Social Issues of the 1980s
Mr. Gallego: Hey, everybody. Today, I’m gonna talk about the social issues of the 1980s.
Mr. Gallego: In the 1980s, there were several concerns that a lot of Americans had. Main categories that I’m gonna discuss are problems in health, education, and cities.
Mr. Gallego: Starting off with the health issues, a lot of Americans believed that AIDS, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, was a problem in America.
Mr. Gallego: In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was growing, and there was an increased concern from a lot of Americans, uh, over the prevention of AIDS.
Mr. Gallego: Abortion was also a main issue that a lot of Americans were focusing on. Especially in the 1980s, the battle over abortion was intensifying.
Mr. Gallego: Continuing on in these issues, there were issues that Americans were worried about, like drug abuse, for example.
Mr. Gallego: The Reagan administration actually started to prosecute drug users and dealers very heavily during this time to try and discourage drug use.
Mr. Gallego: Education was also an important issue for a lot of Americans, and by 1983 the U.S. government set a commission, or a group, to investigate,
Mr. Gallego: uh, why U.S. students were lagging behind students in other nations, and they found a few conclusions.
Mr. Gallego: There was a- a struggle with equal rights as well. That means a lot of groups were claiming that they did not receive equal treatment, so they were more active and more opinionated.
Mr. Gallego: Uh, women in general earned less than men. Uh, there was an issue with pay equity — women were seeking that pay equity, and they were also seeking family benefits, things like time off, for example, for your children.
Mr. Gallego: Ronald Reagan cut budgets for programs like day care and other similar programs that were designed to help women who worked.
Mr. Gallego: The fight for rights kept on going, and African Americans were also very vocal about their issues. And by the mid-1980s, many cities actually had African American mayors, so that was one advancement.
Mr. Gallego: And the Supreme Court limited affirmative action programs, which actually hurt a lot of minorities, like Black people.
Mr. Gallego: Affirmative action programs are programs designed to give more minorities opportunities, especially in- s- in areas like education.
Mr. Gallego: There were a lot of Latinos who also joined in on this call for equality, and Latinos were the fastest-growing minority at the time. From 1968, bilingual education was available to Latinos,
Mr. Gallego: but by the mid-1980s there was opposition from white people, especially white parents, who did not want bilingual education to be a program that they had to fund with their tax money.
Mr. Gallego: Native Americans also spoke out during this time, and Reagan did cut aid to Native Americans for health programs, education programs, and other social services, so a lot of them were dissatisfied and unhappy with that.
Mr. Gallego: So, the final section that we’re gonna discuss here is the Asian-American population and their fight for rights. Asians in America still had high levels of unemployment, and they were still generally very poor.
Mr. Gallego: Gay rights movement also advanced during this time, and a lot of homosexual people had, uh, received a lot of setbacks from conservative groups — conservative groups did not like the gay community —
Mr. Gallego: and they often blamed the AIDS epidemic on the gay community. By the late 1980s, there was a new surge of activism from the gay rights community, and a lot of them were calling for an end to discrimination.
Vocabulary:
social issues – problems or difficulties that affect a large number of people within a society, “The government is trying to fix social issues like poverty and homelessness.”
concerns – worries or problems that people think about a lot, “Parents have many concerns about their children’s safety online.”
epidemic – a situation where a disease spreads very quickly to a large number of people, “Doctors worked hard to stop the flu epidemic during the winter.”
prevention – the act of stopping something bad from happening, “Washing your hands is a great way for the prevention of sickness.”
intensifying – becoming stronger, deeper, louder, or more serious, “The storm was intensifying, so we decided to stay indoors.”
administration – the group of people who run a government or a large organization, “The school administration decided to build a new playground.”
prosecute – to officially charge someone with a crime and put them on trial in a court of law, “The police will prosecute anyone who is caught stealing from the store.”
discourage – to try to stop something from happening by making it look like a bad idea, “The high prices of cigarettes are meant to discourage people from smoking.”
commission – an official group of people asked to find out about a problem, “The city set up a commission to study the traffic problems.”
investigate – to try to find out all the facts about something, “The police are here to investigate the car accident.”
lagging behind – moving slower than others or failing to stay at the same level as them, “The runner was lagging behind the rest of the group from the very start.”
conclusions – final decisions or opinions made after looking at all the facts, “After checking the car, the mechanic came to several conclusions about the engine.”
equal rights – the idea that every person should have the same fair treatment and opportunities under the law, “Men and women fought for equal rights to vote.”
opinionated – having very strong ideas and opinions that you refuse to change, “He is so opinionated that he never listens to anyone else.”
pay equity – the idea that men and women should get the same amount of money for doing the same work, “The company introduced a new rule to make sure there is pay equity for all workers.”
cut budgets – lowered the amount of money available to spend on something, “The library had to cut budgets and buy fewer new books this year.”
vocal – expressing your opinions publicly, loudly, and clearly, “She is very vocal about her love for animals and nature protection.”
advancement – a step forward, progress, or improvement in a situation, “The new medicine is a huge advancement in fighting the disease.”
affirmative action – special programs or rules designed to give fair education and job opportunities to groups who were treated unfairly in the past, “The university used affirmative action to welcome students from different backgrounds.”
minorities – small groups of people who have a different race, religion, or language from most of the people in a country, “The law was made to protect the rights of minorities.”
bilingual education – a school system where students are taught their lessons in two different languages, “The school offers bilingual education so kids can learn both English and Spanish.”
opposition – strong disagreement with a plan, idea, or law, “There was a lot of opposition to the plan to build a new road through the park.”
fund – to provide the money needed to pay for something, “The school held a bake sale to fund the class trip.”
spoke out – gave an opinion publicly to protest against something or support a cause, “Many citizens spoke out against the unfair new tax.”
dissatisfied – not happy, pleased, or satisfied with something, “The customer was dissatisfied with the cold food and left the restaurant.”
advanced – moved forward, made progress, or improved, “Technology has advanced a lot over the past twenty years.”
setbacks – problems that delay progress or make a situation worse, “The team faced many setbacks before winning the game.”
conservative – preferring traditional ideas and styles, and resisting big changes, “The old man has very conservative views about clothing.”
surge of activism – a sudden, large increase in people working together to bring about a political or social change, “There was a surge of activism to clean up the plastic trash on the beach.”
discrimination – treating a person or a group of people unfairly because of their race, gender, background, or religion, “Laws are created to stop discrimination against people at work.”