Racial Inequality

George Lipsitz (1998) argues that both public policy and private prejudice have created a "possessive investment in whiteness" that is responsible for the racialized hierarchies of our society. He believes that “Whiteness” has a cash value: it accounts for advantages that come to individuals through profits made from housing secured in discriminatory markets, through the unequal educations allocated to children of different races, through insider networks that channel employment opportunities to the relatives and friends of those who have profited most from present and past racial discrimination, and especially through intergenerational

There are approximately 7 billion people in this world. Each person has a unique combination of traits such as skin tone, face shape, body type, eye color, hair color, and other characteristics. These traits vary due to genetics, environmental factors, and much more. An individual 's race is defined by their physical characteristics and how they differ among others. Race is not defined by the way an individual behaves or portrays themselfes; it is based strictly off of their physical traits. Since America was founded, race has played a significant role in the relations of the citizens in this country. For decades, different races have been stereotyped and been prejudice towards one another, without realizing how invalid their judgements are. Specifically, African Americans have been discriminated by caucasians in America since it’s founding. It began by the enslaving of African Americans, and today, the discrimination and inequality is more hidden in society. Although America has made significant progress in overcoming racial inequality in the country, many African Americans are still being subject to hardships that Caucasian Americans do not face, especially in regards to the justice system.

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.

The United States has a longstanding history of racism and discriminatory policy, stemming from the colonial era. Generally, those who weren’t considered true White Americans faced blatant ethnicity-based discrimination and adversity in matters of education, human rights, immigration, land ownership, and politics. Specific racial institutions, characteristic of the 17th to 20th centuries, included slavery, wars against the Native Americans, exclusion from civil life, and segregation. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that formal racial discrimination was banned, and majority attitudes began to see racism as socially unacceptable. However, our relatively recent racialized history has left an unfortunate impact on present society. The legacy of historical racism still continues to be echoed through socioeconomic inequality, and racial politics still remain a major phenomenon. Many argue that our government systems have shifted from means of overt racism to more symbolic, covert racism, and that this is reflected in our societal institutions, such as employment, housing, education, economics, and government.

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.

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

Economically, there is a deep seeded gap between African Americans and Caucasians in modern era. Michael Genovese argues that “in the United States, corruption and reform more often exact their costs in the form of reduced competition in both politics and the economy” (14). It is about reducing competition, or ,in other words, reducing the amount of economic opportunity to grow one’s wealth. Through slavery and segregation, the African American community had no ability to grow as they were not only physically but economically as well. This idea of corruption reducing competition can be seen in the economic gap that is shown between African Americans and Caucasians.Taking a look at this statistic that was found in “The Racial Wealth Gap” a Forbes article by Laura Shin, “the median white household had $111,146 in wealth holdings in 2011, compared to $7,113 for the median black household and $8,348 for the median Latino household”. Oppression of African Americans can not be the sole reason for this disparaging difference, but perceptions of African Americans can definitely be a factor to not allow the same opportunities as others, reducing the likelihood gaining individual wealth. Through these statistics, the oppression of the past is highly likely to be a key factor in the maltreatment and disproportionate distribution of wealth in regards to African Americans. The attitudes that have been pasted

Even though black people have descendants who suffered much more inequality issues than they have faced nowadays, they still have to deal with this historical problem in different ways. The wealth gap between whites and blacks is huge, “every extra dollar of income earned by whites generates $5.19 in new wealth over 25 years while another dollar of income for a black family adds a mere 69 cents to its bottom line (Starkman)”. These numbers show us that we still live in a segregated

Racial segregation is a distinct social challenge that stem from both overall inequality and the racial wage gap. Because wealth is “the sum total of a person’s assets … [that is] built up over a lifetime and passed on to the next generation through inheritances,” wealth inequality and the racial wealth gap exists from the past. It was not until 1984 that the United Stated began to statistically record wealth inequality, however, the wealth inequality between freed black slaves and white men started to grow towards the end of the Civil War. Because slaves were, by law, forbidden to own any land, they did not have any properties in their names. Even after the Civil War, former slaves were removed from land to land whenever a new order was set.

Therefore, I’m going to justify this information I have acquainted you with.First thing, you need to know is that I’m not against anyone I’m neither racist or bias.I was born in a city of diversity which is called New York City. However, the things I’m about to tell you may be uncomfortable or maybe even interesting.Digging deep into America’s seventeen trillion dollar economy and you’ll find fractures beneath the surface.The spoils are split unevenly between men and women, old and young. But, one of the most massive disparities is only skin deep.Everything you own houses, stocks, and cars are your wealth. According to “Blacks still far behind whites in wealth and income” by Tanzina Vega, In 2011 the wealth of the median white household was over $110,000. African American on average was 17 times less just over $6,314.” Housing has a lot to do with this massive separation.For the average American, their home is the most valuable

Ho provides the example of the American housing market to prove that even markets that are considered “neutral” like the housing market actually favor some market participants (white men in particular) over others (people of color). She calls markets “elite white racial fraternities,” highlighting the extent to which opportunities are limited to certain groups of people (Ho 2018, 150). Ho posits that housing opportunities heavily favored white men because of “massive federal subsidies” and loans that were “offered only to white men across class backgrounds” effectively “created a majority middle-class founded in whiteness” (Ho 2018, 149). Systemic racism throughout private and public sectors have excluded certain groups from the middle-class, and now certain members of the middle-class have less social mobility. Such systemic racism is not only difficult to fix but also keeps certain groups down and propagates wealth inequality. If, for example, an African-American cannot get a loan to buy a home, he or she has a lower chance of building wealth compared to a white person who could get a loan. As Ho elucidates, “cultural norms… ensured that the “economic” principle of supply and demand in housing was in fact centrally structured by race” (149). Thus, wealth inequality is not only growing between the richest and the poorest but among white people and people of color. As wealth

250 years of slavery caused a racial gap between black and white people, a gap that we were not able to fill, even after 150 years. Moreover, some studies show this racial gap is widening day by day. Expanding wealth inequality and the racial wealth gap have become central to the debate over whether or not slavery is the root of the racial gap. Wealth racial inequality means, when the economy hits an unstable path, colored people don’t have the resources to withstand those shocks. While the effect of racial inequality might seem only to be an economic problem for colored family, it actually worsens political and economic outcomes for the entire country. It is not only inequalities in wealth winding, also inequities in health, education, housing, employment, income, wealth, and other areas that impact achievement and quality of life are creating a big gap between white and colored

Studies show that police are more likely to pull over and frisk blacks or Latinos than whites. In New York City, 80% of the stops made were blacks and Latinos, and 85% of those people were frisked, compared to a mere 8% of white people stopped (11 Facts about Racial Discrimination). America is known as the land of opportunity. Immigrants and people come from far and wide seeking success and achieving their dream in this land. There is a reason for that and throughout history this reason hasn’t changed. America is a melting pot. The most diverse country in the world. We have Asians, African Americans, Chinese, Indians and much more all living together as one. You go into any big business, law firm or

In the United States wealth disparity, has affected different race of people, for example blacks, leading experts the field of sociology, in their opinion that black people are at a disadvantage in comparison to other ethical groups such as whites in wealth distribution, there are several social issues that creates this disparity. In the article written by Kellen Stanfield, (2011), p. 350 Persistent Racial Disparity, Wealth and the Economic Surplus as the for Reparations in the United States, states that “Even after the exclusion from wealth accumulation due to slavery ended, “segregation blocked access to education, decent jobs, and livable wages among the grandparents and parents of blacks born before the late 1960s, effectively preventing