Racial Inequality Essays (Examples)

race and racial inequality are structured in the United States of America. It explains the concepts of oppression and privilege, describing ways in which various social institutions (educational system, the media, the economy, politics and the state, criminal justice system, etc.) intersect to construct categories of difference in society. It concludes with a policy suggestions that would help to decrease racial and ethnic inequality in U.S. society.
Institutional Structures and acial Inequality

The manifestation of racism in social institutions are major impediment in the struggle against rampant prejudice in the country. Specific example is shown by Simon (2008), in the television drama series, The Wire created and written by a former police reporter. The series depicts institutional dysfunction in the police department, City Hall, the public school system. It reveals how the characters are betrayed by the same institutions that are important to them in provision of education, protection and…

The efforts of the Movement would be frustrated by the conditioning of those in the older generations who had only known crushing poverty. To them, the goals of freedom and equality seemed so far away that to fight for them was impractical. For them, political imperatives were a distant priority behind whatever means could be gathered for survival. This demonstrates the power that poverty has had in detaining the advance of African-Americans.
Conclusion:

Certainly, Moody's own experiences would help to demonstrate this. In her youth, Moody experienced poverty without fully understanding the racial constructs that dictated it. As her education advanced, she became increasingly acquainted with the idea that her race made her subject to separate laws, discriminating violence and, ultimately, those conditions of poverty within which she came of age. The activism of her adulthood would bring her face-to-face with poverty as an impediment to the collective of advance…

acial and Ethnic Differences National Contexts
A sociologist analyze racial ethnic differences national contexts. For, U.S., tend race a . In order develop skill, select analyze a society demonstrating ethnic stratification conflict, including evidence prejudice discrimination.

In sociology, the predominant line of thought has favored new prejudice interpretations, arguing for the continuing relevance of prejudice and discrimination in forming political opinions and in generating discrimination. New prejudice theories have argued that modern prejudice is multidimensional, combining racial and ostensibly nonracial beliefs. Little known to most sociologists, recent psychological research provides a new approach to understanding the sources of racial discrimination that compliments ideas from the new prejudice literature (Livingston, 2002).

esearch has demonstrated that implicit racial attitudes exist even for individuals who score low on measures of explicit racial prejudice and that these implicit beliefs influence judgments and perceptions. This literature provides one way to reconcile differences between continuing high…

Many white people were indentured servants. However, as slavery and blackness became increasingly common categories of negative description, the notion of slavery as a black and racial state of being became accepted, and black national identity of country origin was erased. The idea of white as racially non-black is also a relatively recent innovation. Once upon a time, Jews, Irish people, and Chinese people were considered alien, other, and non-white by European society. In the United States, however, although such groups were discriminated against, because of the early history of slavery, whiteness and blackness, free and slave, became the dominant categories within the American framework of thought about race.
Race can thus be transformed by societal change, self-definition, and political struggle, but it cannot be ignored or subsumed under ideas that class, gender, or national origins is what 'really' matters Omni and inant analyze race's intersection with society on macro…

The novel opens seven years after Gabo's mother, Ximena, was murdered by coyotes -- or paid traffickers -- during an attempt to cross the border. Her mutilated body was found, her organs gone -- sold most likely. Because of the fear surrounding this border town and the lure of the other side, all of the characters become consumed with finding afa. These people are neglected and abused. Like other fiction works on this topic (such as Cisneros's The House on Mango Street), The Guardians (2008) is rich in symbolism and flavored with Mexican aphorisms. The novel also shows the reader how complex and perilous border life is when you're living in between the United States and Mexico.

The book is important when attempting to understand the challenge of the border town life and it is, at the same time, a testament to faith, family bonds, cultural pride, and the human…

" (Dafler, 2005) Dafler relates that for more than thirty years children who were 'half-caste' "were forcibly removed from their families, often grabbed straight from their mother's arms, and transported directly to government and church missions." (Dafler, 2005) This process was termed to be one of assimilation' or 'absorption' towards the end of breeding out of Aboriginal blood in the population. At the time all of this was occurring Dafler relates that: "Many white Australians were convinced that any such hardship was better than the alternative of growing up as a member of an 'inferior' race and culture." (2005) it is plainly stated in a government document thus:
The destiny of the natives of Aboriginal origin, but not of the full blood, lies in their ultimate absorption by the people of the Commonwealth, and [the commission] therefore recommends that all efforts be directed towards this end." (eresford and Omaji, Our…

There are also arguments that can be made for the use of racial categories including situations where the use of these categories will assist in minimizing racial disparities. For example, in the educational field there have historically been racial inequalities. In this case racial categories can be utilized to ensure that equal opportunities are presented to all individuals regardless of racial category. acial categories can also be useful in research situations to find ways to identify the causes of racial disparities, as well as how race structures human interactions. Since many state programs target areas that have underprivileged

Educational professionals can unintentionally continue racial disparities in the school system by allowing their assumptions about racial groups to guide their expectations, as well as interactions with students of that racial designation. If the example of persons of Asian descent is utilized again, these expectations that a student will excel in science…

Social Order and Inequalities
Social order and inequality

Ideas, beliefs, values, norms, roles, statuses, organizations and social class may have impact on an individual's life directly or indirectly. This can be in form of gender and social inequality. The life of my friend Jane who is a woman is an example of how these phenomenon impacts the life of individuals.

