Social Inequalities And Symbolic Boundaries

In order for us to work towards a more racially equal society, we need to know what type of social policies contribute to racial inequalities. Then, we need to either change those social policies or get rid of them completely. Rothstein focuses mainly on housing policies, which segregated African Americans from whites. Those social policies did not only constraint African Americans from buying a house in neighborhoods predominantly white, but it limited their accessibility to other important resources and services such as employment and education. This is very similar to today’s racial inequalities.

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.

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.

There are many types of inequalities throughout the world, but the major ones throughout the United States would most likely involve one's gender, one's background and also one's financial status. According to the Merriam-Webster, inequality is defined as, an unfair situation in which some people have more rights or even better opportunities than others. Many of today's United States citizens came into this country for the many benefits and opportunities one tends to hear about, but the negative situations and outcomes are never discussed. Just like any other topic, inequality has both its positive and negative outcomes, whether it is necessary to give those who want to succeed a bit of a challenge to get to where they deserve to be, to even

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

Accepting symbolic boundaries fosters what become social boundaries. Social boundaries are objective, socially constructed limitations or guidelines that direct people’s thoughts, actions and functions in society by telling people what is socially acceptable and what is not. In accordance with determining what is socially acceptable, symbolic boundaries reinforce social inequalities by determining what people do and do not have access to in terms of resources. Lamont and Molnar explain this transition from symbolic boundaries to social boundaries and vice-versa through the construction and deconstruction of the Berlin Wall. Germany symbolically split into two groups, treating each other as opposing, as “the disappearance of the territorial boundary left almost intact the deep divide between former East and Western Germans as differences continue to be reproduced through a myriad of symbolic boundaries” (2002:184). Here, symbolic boundaries are the classification of differences between East and West Germans through verbal treatment of one another, social expectations and classifications. Widely accepting the symbolic boundary created inequality by regulating what is socially acceptable and unacceptable for Eastern or Western Germans and determining the available resources for them. Symbolic

In America, looking from the outside in, it is hard to fathom how the government runs with so many different people, religions, ethnicities, and cultures. Thomas Paine characterizes America as an amalgamate government that has no unfair treatment. This rendition is true to a certain extent, the poor have Social Security, the LGBTQ community finally has equal rights, and everyone has an equal educational opportunity. Conversely, there are many issues with America today, such as police brutality towards the black community, high prison populations, and a corrupt economic class system.

Even first world countries have some major problems, I believe the biggest problem is that inequalities of different groups are still around, the biggest one in America is salary equality. Although some jobs pay different prices the fact that there are so many homeless people in areas that have vacant houses is a problem. Another big equality problem in America is age equality, the “respect your elders” term is acceptable but when someone who is older than another individual bullies or demands something from an younger person is unfair. Disorders such as depression are very common, especially in teens and young adults, and schools have really acted upon these disorders. Equality is not being totally 100% equal, that impossible, but at least make it fair for everyone.

This article speaks on several different aspects of race and ethnicity. It touches on the subject of

Aldous Huxley in his text Brave New World shows us the lives of a Utopian society being constructed as happy, productive and compliant citizens. Inequality is inevitable in any social class structure. The poor people struggle to get by while the rich are not affected by economic changes. In Brave New World, sacrifices imposed by the Alphas and Betas holding the power such that the lower castes were denied individual self-determination, self-expression and individuality. Huxley states “Every one works for every one else.

Over the past 30 years, income inequality has been growing markedly as the gap between different social classes. Income inequality interests me the most as it is a future-related issue that anyone can be subject to. Briefly speaking, when incomes are distributed unequally for the same working hours/type of job depending on gender, race, disability, fortune, or age. As the gap is forming between the rich and anyone else, the middle class slowly started to fade. One of the many disadvantages that this issue carries is its effect in giving birth to discrimination between different social groups. This can also lead to decreasing employment chances depending on certain shallow details. The United Nations can address this issue by establishing a

Social class inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. Factors of social class inequality are wealth, income, occupational, schooling, race, and ethnicity. Our society has changed from a manufacturing run workforce to a service ran workforce which has provided less jobs and increased unemployment rates. With all the changes our society has become much more depended on technology and one-minded thinking. Mechanisms that our society has are migration, emotions, youth perspective, and education.

In the world, people are judged on their color, height, the gender they are attracted to, or what someone was born as. People are trying to stop lessen the amount of social inequities in our country, but it is not making as much an impact as it needs to. People are standing up for women's rights, standing up for inequality, and standing up to bullies, yet there is still inequality in the world. As the world starts to advance more, there has to be awareness brought to the topic of social inequality and persecution. Social inequalities are impacting teens in America, authors are starting to make an impact on this problem, and different genres of literature are being used as a tool to communicate with other people in America about the situation.

The video for my project1: Video/DVD analysis is about the social/individual inequality of our society, and it will be focused on Durkheim’s view. It is from the youtube.com, originally from Khan academy for health and medicine contents. The video is about the social/individual inequality in our society.