The Socioeconomic Gap Between White And Black Americans

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

The wage gap between blacks and whites in the U.S. has existed since before the mid 1900’s, and has persisted with us to this day.

Racial discrimination is the main and ongoing problem in the social life of Americans. When we look at the gap of incomes between White and African Americans, we can see the inequality between these two groups. In general, whites have more annual earnings than their black counterparts in America. Lori Ann Campbell and Robert L. Kaufman emphasized that the wealth determinants, which are the indicators of socio-economic status, have effected more on Whites than Blacks. And even when society is organized, there is still some disparities on account of race and ethnicity. (Campbell and Kaufman, 2006). And income disparities between African and White Americans have definitely effected the peace of the social life. According to Campell and

The black/white racial gap dates back about fifty years to the Civil War. This gap is an ongoing problem. As stated in a previous discussion, the best way to look at this is to place a white and black student in a race. Not only does the white student have a head start but they have less obstacles to overcome. While through no fault of their own, these black students could have obstacles such as: their parents not graduating high school or college themselves which in fact contributes to a lower success rate for them, improper education where the teachers shorten the curriculum or even outside factors such as family or neighborhood interfere with the quality of education they receive or even being unable to attend school all together to take

According to Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, whites are more likely to earn a better childhood education, have more access to technology, attend college, attain a stable job, and have benefits of healthcare. Jensen emphasizes the difficulties for black citizens to locate employment because of the employer’s prejudice against them. Many statistics provided by the author exhibit this disadvantage, “the typical black family had 60% as much income as a white family in 1968, but only 58% as much in 2002” (Jensen5). Additionally, it’s

day slaves and poor. According to Fryer (2011), “…Discrimination accounts for about a third of the national black-white wage gap” (p. 94).

In this research article written by Paul Croll, he has researched about the racial inequality between African American and whites. For the past several decades, national surveys have documented explanations for African American disadvantage but have not collected data on explanations for white advantage. Croll’s research uses national survey data to examine explanations for both sides of racial inequality and identifies which factors are believed to be most important in explaining white advantage, finding that racial attitudes are complex and are dependent upon the specific situation and context.

“Some employers used tests for hiring or promotion that screened out African American at a higher rate than white applicants, making it nearly impossible for them to be hired in any substantial numbers” (Vertreace, 2010). In many cases white supervisors or managers would make sure they interview just enough minorities so they want to appear not to be bias toward other races. They even pretend to follow company’s rules, but instead they make their own rules and dare someone to cross them. Nevertheless, there are not enough opportunities for black people to advance. If the only available jobs are low-income jobs, then the chance of living in poverty will continue for minorities.

Even after accounting for education, skill level, location and other factors that contribute to occupational inequality, there is still a missing piece of the puzzle of racial wage gap. The piece is the individuals race itself. Differences in wage solely due to the individuals race itself is discrimination and it is widely present in the modern work environment. A study conducted by Grodsky and Pager in 2001 found that just about 50 percent of the wage gap between blacks and whites is explained by differences in education and residential location. Another 20 percent is attributed to difference in occupation and position level. The remaining 30 percent of the wage gap between blacks and whites has no clear source other than being solely due

“Black people can not be racist, prejudice yes but not racist. Racism describes a system of disadvantage based on race. Black people can not be racist, since we can not stand to benefit from such a system,” (Dear White People). In the United States’ society, the oppression of black Americans is ingrained and rooted in history (“The Oppression”). With our country of immigrants, blacks were bought here by force and were kept as slaves for one-hundred fifty years (“The Oppression”). Granting that racism is a problem for many ethnicities, racism against black Americans is considered “justified” because racist ideologies borrowed from slavery, as well as the century old apartheid system called Jim Crow, which

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

I would hope that viewers can clearly see that numerous systems work together to limit the possible opportunities for the urban community and that the actions, beliefs, and attitudes of individuals are shaped by these setting. While academia assumes often that these ideas as basic assumptions, American remains strongly inclined to the idea that individuals are largely responsible for their own economic situations. In a recent survey of American attitudes, “fully two-thirds of those interviewed (67%) say blacks in this country who can’t get ahead ‘are mostly responsibly for their own condition’ while only 18% say discrimination is mainly at fault.” Nearly three-quarters of US whites (70 percent), a large majority of Hispanics (69 percent), and even a slight majority of blacks (52 percent) believe that “blacks who can’t get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition.”

The author’s main point is the social inequalities for black and white families. Depending on what social class the families are in determines the advantages or disadvantages for the children socially.

while the gap between whites and collective blacks does not shrink. The authors argue that in group versus out group hostilities will lessen between the whites and honorary whites, however this will only increase their in group size compared to the out group of the collective blacks and only create new tensions while strengthening old ones between these two groups. This will be because the collective blacks will feel more segregated from their lighter skinned counterparts. This type of grouping will only allot the whites more power as honorary whites’ participation within social society will rely solely on their white superiors for their approval. Maxine Leeds Craig argued in “The Colors of an Ideal Negro Beauty Queen,” that one way to

“Decisions are the frequent fabric of our daily design.” Black Americans are at greater risk of being poor because of individual effort and racial discrimination. Our decisions that we do change the outcome of our lives, but discrimination can change that.