find out what was going on. He shouldn’t really interfere with his brother’s life, should he? Suspiciousness got the better of George and the following morning, he was going to try hard to get his brother out of the house, but David left much earlier than normal without George even trying. This was his perfect chance to read those notes David had been writing yesterday evening. He hurried up the stairs and scampered along the landing to David’s room. He had to open the door quietly since his mum was still asleep in the room next door. David had evidently cleaned up his room before leaving; the bed had been made and all his belongings were in position. George went straight for David’s desk and started to empty its contents onto the floor. The pile he was making was getting bigger, but there was no sign of any sort of abnormal letters or pieces of writing. Could he have known that George was going to rummage through his room? George started to replace everything back into David’s desk as it was before his careless search. Just then, there was the sound of the front door being swung open very loudly. He knew at once what had happened. David had realized that he had left George at home and now had rushed back to make sure he didn’t go through his room. † GEORGE! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!† David was screaming at the top of his voice. George could hear him running around looking for him downstairs as he was stuffing all of the bits of paper and books into David’s desk. George heard him running up the stairs and his speed of clearing up the mass got faster, but not quite fast enough as David burst in the room. His hair was in a state and his face was burning with fury. He was very wheezy and was spitting at odd moments. George felt nothing, but the greatest fear, as his brother looked as though he would murder him, there and then†¦

Homeplus †Marketing Essay

Background of Homeplus â€Å"Homeplus† was initially owned by Samsung Corporation[1] in 1994. During the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Samsung was affect by the crisis and tried to strive its business in the retail industry. It eventually collaborated with Tesco, a major British retailer in 1999[2]. The joint venture benefited both Samsung and Tesco. Samsung was saved from bankruptcy, in the same time, Tesco was able to enter the tough local retail business because of the partnership with Samsung[3]. Tesco took over 94.68% shares of the company in 2011[4]. Vision – Great Stone Face Homeplus’s vision is to be recognized as the most admired company in South Korea[4][5][6][8]. The company concerns with two major value creation, which are the market and social value. â€Å"Face of Growth† is based upon the market value creation. It involves in stimulating value for customers by clearly understanding customers’ needs, in turn, providing these value to them, which benefits the company in terms of market value maximization[4][6][8]. Referring to customers’ satisfaction, Homeplus emphasizes on reliable shopping value. According to figure 3, there are several factors that the company must consider i.e. low price, wide range, high quality and great services or products. Figure 3 Homeplus – Great Stone Face[6] Figure 3 Homeplus – Great Stone Face[6] â€Å"Face of Contribution† reflects the relationship between Homeplus and its stakeholders. It refers to the social value creation. That is, the company gives importance to its stakeholders and understands their expected value[4][6][8]. Figure 4 Stakeholder Viewpoint[5] Figure 4 Stakeholder Viewpoint[5] According to figure 4, it can be seen that Homeplus is the leading company among its competitors measured by the involvement with its stakeholders especially the local community. The integration of these two faces gives the â€Å"Great Stone Face†, which is Homeplus’s vision of two values creation must be achieved in order to sustain its business long – term. The sustainable growth, together with social contribution is the key driven to gain higher market value and becoming the most admired and respected company in the world[6]. Mission – Artience House Homeplus created its own management structure called ‘Artience House’. The house’s structure logically explained the correlations between each of the elements being applied in its management framework. Figure 5 Homeplus Vision House[5] Core Purpose – Foundation To found a basis of house, Homeplus regards to ‘create increasing value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty’ as its core purpose explaining the reason why it exist. Values – Pilling To make the foundation firm, Homeplus focuses on ‘values’ in its business execution, which are ‘No one tries harder for customers’ and ‘treat people how we would like to be treated’. 4 Generations Development of New Concept Stores Homeplus has continuously developed its hypermarket concept as shown in the following figure. Figure 6 Homeplus 4 Generations of New Concept Stores[6] Homeplus has developed its store concepts up to the 4th Generation. The following explanation of each generation will be described in details as follows. 