The listening tells about the immigration of Somali refugees to Lewiston, OR. A few years ago, the migration of Somalis to Lewiston was more than in years before, they came in large groups and numbers and this resulted in lack of housing, they had to be put in homes because there was nowhere else for them to stay. The number of Somali migrants was so much that it forced the mayor to write a letter saying that they (the Somali's) should "take it easy" and reduce the number of them moving into Lewiston.
The whole ordeal raised accusations of racism to the mayor because of the letter he wrote. But other factors may have influenced his decision to write what he wrote. For example, because of the September 11th attacks, communities have been more than careful, making sure that everyone that arrives in the community is reliable and isn't a terrorist. Maybe the mayor was just trying to be careful or it could be that he just stereotyped the Somali people as people that are not willing to work for the community and were just there to feed on the welfare system.
This country needs to open up to people of different races and shouldn't put people in groups based on the wrongdoing that other people of that race have done. There is no need to stereotype anybody, because no two people are the same, everyone is different.
Although race is a biological concept, racial differences are important for inter-group relations solely to the extent that people attach cultural meaning to them. (Page.274).
Inter-group conflicts are conflicts between groups not due to race but due to culture, background or nationality. What the Somali's faced is a good example of inter-group conflict. They didn't get the response they got from the mayor because of their race but because of their situation. They were refugee immigrants that were brought into the country because of persecution in their own country and the mayor saw them as people that he"ll have to take care of, and not people that could take care of themselves.
