Racial Inequality

Since America’s beginning, race based barriers have mired the fulfillment of our shared principles and many of these barriers still persist today. The institutionalized inequalities are detrimental on an individual basis as well a societal basis. Racism does not only affect the individuals that are being oppressed but also how society functions as a whole. Racial inequalities have manifested in American society in ways that underlies a wide range of societal domains such as housing patterns, educational opportunities, healthcare inequality, and incarceration rates. Current events and experiences demonstrate moreover that racial inequality is still adamant in the American culture. Long after slavery, the Jim Crow Era, and the civil rights movement, racial inequality has taken distinctive forms which affect many people within a racially oppressed group. Racial segregation at large is embedded within a structural matrix that not only permeates in the American culture but in our private and public institutions. Disparities in the criminal justice system and housing patterns remain a key barrier to racial equality in America. In order to eradicate racial inequality, there needs to be policy solutions that place fundamental changes to a system with profound historical origins, one that structurally disadvantages minority groups.

Johnson, H. B. (2014). The American dream and the power of wealth: Choosing schools and inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity. Routledge.

Despite beliefs to the contrary, the increasing disparity in real wealth between white and black Americans during the past half century shows that the economic system is unjust. Considering factors such as less intergenerational inheritance, higher unemployment and lower incomes serve as key components in economic disparity. Disparity can be viewed as a systematic design to keep a specific group of people continually oppressed through a mixture of inequality, injustice and power. When there is an inequality that is also an injustice (Wright, 2009).

The barriers that separate men have existed for centuries. Race, class, status, these are all ideas that have created a divide among humans. This divide creates competition and tension. Throughout the history of the legal system, justice has been used to validate slavery and other forms of racial inequality. Our system now has changed, but the basic concept has remained the same. According to one study, the judicial system was invented by whites to protect whites and keep people of color at bay (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2017, p1). This idea of preserving a one superior racial system resulted in a bias still existent today.

What is racial inequality? Racial inequality is discrepancies in the opportunities and treatment of people based solely on their race. Racial inequality is a serious issue that is often discussed in the American criminal justice system. Although racial discrimination is present in the criminal justice system, some people use the words inequality, discrimination, racism, and profiling loosely and do not understand how truly complex it is to prove that there actually is racial inequality present in the criminal justice system. Daniel P Mears, Joshua C. Cochran, and Andrea M. Lindsey article Offending and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Criminal Justice: A Conceptual Framework for Guiding Theory and Research and Informing Policy illustrates

Historically in the United States, there has always been a significant difference in the way different races have been treated. Even after many years of laws and bills being passed to create a smaller gap in the inequality of the different races, we still see a large problem with inequality today. One of those inequalities is the difference between white and African American’s, in history whites have always been at the top, and blacks at the bottom, civil rights movements lead by black leaders in the 1950s and 1960s changed the way blacks were treated, but although there was some change our society still recognizes blacks as the inferior race. Looking at inequality today, blacks are still being treated differently in jobs, the criminal justice

America is known as “the land of the free”, but my question to you is, who is worthy of this privilege? For as long as I can remember, minorities in America as never received the same privilege as the so call founders of this great nation. Now America’s middle class, which consist of mainly Blacks and Hispanics are under invasion. This is what I call Racial and Ethnic Inequality. A race is defined as a person’s physical features, such as their hair, eye color, bone structure, and the icing on top of the cake a person’s skin color. Ethnic inequality is being bias, one-sided, or discriminating towards an ethnic group. For over 30 years, the fortune of the middle class black and Latinos households declined by 75 percent and 50 percent, in that exact order it was given. At the same time, white middle-class households fortune increased a bit. The middle white class had $116,800 in funds as to a disappointing $2,000 for Latinos and a stunted $1,700 for blacks. This wealth decline is unjust, not only that it is a threat to the middle-class American’s growth. I honestly must say I feel so sorry for the overall economic health. I recently came across a new report of the Institute for Policy Studies and Prosperity. The wealth gap between whites and other Ethnic groups are a big difference. In the new report of the Institute for Policy Studies and Prosperity, it shows that the white families with more wealth can buying a new home, starting their own businesses, and covering