1st Generation Homeplus (Samsung and Tesco) entered the retail industry in 1999[2][4]. The 1st generation’s concept was known as â€Å"One Stop Shopping Service†. The company focused on offering low price products to customers. Like other retailers, Homeplus experienced many threats such as high competitiveness and the warehouse – like style discount stores did not really attract customers etc. 2nd Generation A year later, the â€Å"Value Store† concept was introduced in the 2nd development phase in 2000[6][7]. The â€Å"Value Store† was created based upon the customer oriented Korean style[6]. It comprised with â€Å"One Stop Shopping Service† and â€Å"One Stop Living Service†, offering optimal shopping services and other service facilities in a clean environment. â€Å"One Stop Living Service† delivers new floor layouts. The first floor is equipped with food courts, children’s playrooms and other service facilities where the second and third floors are the supermarket and products display[4][6][7]. 3rd Generation The 3rd generation was first introduced in Jamsil 2007[6][7]. Homeplus added â€Å"Emotional Store† to the 2nd generation, offering art and culture to customers. Moreover, the â€Å"Emotional Store† adopts four concepts of Art – being, Well – being, Touching and High Technology to the store[4][6][7]. In other words, it combines art with science, so called â€Å"artience† environment to customers. This include art galleries and function rooms located on the fourth floor expansion of the hypermarket[1][6]. Hence, the â€Å"Emotional Store† concept consisted of â€Å"One Stop Shopping Service†, â€Å"One Stop Living Service† and â€Å"One Stop Touching Service†. 4th Generation Homeplus recently introduced a new concept for the 4th generation in 2011[6][7]. This radical shift differed from other development phases where it combined the services both online and offline shopping and created a new innovative shopping concept. The â€Å"Smart Virtual Store† concept was developed and it became the first virtual shopping concept in the world[1][8]. The â€Å"Smart Virtual Store† provides a new way of shopping in subway stations. It aims to persuade customers to shop â€Å"Anywhere, Anytime and Anyplace† regardless time and space[6][7]. The concept was created inversely to traditional stores by bringing the stores to customers rather than waiting for them to visit the stores[6][7]. Homeplus launched applications that smart phones or tablets can recognize products’ barcodes by interfacing information embedded in the online store[6][7]. Homeplus installed â€Å"shelves†, displaying more than 500 products featured with QR codes are pictures plastered on the subway station’s glass walls, which could be scanned, purchased through smart phones applications[1]. The products consists of 3 categories and 11 subdivisions i.e. Daily Takeouts, Tesco Direct Souring, most frequently selected items known as Best 100 and Happy Range consisting of infant cares etc[6][7]. Moreover, purchased goods deliveries can be arranged and arrive in minutes or hours. This concept also pleasure commuters that are waiting for their train. The first virtual store is located in Sellong subway station, which is one of the busiest stations in South Korea’s capital city, Seoul. Later on, the installment took place at Seomyeon, Busan and expanded to Kwanghwamoon bus station in Seoul[6][7]. It is believed that the virtual shopping is one of Homeplus’s creative innovations that helps expanding the online sales rather than investing on new stores that requires huge amount of capital. The expansion of the smart virtual store is expected to be locating at busy pedestrian areas, offices, parks as well as universities and college campuses etc[6][7][9]. The figure below is a â€Å"Smart Virtual Store† in Sellong subway station. Figure 7 Homeplus Smart Virtual Store in Sellong Subway Station Figure 7 Homeplus Smart Virtual Store in Sellong Subway Station Leading Innovation and Development Leading IT Systems Due to Tesco’s leading role of Information Technology, Homeplus employed some of Tesco’s current technologies to its operation. Examples of effective analytical systems deployed by Homeplus are Product Management System (PMS) and Radio Frequency Identification Pilot Project (RFID)[6][7]. Self-Checkout System Homeplus runs the first self-checkout system in Korea. This system is currently being operated at 58 stores and provides customers with more convenient and reliable shopping environment[6]. It can not only reduce waiting time, but also enable customers to arrange their goods by themselves. By using this system, customers can keep private of the goods they purchased, and avoid making their credit card data to be disclosed. Automatic Queuing System In Yeongdeungpo store and Jamsil store, Homeplus introduced the automatic customer queuing system to optimize their customer’s shopping experience. Instead of lining up in front of the cashiers, customers are automatically queued with queue numbers. It has maximized the efficiency of both customers and cashiers. With this system being utilized in retail market, the operation of check out has become more flexible[6]. New systems and the customers’ parliament Homeplus decided to adopt the lotus system for retailing, which had achieved the global standard and was flexible enough to manage a rapid expansion [21]. Meanwhile, in terms of Development of alternative technologies [10], Homeplus introduced a self-checkout system and a smart card system, which can automatically count products in a