Racial/Ethnic Inequality

Final Paper

One of the major social factors that affect society is racial/ethnic inequality. Depending on what race and ethnicity an individual belongs to will highly affect an individual by placing them in a dominant or a minority group. Different theorists have also put forth how race and ethnicity affect society in different ways.

Racial/ethnic inequality, according to the text Racial and Ethnic Groups, by Richard T. Schaefer, means, “not all groups, are treated or viewed equally” (4). The unequal treatment of groups creates differences making some groups dominant over minority groups also known as subordinate groups. A minority group is characterized by having less power than the majority group.

In most cases, Whites is the dominant

They believe the negative contributes to the positive, therefore, maintaining stability. For example, some of the positives that functionalists’ provide, is that the dominant group needs the subordinate group to carry out the lower status jobs such as the ones that yard, fast-food workers, cleaners, etc. perform (16). The theory also applies vice-versa; the subordinate group needs dominant group members to open companies etc. to create employment for subordinate group members. As to the negatives, they have agreed that the inequality of groups has led to members of minority groups not to have the same chances or having to work much more to become successful as compared to members of majority groups. Also, the difference in racial/ethnic groups has created huge poverty gaps, leading to higher crimes among minority groups. Functionalists’ ideology explains that there must be subordinate and dominant groups in other to balance societal

Labeling theory was introduced by Howard Becker “to explain why certain people are viewed as deviant and others engaging in the same behavior are not” (18). In addition, labeling theory can explain some stereotypes based on race and ethnicity. Stereotypes are unreliable, exaggerated generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account (416). Stereotypes of ethnic or racial minority groups are usually negative and can label the whole group as such. There are two scenarios to view how stereotypes in labeling theory affect different groups. First, there is the stereotype of a common used phrase that Mexicans are lazy in a case were a Mexican cannot find work. Although it may be true and correctly applied to a few, the whole group should not carry the negative label. It is stereotypes like this that create racism and affect ethnic and racial minorities. Reversely, if an individual belonging to a majority group cannot find a job, it is more likely to be excused as there not being enough jobs for everybody. In this case, the racial or ethnic group is not affected and the individual is not viewed negatively, rather the majority group member is excused by society. These contradictory images explain how stereotypes affect minority groups more greatly than majority group