Gender inequalities rise from deepening division in the roles that are assigned to men and women, especially in the political, economic and educational sphere. When my friend Jane could not make it to the leadership of their community despite various attempts, it showed that women are always underrepresented in political activities as well as decision making processes. This is brought by the ever existing beliefs that men are better leaders than women. As a woman she is subjected to institutional discrimination where they face problem of accessing education which has…

Race and Arrests
Racial Profiling, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is a "longstanding and deeply troubling national problem." It involves police and private security personnel targeting people of color based on suspicions, in most cases, that the individual being targeted is up to something illegal. The ACLU states that racial profiling "occurs every day," and the result for the innocent person of color is often a "frightening detention, interrogation, and searches without evidence of criminal activity." The basis for the stop in many cases is a person's perceived race, ethnicity, and national origin -- and in some cases the clothing a person is wearing in addition to the color of his skin. This paper delves into a few of the questions that surround racial profiling: a) why do police feel the need to racially profile people? b) Is it just part of the work of a cop…

Namely, the institutions of slavery and Jim Crow that were used to constrain the growth and advancement
of African Americans are today disregarded as being directly relevant to
the fortunes and opportunities of blacks in America. This is both
unrealistic and unethical, with the denial of its lasting impact casting
American racism in an historical light rather than one which is still
present and problematic. It is thus that the social contract today serves
the interests of dominance even as it feigns to have disavowed these
aspects of itself.
A true resolution to the failures of the social contract may only
really occur when the discourse on America's racialist past and the lasting
effects of this on the current fortunes of African Americans is resolved.
In that regard, Mills regards it as largely a fiction that racial
discrimination ended in any meaningful way after the Emancipation
Proclamation; rather, racial prejudice…

Injustices based on racial discrimination and gender bias in a democratic country sounds weird and hard-to-believe. However, what history has witnessed proves what nobody wants to hear or believe. This analytical research paper addresses grave issues concerning racial discrimination and gender bias pertaining to black vs. white and the related causes for the orld ar II as well as the prejudices that led to the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, the paper revolves around the popular poem "Mending all" by Robert Frost, addressing the issue of the racial conflict between blacks and whites in America. Poems by Langston Hughes will also be incorporated in the paper to better explain the black experiences before the II and Civil Rights Movement. The orks Cited appends seven sources in MLA format.
Mending alls

Among many renowned literary figures that understood the cost that the world is paying for racial prejudices and the rebellious nature…

Murray characterizes educational romantics as people who believe that the academic achievement of children is determined mainly by the opportunities they receive and has little to do with their intellectual capacity. Educational romantics believe the current K-12 education system is in need of vast improvement.
Murray describes two types of educational romantics, one set on the Left and one on the ight, and differentiates between the two thusly:

"Educational romantics of the Left focus on race, class, and gender. It is children of poor parents, and girls whose performance is artificially depressed, and their academic achievement will blossom as soon as they are liberated from the racism, classism, and sexism embedded in American education. Those of the ight see public education as an ineffectual monopoly, and think that educational achievement will blossom when school choice liberates children from politically correct curricula and obdurate teachers' unions (Murray, 2008)."

Both of these…

CIMINAL JUSTICE ESEACH ASSESSMENTCriminal Justice esearch AssessmentSeveral months ago, I came across a 2013 research article titled, No evidence of racial discrimination in criminal justice processing: esults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The said research article, - authored by Beaver, DeLisi, Wright, Boutwell, Barnes, and Vaughn indicated that although there is indeed evidence of racial disparity in the criminal justice system in as far as the arrest, conviction as well as incarceration in the U.S. is concerned, the said disparity could sufficiently be explained after accounting for lifetime violence as well as IQ. More specifically, in the words of the authors, although African American males are significantly more likely to be arrested and incarcerated when compared to White males, the said disparity could be…

Marrying Citizens! aced Subjects? e-thinking the Terrain of Equal Marriage Discourse," Suzanne Lenon attempts to parse the underlying racial assumptions present in the legal fight for marriage equality in Canada, and in doing so reveals that this topic is as much about racial identity as sexual identity. By examining Lemon's article alongside some other relevant research, one is able to see how notions of universal equality are complicated by the complex interactions of power as mediated by race and gender, and that to truly fight for genuine equality one must be aware of these underlying assumptions which may implicitly maintain certain forms of discrimination. Furthermore, one is able to see how those attempting to challenge assumptions regarding race and gender are not themselves free from certain assumptions, which ultimately serve to undermine any productive work done.
Lenon's essay challenges a number of assumptions regarding the language used in the fight…

Inequalities in Mental Health
Over the last several years, different theories have been utilized to explain the societal factors in the quality of mental health. The basic idea is to understand which variables will have the greatest impact on the person's ability to contribute to society. The social structure theory is taking a unique perspective in studying the problem. To fully understand its importance requires looking at the main ideas and why it was chosen. Together, these elements will illustrate how this influences mental health and the effects it is having on contemporary thinking. (Gabbidon, 2005) (Cole, 2013)

The social structure theory believes that the economic class will have a direct impact on the quality of care, treatment options and the effects on society itself. This is because poor neighborhoods face greater amounts of strain, frustrations, reduced opportunities and disorganization. These variables will influence how someone sees their surroundings and…