shopping cart. Automatic queue counting technology is another introduced method, which is aiming to eliminate waiting in checkout lines. Also, the self-order and self-pay system has also been introduced to apply in their food courts. Additionally, Homeplus has its own philosophy that all of its stores are the customers’ parliament and places great importance on seven types of customer surveys conducted 200 times annually [17]. PMS (Product Management System) Homeplus initially set up the Product Management System (PMS) in 2004[6][7]. The PMS is an Oracle developed system, which is used to analyze and predict demand, stock ordering and promotion tools. The system is considerably accurate in terms of profitability management. Moreover, the data storage can be stored more than two years. The PMS helps supporting functions that in weak areas of existing domestic systems such as researching on demand analysis and stock inventories etc. The objectives of PMS is to reduce operating costs in all areas from product ordering, merchandise management, price inventory planning to increasing productivity[6]. Radio Frequency Identification Pilot Project (RFID) Occurring in the same year as the PMS, Homeplus adopted the Korean government’s Radio Frequency Indentification Pilot Project (RFID)[6][7]. The RFID is an innovative technology that enables product tracking utilizing embedded semiconductor chips. The product tracking process can be applied across the entire cycle since the production stage to ware – house phase and distribution process. Additionally, Homeplus was the first company in South Korea that developed RFID card to monitor customers’ buying characteristics[6][7]. The data can be collected via electronic tags that are embedded in shopping trolleys. The collected information helps the company to improve product displays to be more convenient for customers. The â€Å"Smart Pallet† was Homeplus’s 1st RFID pilot project that tracks pallets movement in and out among three suppliers; distribution centres, stores and KPP[6]. The development of the 2nd pilot project enhanced the revision of business model creation and operation of individual product. Leading Innovation in Distribution In 2003, Homeplus established its very own distribution service centre called â€Å"Mokcheon Distribution Service Centre†. Two years later, the company built the â€Å"Haman Fresh Food Distribution Service Centre†, which is currently the biggest agricultural and fishery products distribution in Asia[6]. The distribution centres are built to support the rapidly increase in sales due to the opening of new hypermarkets. The following figure indicates Mokcheon and Haman distribution service centres’ capacities. Figure 8 Mokcheon and Haman Distribution Service Centres’ Capacities[6] Suppliers – Shared Growth & Fair Trade For balancing the two wings of itself and suppliers, Homeplus found the ‘Shared Growth Division’ to implement the shared growth policies on six areas (Fair trade, Funding, Cooperation and Technology Support, Export Support, Education Support, Management Support)by collected opinions and comments from suppliers, and to build up sustainable partnership with suppliers. To specific, Homeplus strive to provide the fair trade and free competition with customers and suppliers; and it operates the Vendor financing system to gain more funding support; for the sake of efficiency of distribution, Homeplus supplies cooperative measures and technical support for suppliers and Develop PB products with suppliers and help excellent SMEs expand into overseas markets; Due to The learning ability of one enterprise which decides their future, Homeplus built up an academy, it give staff an opportunity to pursue lifelong education. To improve product competitiveness, Homeplus contributes to strengthen quality control system of suppliers by cooperating with external and internal experts[6][7]. Customer Value * We understand customers and do our best to satisfy them. Generally, customers always play a significant role in a successful company. Sometimes, the opinions of customers might impact the operation direction of a firm. Consequently, customer value can be used as a catalyst in creating a new advanced strategy in an organization. As the second generation store of Homeplus, they built a new construct named â€Å"Value Store† which was focusing on the convenient living conditions. Home Plus provided one stop living service and one stop shopping service, especially the one stop shopping service included cosy shopping, full range of goods, lower price, better quality and extensive customer service. The top managers of Home Plus trained their stuff to understand customers, satisfy the requirements of customers first and act the responsibilities of the company [6]. Figure 10 Community Centre Store Concept[5] Homeplus also does several kinds of customer surveys to hear customer ideas, in order to serve them better. They built a customer plan including several elements which are low price, wide range of product, high quality and great service. Each of the elements contained several items to examine the emotional data from the responders. The data have closely related to the transformational leadership which could decision the strategy of the company to covert the learning organization to innovative company[6].

