Temporary Inequalities

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.

Social inequality is the issue pertaining to the lack of housing, health care, education, employment opportunities, and status. It is the dismissal of people from participation in what we, the members of society distinguish as being valuable, important, socially desirable, and personally worthwhile. There are many different perspectives on social inequality within our society; the three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist, Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist.

Inequality is a theme that runs throughout all of history. Harper Lee uses the theme of inequality in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson must deal with inequality when he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit because no one will trust a black man over a white man. The Cunningham family must face discrimination because of their lack of money. Scout even faces inequality when she tries to play with Jem and Dill. The theme of inequality is a strong one in Lee’s book, and her use of inequality doesn’t only define racism, but also discrimination based on wealth and gender.

Inequality is defined as ‘‘The unequal distribution of valued social resources within society or between societies’ (Blakeley & Staples, (2014 ) p13, 25). Thus it is the

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

Being an African American woman in a Caucasian male dominated society, I have experienced my share of racial and sexual inequalities. Nonetheless, for the purpose of assignment only racial inequality will be discussed. As stated in last week’s assignment. For centuries, inhabitants of the earth have had an innate superiority complex, countries with greater weapons, numbers, technology and economic resources, created systems of inequality through domination of inferior-minority-groups, maintained and perpetuated through social forces.

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

Social inequality can practically be made apparent at any moment of someone’s life – whether at work or school amongst peers or simply watching the news in the morning. According to Dalton Conley, social inequality is narrowly defined as “a condition in which a difference in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist” (2017 p.241). Moreover, social inequality is a process whereby society can determine how a class of people is expected to coexist within predetermined social, political, and economic boundaries. The affected class will live within the predefined constraints, and the affected class will then pass the predefined constraints on to future generations. It is imperative to understand that social inequality is a result of social stratification, which according to

Inequality, it is all around us, in our jobs, at our children schools, in our neighborhoods, and no matter how hard we might try to escape it, there if no escape. We used to think that inequality was a thing of the past, but it is still very prevalent in today’s society. Many think “well inequality does not affect me personally, so why should I care?” While it may not affect you personally, it probably affects someone close to you. Throughout his book Toxic Inequality, Thomas Shapiro demonstrates just how surrounded the population is by inequalities with stories about families who are not only financially divided, but racially. These inequalities are rooted so deeply in our society that it can be easy to overlook the problem and ignore it, but as Shapiro demonstrates we can no longer overlook the problem, we need to face it head on it we have any hope of trying to fix it for future generations.

found anywhere at anytime. There is racial inequality at work, racial inequality in the educational system, and racial inequality in the criminal justice system. Racial inequality is when someone is not being treated equally due to their race or skin tone. Throughout history, there was always this idea that being lighter or being white was better. That idea can still be in some people’s mind, therefore some people try to not treat everyone equally.

But how do we even notice when it start? We can take a look at the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is the noticed divide that is never spoken about. I learned this in the class and how to make it know when the “elephant” is in the room. You can tell when this “elephant” is in the room whenever you feel a social divide. An example, like stated before, with an African American walking into a convenience store, with a Caucasian American. The store owner or clerk will not to the Caucasian American to be stealing, but the African American because of this social divide with the elephant being in the room. Little things such as this example keeps society away from moving forward in the world to equality. But this is not the only example of an unequal society. Another example is the nature vs nurture debate. This is where people are instilled with the basic social skills we use today by either learning or nature occurrence. They divided socialization up between what the family instills, what society instills, and what we are born with. Family starts with the morals and the way you act and or behave, while society influences your likes and dislikes

“1]. How does social inequality impact people of different nationalities [ethnicities & races], classes, and genders in society.”

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

Reflecting on the information from the lecture, there were various aspects of inequality that coincided with my research; however, there were two areas that I thought required further consideration and contemplation. First, nowhere in the slides, in the lecture, nor in the discussions, was justice mentioned. I find that particularly odd as the preliminary point of any inquiry into inequality should start from the structural foundations of equality viz., justice.

Society holds many structures that mould human performance and produce opportunities for some, but inequalities for others (Morrall, 2009). These structures in society are organized by the hierarchies of class, ethnicity and gender (Crossman, 2016). Due to having a society based on hierarchies, social inequalities are inevitable. Social inequality refers to the ways in which a group or individual of a certain social position may receive unequal opportunities or distribution of ‘goods’ such as education, income, living conditions and healthcare (Walker, 2009). These unequal opportunities may be given to someone because of their ethnicity, gender, income, religion or social class (Walker, 2009). For example, people in a high social class will be able to pay for their children to go to a good private school for a good education, whereas lower-class or working class people will struggle to afford the same education.