(Davis, 2001) That number is sure to have risen dramatically since Davis did her research.
The debates surrounding both the efficacy and the morality of racial profiling have created a lot of disagreement from many communities of color. Kabzuag Vaj is an organizer with the Asian Freedom Project in Madison, Wisconsin. The Asian Freedom Project has garnered hundreds of accounts of racial profiling of Southeast Asian youth over the past year. (Davis, 2001)

"Talking to the mainstream about racial profiling is hard," says Vaj. "The excuse people give us is extreme times demand extreme measures, whatever is necessary to catch the terrorists." (Davis, 2001) Organizers at People United for a etter Oakland (PUELO) also face similar concerns. They understand that although they are on all levels a multiracial organization, their campaign against racial profiling and police misconduct is simply inadequate to address the current political and sociological situation. "The fact…

esearch has shown that good communication amid patients and health care providers is directly connected to a person's happiness, treatment adherence and affirmative health results (Cultural Competency for Health Care Providers, 2007).
The goal of a lot of provider-oriented health it tools is to make relevant patient information flawlessly and unmistakably accessible to providers at the point of care. In so doing, these tools can decrease clinical indecision related to blurred or mistaken patient information that may be found in a handwritten medical record. In the nonexistence of desired information or in the presence of blurred or uncertain data, providers may undervalue patient precise information while at the same time overweighting their own medical viewpoints, suppositions, prejudices, or stereotypes about certain kinds of patients. If apparent and precise patient information is accessible to the clinician, the utilization of this information should augment, getting rid of the need for relying on…

ichard Mitchell and Professor Daniel Dorling from the University of Leeds and Dr. Mary Shaw from the University of Bristol on the parliamentary constituencies of Britain revealed a number of social policy scenarios. The study traced the impact of the variations to society that might be brought through the effective execution of three social and economic policies. Firstly, they examined the efficacy of the policy of modest redistribution of wealth to counteract the health inequalities. During the decades 1980s and 1990s there were a considerable variation in the wealth possessions of rich and poor reflected in the major variations in their health enumerated by mortality rates. The study revealed that by returning to the inequalities in wealth of 1983 about 7500 deaths annually could have been prevented. (educing health inequalities in Britain)
The study assessed the impact of such policy to be most effective in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency in…

End Racial Pefeences?
Affimative action was an impefect solution to the poblems which iddled an impefect society. Centuies of slavey, subjugation, misogyny and othe issues contibuted to a society whee the playing field in Ameica has been fa less than equal fo an enomous amount of time. This means that women and minoities often have to stuggle and wok twice as had to get ahead and often don't. Affimative action was designed as a means of attempting to level out the playing field, so that these goups could have moe of a fai shot at getting into bette schools and secuing moe desiable jobs. Obama has been quoted as still being a suppote of affimative action as a positive and effective means of discouaging decades of histoic and cuent discimination; howeve, as Obama advises, affimative action has to be moe than a simple quote system and take into consideation the…

acial Socialization Practices on the Cognitive and Behavioral Competence of African-American Preschoolers: Article eview
In the September issue of Child Development, the article The Influence of acial Socialization Practices on the Cognitive and Behavioral Competence of African-American Preschoolers discusses how African-American children are affected by their parent's acclimation to the African-American culture. In other words, how do young children react to being black in a predominantly white society. According to the authors of this study "African-American children and the parents raising them face many challenges, both unique to them as a specific ethnic group and shared across all racial or cultural groups." (O-Brien-Caughy et al., 2002)

African-Americans have a unique dilemma in raising their young children. They must deal with three realms of experience: mainstream society, being a minority in mainstream society, and maintaining their own African culture in mainstream society. Based on these three realms, the authors presented a…

In order to reduce the negative implications of social inequality, based on race, ethnicity or even economic features, researcher James Jackson promotes three broad recommendations. They are as follows:

development of a sustained, comprehensive focus by government and private and public organizations on providing greater economic opportunities in education, employment and intergenerational transfer of wealth enforcement of existing Civil ights legislation and regulations to eliminate continuing, persistent racial and ethnic discrimination in housing, employment, schooling and the criminal justice system, and identification of common objectives among racial and ethnic minority groups to produce workable, long-lasting coalitions" (Jackson)

4. Conclusions

The past century has witnessed improvements in the conditions of the white immigrants to the United States and this has materialized in reduced crimes and punishments within the Chinese and Japanese communities. The improvements in their situation have been based on increasing socioeconomic status. The same cannot however be said about…

Educational Inequality Along acial Lines
The role of education in the American society cannot be overemphasized. Education plays an important role in equipping students with knowledge and skills for transforming their life and the society at large. Also, the education system instills appropriate values, behaviors, and attitudes in students, making them useful members of the society. Nonetheless, while education is important, it tends to reinforce the existing social inequality, particularly along racial lines. Funding inequalities and learning outcomes between schools from privileged backgrounds and those from unprivileged backgrounds attest to this. This paper examines inequality in education along racial lines. The paper specifically focuses on four aspects: the role of education from two sociological perspectives; the role of funding in producing educational inequality along racial lines; America's cultural diversity (in terms of race, gender, ethnicity and class) and the educator's role in promoting cultural diversity; as well as an anti-racist…

aker reviewed three landmark Supreme Court decisions on capital punishment and concluded that the death penalty is capriciously imposed on lack defendants and thus serves the extra-legal function of preserving majority group interests. He viewed discrimination in capital sentencing as deliberate and identified the primary reasons why lack defendants with white victims have been denied fairness in capital sentencing. These are prosecutorial discretion in the selective prosecution of capital cases, prosecutorial misuse of peremptory challenges to systematically exclude lacks from juries, judicial overrides by trial judges, prosecutorial misconduct and the ineffective assistance by defense counsel (Emmelman).
Helen Taylor Greene used a colonial model to explore the effectiveness and limitations placed on the police in the past and in the present (Emmelman, 2005). This colonial model showed that the police, regardless of color, were an oppressive force in many communities. Lately, lack political empowerment and ascendancy in many law enforcement departments…

Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities
in Health Care

The recent report of the Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (2002 Smedley et. al.), indicates that bias, stereotyping, and prejudice may often contribute to the quality of health care that is provided to non-white patients. For anyone entering into the field of health care, this information is beneficial because it uncovers many of the reasons why some patients receive inadequate health care that can lead to future prevention of this problem.

The vast majority of studies reviewed concluded that minorities are less likely to get the same treatment as whites, including necessary procedures. The studies also suggested that patient attitudes cannot explain completely why disparities exist in health care. Clearly, race has become as issue in the health care industry. The report brings to light the depth of the problem when it…

ace Juvenile
Family, Community, and acial Trends in U.S. Juvenile Criminal Justice

The subject of race and ethnicity as they relate and correlate to criminality and prison populations in the United States has been the subject of a great deal of study and commentary for many decades. It is unquestionably true that a disproportionate number of people of color are convicted of crimes than are Caucasians both on a national level and at the community level in the majority of the country; this fact is easily supported by a cursory review of criminal justice statistics and is not a matter of debate despite the contentiousness of the issue. What is debated are the reasons behind this skewed prison population/criminal element, and in an effort to address this debate the following paper will study the problem as it appears not amongst adults, but amongst the still-developing youth of the country.

ace,…

Brown's Clotel
William Wells Brown defies notions of race and gender in his novel Clotel, or the President's Daughter by subverting the traditional norms associated with gender via the "cult of domesticity" that saturated the American public consciousness throughout the 19th century, locating true womanhood within the domestic work and life of the home. Brown's portrayal of womanhood, however, in Clotel contradicts the "cult" mentality by depicting not only a strong woman but a strong black woman -- which challenges the racial stereotypes and "ethnic notions" popularized by American media in the antebellum years as well. This paper will show how Brown achieves this contrasting view of race and gender in his novel by developing the character of Clotel in such a way that she resists all stereotypes and even takes on the persona of the tragic heroine when she jumps to her death at the end of the novel…

After all, it was only a few generations ago that the FHA was discriminating against black applicants. Schools are still highly segregated. Race in many ways determines access to social and cultural capital, as well as financial capital. Throughout successive generations, it has been difficult if not downright impossible for the sons and daughters of non-white individuals to achieve social and economic parity with whites. The government could do things like infuse large amounts of money into predominantly poor, black communities. The residents of these communities need to have the opportunity to start their own businesses rather than work for a distant (white-owned) corporation that does not give back to the community. When black communities become more self-sustaining economically, it will be easier for them to improve infrastructure. The results will take time but would be totally feasible and no one would be affected adversely.
In light of the consequences…

Bonilla-Silva focuses on black-white relationships, but such styles are also seen in the actions of groups like Asians Against Affirmative Action. Many members of this group profess sympathy for minorities like African-Americans and Hispanics, but their lawsuits against school admissions committees that look at race as a decision factor belie their claims of color-blindedness.
The naturalized style is evident in arguments of groups that look at supposed natural abilities and intelligence. People who argue that African-Americans are "naturally better" at music and athletics might not consider themselves racist, and see themselves as being descriptive. This is the same case with people who believe that Asians and Asian-Americans are whiz kids who are naturally better at math. Such language, however, masks how people are actually articulating racist ideals.

Cultural racism can be seen in the attitudes that many commentators have espoused towards Arabs and Arab-Americans, especially in the post-September 11 era.…

Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a pioneer of sociology and a forerunner to civil rights activists later in the 20th century. DuBois used sociology as a tool or lens for viewing structural problems in the society, especially racism and racial inequality. W.E.B. DuBois earned his degree from Harvard University and after that established one of the first sociological research centers in the United States, called the Atlanta Sociological laboratory.

One of the issues that DeBois explored was the phenomenon of "double consciousness." Double consciousness refers to the fact that whites assume they are the normative person, and so have a singular consciousness as an American. Black people, on the other hand, refer to themselves (and are referred to) as African-Americans. The difference is powerful when viewed from a sociological perspective, and can explain a lot about the identity that black people develop in opposition to white dominant…

Thus, the relation between students is imperative for determining such disorders (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2007). As with the previous two categories, this is seen as incredibly subjective in the idea that no medical diagnosis or visible physical symptoms are needed to be placed within the category.
Stratification.

Stratification is essentially the ranking of individuals within a hierarchy based on the structures present in a functioning society. Sullivan and Artiles (2011) define stratification as "the patterned and differential distribution of resources, life chances, and costs / benefits among groups of the population" (p 1529). One's rank on this hierarchy determines one's quality of life and opportunities in relation to the structures and the groups these structures serve.

