Sociology: A Brief Note On Inequality

According Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes by Martin Marger, life chances includes “education, physical and mental health, residence and justice;” which are opportunities that we must procure through social resources (18). Our position within society determines our life chances; for children, their parent’s positions within society determines the child’s social status within society. “Life chances are acquired, then, as a result of factors that are only partially in the control of individuals…people’s initial class position and, therefore, the dimensions of their opportunities and future prospects are essentially an “accident of birth.” Certainly, people may subsequently enhance their life chances through individual effort, but

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

Finally, age is another social inequality that is taking place in society. However, certain individuals in society has being restricted from certain opportunities based on their age. According to Nick Triggle from BBC News, he reported that thousands of older people are not getting their support from the state or private sector. However, according to the Age UK, they stated that 800,000 older people has being take off from the system and the figure is going to be increase in the future. Society has been unequal in relation to ageing population, the ministers are looking at making an increase in funding based on the ageing population of older people. However, they are looking at excluding older people whose savings are above £23,250. Beside

Race refers to the idea of identifying people into groups based on various physical characteristics. An ethnic group or ethnicity is a population whose members identify with each other based on shared social traits. In America, we currently have six dominant races: white American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races. The Census Bureau also classifies Americans as "Hispanic or Latino”. Hispanic and Latino Americans are a diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group in the United States. Throughout the last decade many sociologist around the country have gathered evidence to prove the evolution the American population is witnessing.

Race and Ethnicity are integral parts of America. They are often used interchangeably. Race is associated with biology. It is a socially and politically constructed category of individuals who are assumed to share common inborn biological traits, such as bone structure, hair type, skin, or eye color. These distinctions have been used to the detriment or advantage of American groups over time. Whereas ethnicity is associated with culture factors. It is often tied to nationality of origin and characterized by a person’s ethnic traits, customs, and/or associations. Race and ethnicity in some ways go hand in hand and in other ways differ. Although the similarities are not quite the same they still have the same concept. Today’s society plays a huge role in defining these terms.

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The middle school guide focused on major historical events that have helped shape the idea of race. Also, the attempt to educate the notion that race is a recent idea made by man is made. The real concept is the difference in culture and that allows for us to accept that concept that all cultures are equal just different. Race tries to focus on superiority and inferiority. The difference in culture shows that ultimately universal values prevail such as compassion, loyalty, honor, and respect.

Race is known to be a group of people sharing the same culture, ethnicity, language, and history. Ethnicity is considered to be the fact or state of being categorized in a group that shares a common nature or cultural traditions. Being a part of a family that is very diverse having a total of eight immediate family members. My father and two brothers all being Caucasian, my mother and oldest brother are African American, and my littlest brothers and I are biracial. We don’t view each other any differently than brothers. Meeting new friends or family, it’s never been an issue for us. As we got older we began to see it more and more with relationships, sporting activities, also stereotyping African Americans with one another and Caucasian

Sociologists argue that race is a social construction. It has been constructed in a way that it places some races above others. Blacks were considered biologically and socially inferior to white during times of segregation and slavery. I strongly believe that people shouldn’t be judged by their skin color. A color shouldn’t define who you are. Sadly, the effect of racial inequality are still felt today. The idea of race was created through institutional processes. Laws were passed in the U.S. that created the idea of race. Also, it provided privileges to some groups over others. I found this video to be

about. It was not until college I began to explore the difference between race and ethnicity. A race is a person’s biological makeup (Live Science Staff, 2012) and ethnicity is more likely associated with culture (Live Science Staff, 2012). As an African American growing up, I lived in Scotland County (Laurinburg, NC) until I was 12 years old and now my residence is Guilford County (Greensboro, NC). Living in both these areas majority of my neighbors were the same race as me. A race was not a conversation that parents talked about with their children. It was not talked about in elementary, primary nor middle school days.

The aim of this essay is to address the problem of inequality and oppression through three separate texts, The Second Sex, The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage. The Second Sex focuses on the woman and her role compared to man. The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage are both texts that describe experiences about the constant racism felt by blacks. To thoroughly examine these texts and how they are related to oppression and inequality it is important to first define what each mean. Oppression and inequality each have different definitions but they go hand in hand. Oppression is the state of being subject to prolonged unjust treatment. While inequality is defined as lacking equality, equality is the state of being equal especially in status,

America is referred to as a molting pot, which means that it has a variety of ethnic cultures and backgrounds that are unified. Though America may be diverse, there is still a huge factor that separates people and prevents those from becoming an equal. That discrepancy is the iniquity in social classes. On September of 2011, Matt Wuerker a political cartoonist for Politico, published Kitchen Tables that highlighted the injustice in social classes. It is a cartoon that consist of three different drawings of kitchen tables that Americans sit around: a luxurious upper class, an average middle class, and a deprived underclass. Wuerker used unequal proportion between each of the drawings size to represent the iniquity within social classes. He not only gave the upper class half of the paper, but he also labeled it the “top 1%”. Wuerker even used colors that symbolized the meaning of the political cartoon. The upper class has an elegant golden table, with a purple shadow casting underneath it. The middle class has a green table, with a dirt green background. The underclass has a rusty bucket that is flipped upside down for a table, with a somber blue background. Wuerker used wit to display a serious message that is effecting people throughout America. Matt Wuerker used numerous ways that exemplifies the message he is trying to get across, and each of those make it an effective political cartoon for the minority of the Americans that can relate to it.

the most difficult areas of oppression is violence and to a great extent, this violence

In relation to the topic, MacLeod explains social reproduction as the theory that “explains how societal institutions perpetuate or reproduce the social relationships and attitudes needed to sustain the existing relations of production in a capitalist society.” (MacLeod 9) In this definition, the societal institutions are places like, government offices, and schools. These institutions according to him help continue to maintain the status quo by preserving the existing barriers between classes. To investigate this there are two main ways to analyze the situation, one can use the advocate deterministic model or the model that focuses more on the autonomy of the individual. The deterministic model takes into account the

In briefly evaluating the classical and modern explanations of social inequality, it is essential that we step outside the realm of our own lives, class position, and discard any assumptions we might have about the nature of inequality. This process of critical pedagogy allows us to view our world, not from our perspective, but from a wider, more critical analysis of inequality's nature. Also, it should be considered within this wider perspective that all theories of inequality have a class perspective, where the theorist, based on the position their theory takes, is making claims from (or for) a particular class (whether they want to or not). With this in mind, it seems that most of these theories come