The social construction of race changed due to the great number of immigrants coming to the U.S. Once they arrived they must identify as a certain race which is based on phenotype or ancestry. This concept is seen in the reading What is Racial Domination? by Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer explains the effect phenotype has on an individual such as the color of their skin, eyes and also ancestry too. The social construction of race is related to the racial inequality because it determined if a person had rights or not. This idea is seen through the two supreme cases Ozawa and Thind. For the case of Ozawa for example, he used his own skin color and the idea that race should not matter but the beliefs they hold. He was denied citizenship

Research indicates that an individual’s race and ethnicity can be a “basis of inequality” (Leon-Guerrero, 2010). Per class discussion, with reference to Leon-Guerrero, the prospects of

The United states has been called the, “Land of The Free” since its independence was won from Great Britain, however, until 1965 “Free” only applied to a select demographic, white, land owning males. The most largely discriminated demographic before 1996 and somewhat even so today is the African American population. In 1619 the first African American slaves were introduced into the colony of Jamestown, Virginia 1. Then after many years and revolts, in 1831 slavery was finally abolished and all freed slaves were given 40 acres and a mule to help these newly freed slaves begin their new lives 2. Although this was helpful, many conflicts arose from this new found freedom and the struggle didn’t get any easier. It wasn’t until 1965, after the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), World War II, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and several supreme court cases, that African American finally achieved the right to vote3. Even after these several legal advancements and many different civil rights movements the playing field, after many attempts to be leveled out, was still uneven and the day by day struggles continued. Even today, 396 years later, there are still racial bias and inequalities toward the African American community. While in the past or present changes have been and are being made by either the executive, legislative, or judicial branch to help African Americans achieve universal freedom and equality, but it is unclear

As our nation accepts a new president and the realities of politics in a post-Obama world, it is a perfect time to focus the conversation on economic progress and racism. In the past ten years, issues surrounding race and economics have contributed to America’s social classes being in direct competition with each other, while simultaneously causing America to address historical and contemporary racial inequalities that have been hidden in the past. (citation). The current political platform provides us with an opportunity to highlight racism and the economic injustices that have been place on African Americans and many other minorities. Racism is an ideology that is based on the principle that human beings can be subdivided and ranked into

There are various ways that race has been utilized to rationalize inequality. For instance, the fact that America ultimately created a race. Under those circumstances, American created this ideology which has constructed political and economic goals that favor the Whites. One of the founders of this inequality is Thomas Jefferson who believed that blacks were inferior to the Whites in the endowments of body and mind. There was a belief that Africans were different kinds of people. Additionally, scientific experiments were constructed that allowed scientists to compare human beings’ skulls with one another to prove a racial hierarchy. Furthermore, race has been utilized to shift attention and responsibility away from opposers and toward the

This Paper was written to discuss social inequality related to race relations. By comparing two articles “Ethno-Racial Attitudes and Social Inequality” and “What happens before? A field experiment exploring how pay and representation differentially shape bias on the pathway into organizations” this paper will explore racial social injustices with the intent to showcase the thinking about race relations and social inequality.

Racial inequality has indeed become less common than in the past, but it is still very much present in our current everyday society. It may be true that the overt practices such as slavery, beatings, or blatant segregation are rare, but our American culture is progressing towards more covert racism, discrimination and segregation. This form is just as painful to subordinate groups, although increasingly discrete. There are many reasons to which we can attribute inequality. The article “Worsening Wealth Inequality by Race,” written by Taylor Luhby, specifically exemplifies the attribution theory and cultural and structural explanations. These explanations are very common and often times

Racial inequality remains visible within our society. Although slavery and segregation laws are obsolete, that does not mean racism exists subtly. Throughout the course readings one thing is for sure: the slave trade is the primary cause for racial inequality from 1500 to the present. Slavery is a product of violence and those who are sold into it, are pronounced as property. Moreover, throughout the 15th to mid-18th centuries, slavery caused people to despise those who looked different from them, based on skin color. Furthermore, slavery has caused numerous gaps among the privileged white community and minorities who have a history of slavery. This includes: financial stability, quality of education, housing areas, and criminal justice laws. Thus, creating a divided society based on skin color, with effects that continue to be a small part of our contemporary world.