Literature eview

Overrepresentation and Segregation of acial Minorities in Special Education.

According to the research, there are much higher rates of overrepresentation of minorities in what is known as high-incidence categories,…

The fact that he chose to use real Black people in the background, but white actors in the lead roles highlights the idea that Blacks were still supposed to be subservient to whites; even lead characters who were supposed to be Black were portrayed by whites. However, it also points to one of the reasons that whites chose to employ blackface: the perpetuation of racial stereotypes. hile many minstrel shows focused on less frightening aspects of Black stereotypes, the Birth of a Nation focused on a fear that people would use to drive anti-Black sentiment in the period following Reconstruction: the image of the Black male as dangerous rapist. Although many people protested the racist elements of the movie, it became an instant success, and remains a controversial but constant member of most critics' best film lists.
Blackface persisted as a staple in American entertainment throughout the early part of…

nation continues to grow in diversity, our education system will have to deal with problems associated with language and cultural differences. The purpose of this discussion is to analyze the impact of language, culture and community on education. The main focus of our analysis will be the importance of a common language in the classroom. e will begin our discussion by providing the definition of language.
Defining Language

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, language is defined as the "Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols." (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language) Language can be share amongst people in a particular culture, ethnic group or people that are members of the same generation. Language allows individuals to express their thoughts and feelings and is essential to success in academics.

Importance of Common Language in the Classroom…

mixed research solution to help explain just why there are so many black males in special education. The researcher supported the research questions by utilizing article, journals, observational researches, and statistical data to greatly assisted in demonstrating the final resulst of the study. The articles and journals can give a reason of the quantitative variables - for example learning styles, referral process; I.Q. testing, cultural diversity, insufficient early intervention plan, and poverty are influential in the classification of young black males as special education candidates. Participants who will remain active in the research will undoubtedly be students who range from grades K-12. Statistical data is going to be used to exhibit how African-American males signify nearly all students in the special education structure understanding the fact that they're half the normal commission of the student populace. The information will exhibit how African-American males are plagued with racial inequality and racially…

Since homosexual couples are not allowed to get married, health insurance benefits are not available through these means. Additionally, gay and lesbian patients face particular prejudice from "homophobic" health care providers, and may avoid seeking health care if they suspect that they will encounter such prejudice (Quittner 2004). Furthermore, some health care practitioners may actually refuse treatment of some patients based on religious or moral objections, and in some states doctors' rights to do this may soon be protected by law. Bills have been introduced in Arkansas, Michigan, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and est Virginia that would give health care workers, from doctors to pharmacists, the right to refuse treatment or medication to any patient based on ethical, moral, or religious reasons, while in Georgia health care professionals are already legally allowed to discriminate based on their own moral or ethical beliefs (Kuhr 2005).
The injustices within the…

Sociological Analysis: Salt of the Earth
Salt of the Earth

The 1954 film Salt of the Earth explores a wide variety of social issues that would come to the forefront of social conscience in the coming decades. The film examines the economic and social inequalities perpetrated by the economic system in the United States, racial prejudice, and gender equity. The script is based on a real-life labor strike and uses the actual miners involved in the labor dispute as actors. The movie was made outside the studio system by blacklisted writer Michael Wilson, director Paul Jarrico, and director Herbert Biberman.

Economic and Social Inequalities

The movie exposes the shabby working and living conditions of the Mexican-American community. It provides some historical background on how Hispanic rights were violated by white industrialists. The land was once owned by members of the local Mexican-American community, however the Zinc Company moved in, took…

Brazilian Ethnic Issues
The racial / ethnic composition of Brazilians is quite different from the racial / ethnic make up of people in the United States, and unique in the world in many respects. How is the government dealing with ethnic and racial relations within their very large and culturally diverse country? This paper will review the literature on the dynamics (and history) of this multi-ethnic, multi-racial South American nation. And in addition some aspects of ethnicity and racial data in Brazil will be compared and contrasted with those data in the United States.

Racism is Learned, Justified, and Reinforced

According to author Benjamin P. Bowser, racism is "…a historic and cultural belief (in one race's inferiority and in another's superiority) that has been used by national elites" in order to continue a kind of "social stratification" that leans in their favor (Bowser, 1995, p. 285). Racism has been "very…

Health and Illness
acism's ole in Health Service Inequalities

acism's ole in Health Service Inequalities

Healthcare has been a divisive topic in the United States for the past two decades in the public and private sectors. This has brought the entire subject to the fore in the eyes of most Americans. Whether an individual is one of the people who has been denied equal access to health care or not, it can be very trying to receive good, fairly priced healthcare in a lot of areas in the United States.

Among the many questions that populate the debate, one is becoming more and more central. There is a divide in the United States that has been present as long as this country has been a recognized nation. That divide is caused by the inequities that do exist, and have existed. This divide is racial in nature and seems to work…

ace Discrimination Justice
Discrimination

ACE DISCIMINATION CIMINAL JUSTICE

ace and Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

acial inequality has long been an issue in the American society. Despite making substantial progress in creating a more racially equal society, there are still many issues involving race and discrimination that can be found today. The criminal justice system was designed to treat all individuals equally under the law. However, covert racism and discrimination still plague the system and many minorities are adversely impacted and are not treated equally under the law. While most judges and public officials profess a strong dedication to remaining racially impartial, the evidence suggests otherwise. This literature review will focus on various points that indicate that there is a substantial amount of inequality to found within the criminal justice system in our modern society.

