Racial Inequality Essay

1. Inequality became instrumental in privileging white society early in the creation of American society. The white society disadvantaged American Indian by taking their land and established a system of rights fixed in the principle that equality in society depended on the inequality of the Indians. This means that for white society to become privileged they must deprive the American Indians of what was theirs to begin with. Different institutions such as the social institution, political, economical, and education have all been affected by race. Sociologists use Assimilation theory to examine race and institutions. The perceived deficiencies of minority immigrant groups by white society has resulted in a generalized characterization of these different racial groups that is demeaning and reinforces the negative stereotypes towards minorities in the United States. Knowles and Prewitt argue that the cause behind the racial tension is the historical roots of institutional racism, which has prevented the minority from attaining equality. Following structured social inequality in the United States, institutions have consistently denied the minority groups through discrimination in education, employment, health care and medicine, and politics. Some ways that this has been done is the use of Jim Crow Laws. These laws created inequality in the educational institution by conducting the black schools and whited schools separately; whites used different textbooks than blacks and they could not be interchanged, and promoting equality for the races was considered a misdemeanor offense resulting in fines or prison. Because of these institutions, we see that there is an American Ethnic Hierarchy. This is divided into a three tier system: first ...

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...black women have to work multiple part time low wage jobs to survive and provide for her family. Two methods that we can use to solve the problem of social inequality: getting off the path of least resistance and stand up, dare to make people uncomfortable. These two kind of go hand in hand. Starting with getting off the path of least resistance, it can be as simple as not laughing a racist, homosexual, and gendered joke. Getting off the path of least resistance will interrupt the natural flow and begin to make change. When someone makes a joke of that nature, speak up and make them feel uncomfortable by challenging the way they think. It may seem as though little actions such as these will do absolutely nothing but over time I think it’ll begin to affect more and more people. Being uncomfortable is part of change it helps people grow individually and as a society.