Karl Marx Essay

Karl Marx did not believe in god. He was well known for his ideas about alienation. He believed everyone was born with a creative spirit, i.e. species being. Conflict is to fight or to battle, Karl Marx was the founder of conflict theory, according to sources conflict theory argues that the competition of groups and individuals for power and wealth is a fundamental process shaping the social structure. Conflict is manifested through Marx by who gets what and why, Marx argued that the labor market was shaped by class conflict. The capitalist class, which owned the means of production, promoted division of labor to maximize their profits and to disempowered workers. Karl Marx did not believe in god. He was well known for his ideas about alienation. He believed everyone was born with a creative spirit, i.e. species being. Conflict is to fight or to battle, Karl Marx was the founder of conflict theory, according to sources conflict theory argues that the competition of groups and individuals for power and wealth is a fundamental process shaping the social structure. Conflict is manifested through Marx by who gets what and why, Marx argued that the labor market was shaped by class conflict. The capitalist class, which owned the means of production, promoted division of labor to maximize their profits and to disempowered workers. Karl Marx did not believe in god. He was well known for his ideas about alienation. He believed everyone was born with a creative spirit, i.e. species being. Conflict is to fight or to battle, Karl Marx was the founder of conflict theory, according to sources conflict theory argues that the competition of groups and individuals for power and wealth is a fundamental process shaping the social structure. Conflict is manifested through Marx by  who gets what and why, Marx argued that the labor market was shaped by class conflict. The capitalist class, which owned the means of production, promoted division of labor to maximize their profits and to disempowered workers. Karl Marx did not believe in god. He was well known for his ideas about alienation. He believed everyone was born with a creative spirit, i.e. species being. Conflict is to fight or to battle, Karl Marx was the founder of conflict theory, according to sources conflict theory argues that the competition of groups and individuals for power and wealth is a fundamental process shaping the social structure. Conflict is manifested through Marx by who gets what and why, Marx argued that the labor market was shaped by class conflict. The capitalist class, which owned the means of production, promoted division of labor to maximize their profits and to disempowered workers. Karl Marx did not believe in god. He was well known for his ideas about alienation. He believed everyone was born with a creative spirit, i.e. species being. Conflict is to fight or to battle, Karl Marx was the founder of conflict theory, according to sources conflict theory argues that the competition of groups and individuals for power and wealth is a fundamental process shaping the social structure. Conflict is manifested through Marx by who gets what and why, Marx argued that the labor market was shaped by class conflict. The capitalist class, which owned the means of production, promoted division of labor to maximize their profits and to disempowered workers. In sociology the word culture means the totality of learned, socially transmitted knowledge. It can be defined as the ways of thinking, the ways of acting and material objects that together shape a persons way of life. Material culture refers to physical culture artifacts, i.e. things that you can touch, cars, handbags and clothes. Non-material culture refers to artifact that exists in a culture, e.g. norms, values, religion rules,  moral language and knowledge. In sociology this is referred to several processes that a culture uses to shape its member’s members thoughts, feeling and behaviors. Abortion is considered part of non-material culture because it is an artifact that exists in cultures its something that can’t be touch. Many religions view abortion as a sin due to the fact that abortion is the termination of an early pregnancy by various methods; religions view it as the killing of a life. Others just view it as moral issues despise the legality of abortion. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of a fetus from the uterus. It can occur in two ways purposely which is the term abortion refers to or it can occur unexpectedly, which is considered a miscarriage. It is done in two ways medically in a clinic or with pills. Abortion falls into values and religion rules because many people believe it is something that shouldn’t be done because who are we to take a life away, and as I previously stated others view it as murder because a fetus is consider a life from the moment it is conceived. According to Julie Cline in the article â€Å"Teen Abortion† from the Chicago Tribute, the controversy over abortion is incredible still until this day; people against abortion are trying there best to change the fact that abortion is legal. But according to Cline others believes abortion has its benefits. Studies show teen pregnancy has gone up in the last few years and that more than 300,000 teens receive abortions, that is equal to 1/3 of the abortions performed yearly. This article states abortion should stay legal because it keeps unwanted children from coming into this world and teens from ruining their futures.