Background

acial differences in the criminal justice system have been important topics since the…

On the threshold of the Civil Rights movement, Baldwin would publish
Notes of a Native Son. Though 1953's Go Tell It On The Mountain would be
perhaps Baldwin's best known work, it is this explicitly referential
dialogic follow-up to right's
Native Son that would invoke some of the most compelling insights which
Baldwin would have to offer on the subject of American racism. This is,
indeed, a most effectively lucid examination from the perspective of a
deeply self-conscious writer enduring the twin marks in a nation of
virulent prejudice of being both African American and homosexual. The
result of this vantage is a set of essays that reaches accord with right's
conception of the socially devastating impact of segregation on the psyche,
conscience and real opportunity but also one that takes issue with the
brutality of Bigger, a decidedly negative image to be invoked of the black
man in America.…

Mason/Allende
Thomas King's 'stories': A Comparison of Shiloh and an Act of Vengeance

Our first analysis starts with the novel "Shiloh," written by Bobbie Ann Mason. The main binding story in Shiloh would certainly be the gender inequality featured right from the start -- Norma Jean is presented as being a reserved woman who highly depends on her husband, as such was the case during the 60's and 70's. The truth is otherwise; Norma Jean is working hard to become a strong woman, taking adult education courses at the community college and working at exall Drugstore to help out with the finances. This clearly shows us a stereotype from the era, the softspoken and uneducated woman of the 1960's. This gender inequality binds Norma Jean in a way that the perception of an outsider will always define who she is. No one will ever see her for the hardworking, independent…

Essentially, those in the lower tiers of the urban socioeconomic hierarchy, rather than having been drawn out of despair, have
been thrust to the periphery of America's 'revitalizing' cities.

Question 2:
One of the most important points raised by the course reading
material would be that underscoring a clear proclivity toward urban design
and planning in those who would first colonize the new lands. Though
massive and ripe with natural resources and incredible frontiers, the new
land was also flowing with inherently profitable waterways, brimming with
commercial trade prospects and inhabited by a native population which,
though Chudacoff reports it to have been significantly underestimated as an
city-dwelling peoples as well, would appear ripe for exploitation. More
importantly though to this discussion would be the text's consideration of
the inherency of the European urban culture to America's development.
Indeed, according to Chudacoff's (2005) account, "the Europeans who
colonized North America…

Clearly, the disadvantages of conducting interviews to interpret history is that often, memories become cloudy and/or lost, and people, as they age, remember things differently. Therefore, some of these memories could be faulty, or at least flawed, and yet, there is no mention of that in the book. There are also quotes in the interviews, and it is hard to imagine that anyone could remember exact words after even 10, 15, or 20 years after the incidents occurred. That means that some of these interviews, although they certainly mean well, could be inconsistent, and that takes away some of the historic notability of this book.

In conclusion, this is a very emotional and personal look into the Civil ights Movement and how it began, grew, and helped obtain equal rights for Black Americans. The author interviewed some of the most influential people in the Civil ights Movement, and their memories…

As this meme passed down through generations, it became more pervasive and it also became more complete. When slavery in the New World began, both blacks and whites were enslaved, black slaves could gain freedom, and slavery was not a condition of birth. However, as that changed, the memes surrounding African-Americans also changed. Not only were blacks seen as not equal to whites, but they were seen as incapable of becoming equal to whites. Therefore, when Jim Crow segregation was first challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court determined that separate facilities were not inherently unequal, despite overwhelming evidence that the facilities provided for African-Americans were factually inferior to those provided for whites. While this meme has been challenged by newer ideas and has, generally, not stood up to scientific, moral, and religious challenges, vestiges of it remain in almost every American person. As a result, many Americans, of…

ocial Concern
In complex societies such as the United tates, few things happen in isolation. When the country sets national policies into effect, those policies ripple throughout the population and affect other features of the society in dynamic ways. One such public policy is the "war on drugs." The war on drugs has rippled through society and affected other policies, such as racial profiling. Those two policies have become tied to urban poverty, tying all three together.

Profiling, or determining a set of characteristics a group of criminals are likely to share, has been justified by police forces as a way to fight the war on drugs. However, all too often the profiles are not terribly accurate and applied unfairly to one group over another. A detailed study in New Jersey done in 2001 showed that state troopers were pulling over more Blacks than whites or Hispanics, and then asking…

hite Man's Burden
The film hite Man's Burden directed by Desmond Nakano tells the story of an alternate reality wherein the African-American men are the predominant members of upper class society and the Caucasian population is in the social minority, a complete reversal of the current social racial dichotomy of the real world. Such a circumstance is not likely in the world as we know it. Even though members of the African-American race have been able to obtain position of power in the world, including the office of the President of the United States, there is still a great difference between the positions of power that the two races play in American society. Most high-paying jobs and political offices are held by Caucasian people. The dichotomy of racial inequality can be discussed in terms of two different types of social psychological phenomena: discrimination and confirmation bias.

