Structural Inequality

The problem of inequality doesn’t seem to be one that is going away anytime soon. Until changes are made in the way minorities are treated in this country the problem will fester and grow.

In America’s history, each race has been portrayed as inferior or inferior, because of one’s skin color, or the beliefs of a culture. Oppression In early America varied in some ethnicities. Some races didn’t even have any civil liberties at all, they were not allowed to vote, not even allowed to become professionals. This was to keep everyone that was not of the superior race below them. Even though they are classified as U.S citizens. In most areas, the ruling race is the upper white class that runs the system, and have a disproportionate amount of power. In other areas, it may not be the white race, but it is still the race that makes up the majority. The majority, who makes the laws, and/or has money, are keys to dominate over the weaker minorities that don’t have the

There is still inequality here in the United States, but back then it was terrible. There was even a reconstruction era to try and fix these racial tensions but ultimately failed. After the civil war the reconstruction era began to develop to reconnect the eleven states that left the union and welcome to newly freedman as "equals". There were newly formed groups like scalawags, carpetbaggers, and freedman that help make a new form of government, also there were amendments made to make sure Africans were treated a regular citizens. Even though there where positive things like these many things caused the downfall and eventually killed reconstruction. Ultimately The South destroyed the rebuilding process by forming terrorist groups and discriminating

Racial disparities and inequality dates all the way back to slavery: when whites abused, raped, tortured and killed black people. “Slavery transformed America into an economic power; the exploitation of black people made the south the richest and most politically powerful region in the country” (ABS). Black people did not have any rights, instead they were forced

This paper will explore the causes and consequences of this racial disparity and political institutions that perpetuate the racial injustice. Analyses of this kind are significantly important considering the implications in the modern day society, where issues of race and justice are becoming more pervasive and exigent.

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).

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

Inequality between races in the U.S. seems like a distant, long forgotten thing of the past. However, the gaps between the varied races in the U.S. are just as real as they were before. Asians are perceived as smart hard-workers with cruel parents, hispanics are identified as lazy illegal immigrants, whites are portrayed as dumb party-goers, and blacks are discerned as scary and evil thugs. The ways these races are viewed is extremely harmful to the way they are treated by society. These people tend to be treated badly starting at a young age, making the stereotypes they are accosted with harder to overcome. Stereotypes are taken to schools and jobs, causing imbalances almost everywhere, but the most damaging stereotypes are given to blacks, as they are treated like criminals

Inequality is not favorable in society. There is inequality in many aspects of our society, such as race, and gender. The main inequality we look at is income inequality in the United States. The one percent of the population control a vast majority of the United States currency. The Gini coefficient has been increasing ever since the Industrial Revolution, a period where education, manufacturing, and economics has shown growth. However, income inequality has increased in the Industrial Revolution. There are many events, and causes that have led to the rise of income equality in the United States.

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

In America there are still several parts of our society that remain racially unequal including, the workforce, the wealth gap between minorities and whites, as well as incarceration rates and police behavior. The unemployment rates in America are relatively high and because of how hard it is to get a job, the employers prefer to hire someone that they feel more comfortable with, which typically aren’t minorities. The wealth gap between minorities and whites is continuing to grow as the years move on and because the wealth gap many people are starting to turn to criminalism. Because of the amount of people turning to criminalism, the incarceration rates of minorities is steadily increasing. Racial inequality in one section of our society can affect all of the other sections as well. It is a “snowball effect” of sorts. One small aspect of racial inequality can lead to another and another and so on and so forth until our whole society is unequal. Racial inequality has a negative impact on our society

Unfortunately, inequality has not completely ceased to exist in the United States of America. As a country, we have had a long history of injustice among our people. From the enslavement of African Americans, to the mistreatment of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, and the subtle and sometimes overt discrimination oppressing American women today, there has been a long and continuing history of discrimination and unfair action against our fellow citizens. It would be deceitful for us to think that our nation has lived up to the ideals of the words “all men are created equal” since the day the Constitution was written by the Founders. Slavery comes in many forms, and inequality has existed among many kinds of people, whether the issue

Racial inequality has been a problem plaguing this country since its inception. Even today we can see the extent of the issue in almost every facet of life. There is racial inequality within the workforce, resulting in a vast differential between incomes of different races. Racial inequality also lives within our health care system, meaning that millions of Americans are not covered by government issued health insurance, but the majority of those not covered belong to a racial minority. The most devastating place that racial inequality has managed to creep into is our education system, basically setting many American children up for failure.

The racial income gap illustrates that the United States is not a meritocracy society. A meritocracy society would be an area where everyone no matter what color or background they are from have the chance to succeed based on their own ability. Although it is certainly appealing and a magnificent way of viewing our society, in reality no society can ever truly function as a meritocracy and therefore having no control at birth and the environment where we grow up, and who we get surrounded with puts major races, especially in the United States in disadvantage, a country that is far from meritocratic compared to other nation.

Although our culture is said to be completely removed from the idea of racial discrimination, this sense of inequality can be seen occurring behind the scenes within our society. Within the subtopic of race, several areas including our current culture, social psychology and the current format of our social institutions allow for the production and often the reproduction of racial discrimination in our day and age. Throughout this course, the various readings and class lectures have been very beneficial when examining the impact that racial discrimination and inequality has on our society. In this paper, I will delve into the subtopic of race and ethnicity and expound on how it is greatly influenced by our culture, social psychology, and social institutions around us today.