African American culture

African American Culture The African American culture is one of the more diverse cultures out there. Many of these people practice different beliefs. African Americans live in all parts of the world and just like other cultures African Americans have people that live in what is considered poverty some that are considered middle class and some considered upper class. African Americans come with a lot of interesting thing like the language they speak which is called Ebonics and all the different stereotypes with black American some being negative and some positive. There are three main religions practiced in the black American culture. The first is the most common and that is Christianity, Which is known as the black church. Christianity started back in the slavery days. Many slaves that were brought over were stripped of the African belief system and denied free religious practice; this forced them to become Christians. However slaves managed to hold onto some practices by putting them into Christian worship in secret meetings that were held. These practices include dancing, shouts and African rhythms and enthusiastic singing. Another religion practice in the black culture is Islam. Islam was founded in Detroit Michigan in the 1930’s by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad. Many blacks converted to Islam because they believed that Christianity was what the white slave owners used to control the minds of blacks. Today Islam in the black community is made up of black Americans that come from various backgrounds. The last most common religious practice is Judaism. There are a little over 150,000 African Americans that practice Judaism today. Some of these are members to mainstream Jewish groups like the reform, conservative, or orthodox branches of Judaism. Others belong to non-mainstream Jewish groups like black Hebrew Israelites. The socioeconomic status in black American is a lot different from other status in the American culture, somewhat to the lower end. The median of income in the African American families is just over 34,218, the lowest of any racial group. One out of every five black families lives in poverty. Black men in America hold the highest rate for unemployment, nearly doubling for Caucasian men. Black men that are employed have the second highest median earnings of any other minority group. Single black women with children median income is 29,958. Nearly one out of every three black households is headed by a single woman, highest in female-headed households. Forty percent of the black single mothers are considered poor. African Americans make up 12. 9 percent of the United States population. They are the second largest minority population, following Hispanics. Majority of the blacks live in the south totaling up 55. 6 percent of the black population. The top three states being Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia. The state that has the highest population of African Americans is New York. The African American culture is much bigger than a micro culture. This is because a micro-culture is a small group of people who share the same values, beliefs, and behaviors. The reason why the African American culture is not a micro culture is because there are all types of black Americans of all different types just like any other race. For example you have African Americans the practice different religions. You also have black Americans that come from all over the United States in different cities and neighborhoods with different ways of living and growing up. There are a few concepts in the text that are relevant to the African American culture. The first concept is one of the biggest and that is stereotyping. The systematic study of racial and ethnic stereotypes began in the United States in the 1930s with a study conducted by David Katz and Kenneth Braly. They presented college students with a list of 84 adjectives (lazy, ignorant, and stupid. ) and the traits that came up for black Americans were superstitious, lazy, happy go luck, ignorant, musical, religious. They found out all those traits came up consistently on each students list. Since then there has been a number of different researchers that have replicated Katz and Braly work. In today’s world you find and still here a lot of the stereotypes such as blacks are more athletic, their very loud, they all live in bad neighborhoods, they don’t work. There are a lot of different explanations and ideas why stereotypes on African Americans seem to dominate people’s way of thinking. For example stereotypes are well established in children’s memories well before they acquire the intellectual ability to question or evaluate them. By seeing how parents act and talk about the black community. We also get stereotype ideas by what is on the television and movies now days. The movies and shows always seem to try to make the â€Å"stereotypical† black man or woman. Another Concept that is relevant to the black American culture is the Black English dialect, and Ebonics. A primary way in which members of culture group define themselves and establish in-group and out-group identities is through verbal language. African American differs in their use of language, which is labeled as â€Å"Black language†, â€Å"Black Dialect†. The term Ebonics was first brought up in 1973 and refers to a grammatically complex African American speech pattern. Ebonics or Black language is a unique language created by the slaves. According to John Rickford an Ebonics scholar. He explains Ebonic pronunciations include the omission of the final consonant in words like pas (past) or han (hand) and the pronouncement of the vowel in words like my ride (mah rahd). Overall the African American speech acts are more animated, lively, and forceful than a lot of other cultures speeches. The last relevant concept that will be discussed is the culture and cognition. Culture and cognition refers to people from different areas and backgrounds and how they view and see things. This comes into play with African Americans that grow up in poverty or live with a single parent. Even though this can be associated with any race and culture its more likely with black Americans. With watching an interview on real sports with Bryan Gumble there was a black American on there and he explained the difference between black children growing up and every other culture you had to focus on only one thing to get out of poverty, his reference was â€Å"the hood†. He explained that growing up the only thing that could get black children out of the hood was sports. It wasn’t good grades and doing well in school because that was just a bonus. He said good grades wouldn’t pay for college but a football or basketball scholarship would. By all that he didn’t think a lot of other cultures had to worry about those things, that’s what made African American think and act different in different situations. In conclusion, the African American culture has many different religions they practice; they stay in all parts of the United States and just like multiple other cultures, people seem to stereotype. All in all the African American culture is one of the more diverse cultures out there.