In the movie, the…

acism in the United States is often seen as the methodical oppression of African-Americans and other people of color and the related ideology of white supremacy and black inferiority. These two aspects of racism have influenced the U.S. society from the early 1600's until the present (Bohmer 1998). It all comes down to everyone being different and people being unable to accept these differences.
I have often found myself when choosing people to date letting the fact of whether these people had any college education or not influence my decision on who to go out with and who not to. After evaluating that way of thinking, I have come to the realization that this is just silly and that this factor should not be something that I take into the equation when deciding who to go out with.

Task 3

Effective communication occurs mainly at an unconscious level and this…

Sociology Discussion Responses
Response to Post #1

I agree with you completely about the moral travesty of the continuing social and political inequality in many African nations as well as the continuing detrimental effects, even today, of European colonialism on the African continent. Likewise, it is inexcusable that racial inequality still persists today. However, the inability of many African societies to overcome the challenges that still bar significant social reform and progress today are, unfortunately, also largely attributable to the degree to which the government authorities in some African nations have ignored the needs of the population and even diverted international supplies sent by Western nations intended as relief for the impoverished masses.

As you point out in your post, South Africa serves as a model of how much progress can be made under the leadership of individuals like Nelson Mandela, although local culture, practices, and customs also present significant…

Survival of Racist Customs and Mores Into the 21st Century: Analysis of the American Correction and Sentencing Trends
Increasing awareness of the US's unsuccessful mass imprisonment experimentation has effected federal and state level modifications aimed at decreasing the nation's detention scale. Experts and policymakers have been suggesting "smart on crime" public safety strategies which support alternatives to imprisonment and decrease re-offense chances[footnoteRef:1]. Despite simultaneous fruitful bipartite dialogues on the subject of decreasing jail populations and bringing improvements to crime justice policies, the nation still struggles with disturbing racial frictions. The latest concern concentrates on frequent reports of law enforcement violence inflicted on non-Whites, some cases ending in fatalities of African-American males at the hands of law enforcers, with scant to no evident provocation. In this paper, the many fields in which racist values and traditions continue in the current era will be examined, with particular emphasis to the American corrective…

Instead of pretending that racism and its effects no longer exist, we need to strengthen affirmative action and devise a new set of policies that directly tackle the racial gap in wealth." (Derrity, 1).
That, in a nutshell, is the position of this paper. America has not given affirmative action enough time to act. Moving forward, we should continue our affirmative action policies, but with an end in mind. Economists and sociologists, along with help from America's captains of industry and human resources experts, should devise an ideal time frame whereby affirmative action will end, and set outside and inside goals for this time frame as well.

But for now, affirmative action must continue, and continue with gusto, to reverse the horrors that America's history has caused.

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW of RELATED LITERATURE

History of Affirmative Action review of the history associated with affirmative action is the first step to…

Wealth inequality results in many Americans not having access to necessities such as adequate healthcare. It is also linked to ethical and racial inequality and, as such, can be a source of social dissention. In the final analysis it is a sad truth that such radical disparities should exist in one of the most advanced societies in the word.
ibliography

lack Wealth / White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://www.infibeam.com/ooks/info/Melvin-L-Oliver/lack-Wealth-White-Wealth-A-New-Perspective/0415913756.html

Concentration of Wealth in the U.S.A. Retrieved June 25,

2009, from http://web.pdx.edu/~psu01435/wealth.html

Domhoff W. Power in America: Wealth, Income, and Power. Retrieved June 25,

2009, from http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Keister, L. (2005). Getting Rich: A Study of Wealth Mobility in America. New York:

Report details black-white wealth inequality. Retrieved June 25,

2009, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7397962

Walsh D. (2008) America's "Fortunate 400" control vast wealth. Retrieved June 25,

2009, from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/rich-m07.shtml

Appendix

Figure 1. Distribution of net…

That is if no successful intervention takes place. Campson and Laub go on to say that:
e further hypothesize that the concentration of racial poverty and inequality will exert macrolevel effects on punitive forms of social control that are larger for blacks than whites and for drug offenses than other delinquencies. As argued above, the dual image of minority offenders and the "drug war" appears to have formed a symbolic yet potent threat to the middle class population. (Sampson, and Laub 293)

In sharp contrast to this perceived threat, overclass crime such as embezzlement or other money pilfering schemes, are often considered merely "paper crimes" and disasters such as Enron, while horrific to the persons involved, are not the fodder for sensational journalism. Computers and stock reports are not as interesting as police chases and body counts when it comes to attracting the attention of lay people, criminologist and forensic…

Affirmative action is the general term used to describe the de facto and de jure social policies that attempt to eliminate or alleviate the challenges that racial minorities have faced in the United States over nearly the entire history of the nation. Acts of discrimination became a particularly extreme social problem after the U.S. Civil war and during the early years of the reformation, when the nation and its people were attempting to reconcile old hatreds and beliefs of inequality with laws that did not reflect their unfortunately harsh discriminatory opinions.
Affirmative action as it is seen today is the results of such struggles, as the civil rights movement. It is in practice the recognition of race as a determining factor for the ability of some to be accepted to colleges and universities, which have previously been attended mostly by the racial majority, and/or receiving preferential treatment in hiring, especially…

