Diversity and Inequality in the USA

Our book opens us up to the world of diversity and inequality in the United States. It presses on issues about groups that hold superiority towards inferior groups for multiple reasons. In “Imagine our country” our book blatantly calls out America’s problems and how we in some cases are only increasing the chances of them continuing. It helps define the differences between racism and discrimination, which I never thought about enough to distinguish before taking this class. These chapters also offer hope and ways to combat these differences, because while we may be stuck in a social loop-hole there are available ways to challenge these and make society aware of changes and in act upon them!

There are two groups of people, those that belong to the dominant group and those that belong to the subordinate group. Placement of this group can either be temporary or permanent depending on the social context. Temporary Inequality mainly takes into consideration status or power, defined as the relationship of dominance with age or profession. The superior in this case has the quality to impart on the lesser party. The lesser party however retains equal worth as the superior party and equality is developed between both parties. While Permanent Inequality is ALL about status and power. In this group there is firm difference between the worth of the dominant group and the subordinate groups. Dominants groups play their part by influencing and promoting negative associations with the subordinates. Dominant label subordinates as ineffective or incapable as a way to justify barring opportunities for all people. In some cases subordinates will respond to this with internalized oppression. In a system like this subordinates often develop skills and adapt to the ways of the dominant groups, often learning more about the dominant class than vice versa. Even though, many experts in the fields of “subordinate groups” derive from the dominant groups.

“Imagine a country” was extremely eye-opening for me. It blatantly stated the discrimination and prejudices that are directed towards a variety of groups. A huge predecessor and a topic that I am going to focus on is wages. Stating that the United States demands people to work for a living while denying them minimum wage. It brought out an important fact about how families are usually dependent on paying for either healthcare OR childcare. I was a teacher’s assistant and reading this really brought light to how women are treated in the work force.