Racism
Social Science literature has largely defined racist societies as those where: official ideology proclaims that racial differences are unbridgeable; the ideal is "race purity"; social segregation is mandated by law; and stigmatized groups have limited access to economic opportunities so that they are kept impoverished (Fredrickson, p. 101). Thus, it is evident that the historical definition of racism has emerged from a construct of political, sociological and economic ideology, which overtly practices racial discrimination. Since modern day America professes an ideology of equality, the question thus arises as to whether anti-black racism is now a part of the nation's ignoble past. Unfortunately, it appears that the answer to that question is in the negative, as racial prejudices continue to perpetuate an economic and social divide between African-American blacks and "white" America, albeit under the guise of Laissez-faire racism or persistent negative stereotyping (Martin & Tuch, p. 16). Logically, therefore,…

Crime
On March 9th, 2013, two New York City police officers shot and killed a sixteen-year-old Kimani Gray, and claimed afterward that he had brandished a handgun at them after being told to show his hands (Goodman, 2013). More remarkable than the New York Police Department's killing of a young black male, however, was the outpouring of community grief and anger that followed the shooting. The following Monday, March 11th, saw what started as a nighttime vigil turn into a mob, parts of which ended up looting a ite Aid chain store and a local bodega, and by Wednesday night of that week, forty-six people had been arrested, a bricks had been thrown at both a police officer and a police van (Goodman, 2013). The explosion of disorder and discontentment took some in the media and policing community by surprise, but these evens could only be surprising to someone lacking…

The disjoint between the white and black American realities was already evident at the start of the chapter, wherein he demonstrated the "flower box movement" as a reflection of the white American society's lack of understanding of poverty and inequality, wherein flower boxes were promoted in houses in the Projects to 'beautify' the social environment, subsisting to the belief that "poverty was primarily an aesthetic problem. If we could just spruce things up a bit, we'd all have more hope; we might even become middle class" (19). In fact, the Projects became a venue where marginalized groups converge and create their own worlds, mainly to be apart from the affluent white Americans.
Conley's neighborhood symbolized poverty and downward mobility that his family went through, although the author contended, as claimed by his parents, that it was the family's deliberate choice to live in the Projects rather than in a middle…

e can see that minority status has far less to do with population size, and instead seems very much to be inclined by race, ethnicity and political power instead. This label of minority status is in many ways used as a tag by which certain groups are detained from political unity or effectiveness.
To a large degree, this is a condition which relates to the nature of the Hispanic demographic, which in spite of its cultural diversity, is typically perceived by the larger American public as a single unified entity. This is both untrue and reflects the ethnocentric qualities of the white American political body that have tended to relegate the Hispanic population to representation that is not proportional to its true presence here. Indeed, "although Mexican-Americans continue to be the largest group within the Latino population, increasing immigration from other Latin American means they are perhaps the most culturally…

They gain a sense of distance, distust, and constaint in thei institutional expeiences, a distust that is common to White woking class Italian households, and Black woking class housing pojects alike. Middle class childen lean to egad leisue time as a time of skill building, to deal with stanges, even stange adults, to look these adults in the eye, and to compot themselves like membes of the pivileged class. This is paticulaly cucial in a nation of advancement like Ameica, wheeby one's social and oute demeano tanslates into one's educational oppotunities, evaluation of one's job pefomance, and the ability to advance in a still class-bound society.
The findings and implications fo teaches

What can teaches do to emedy such findings? Teaches can seek awaeness within thei own minds and backgounds. They must ty to tanslate that geate class and cultual awaeness into monitoing the pogess of students fom cultually depived…

It is for this reason that one could reasonably argue that Precious' entire life, and particularly the trials and tribulations she must endure, including her violent family life, her poverty, and her illiteracy, all ultimately stem from her racial and ethnic background, because the pervasive, institutional racial inequalities that still exist in America served to structure her entire life. Even before she began she was already disadvantaged by being born a black woman in the United States, because the United States maintains a system of social, economic, and political inequality that disproportionately impoverishes the black population. Thus, in broad strokes, one can say that all of the major events in Precious' life are a result of her ethnic background and the meaning American society places on that category of difference.

Perhaps more than any of the novels discussed here, Push manages to make the idea of difference as a form…

culmination of this class, the vital information that I now possess is the significance of racial, gender equality. What I have learnt thus far is the extent of inequality existing in the society and just how much this adversely impacts those affected. A good example is what the black community and the Muslim community are currently facing in their day-to-day lives in the world. With the continuous deaths of black people in spite of not having resorted to or engaged any illegal, undesirable activities, accentuates the extent of racial injustice. In the same manner, the Muslim people constantly face challenges of being in fear of being criticized and being branded as terrorist or supporters of terrorist groups.
Social Class & Poverty

There were a number of interesting points in the video. One of them is the high proportion of poor residents living in suburbs in comparison to major cities. An…

This suggests that where racial characteristics are invoked during the process of administering criminal justice, it has been done in order to intentionally subject the minority race to some form of unequal treatment based on his or her race.
It is this orientation that produces the sociological condition called disparity, particularly legislated policy acts unwittingly on underlying biases. So is this noted by illiams (2009), who points to the disparities created inadvertently but owing to core racial prejudices. illiams reports that "a common example of a disparity in the criminal justice system is found in sentencing guidelines. In the 1990s the Sentencing Guidelines and Policy Statements of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 that applies to all federal offenses committed after November 1, 1987 created many disparities (Mustard, 2001)" (illiams, p. 2) illiams points out that the sentencing guidelines, for instance, called for harsher penalties for those guilty of crack/cocaine…