The Importance Of Race And Ethnicities In Society

This paper reviews equality, education and identity construction with a deep focus on race and ethnicity. It is difficult to define these terms and throughout this essay I will be creating an understanding with links to literature.

Equality is ensuring every individual is treated and acknowledged equally and not discriminated against their age, race, gender, disability, belief or religion, and sexual orientation. Equality is a symbol, which is about ‘creating a fairer society, where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfill their potential’ (DoH, 2004). This enables individuals to eliminate prejudice and discrimination as everyone is respected and no one is less favorable. Promoting equality helps to reduce discrimination in all areas. Every individual has the right to equality and to be treated with dignity and respect. This allows every individual to have a choice and to be valued as an individual.

Social class is referred to as the grouping of individuals by occupation. It is a way in which society categorize a set of people which is known as “classes”, have similar levels of wealth, influence and status. Some sociologists have suggested that the term occupation used to classify social class is too simplistic and argue that there are three factors of social class: economic, social and cultural. This helps to measure an individual’s contribution to each. Social class is the concept of individuals in a society who are grouped into hierarchical social categories based on their income, education and standard of living. The three main classes are: working class, middle class and upper classes. Working which is identified with individuals who are unemployed, homeless and poverty. Individuals who belong to th...

... middle of paper ...

...he issue of ethnic minority achievement in schools is bound up with discussion of racial discrimination and integration ... issues which have occasionally come to the boil”. This shows that race and ethnicity does not only become a self-belonging to a cultural and political matter which cannot be solved without meaning. Walton and Caliendo (2011) confirm that the concept of race has to be considered in both cultural and political terms. Society has created a divide between individuals within the human race, to determine political and social power. The concept of race and the awareness that it could be used to distinguish groups from each other has lead to the creation of racism in society (Walton and Caliendo. 2011). This view has stated that identity construction has been used in order to label individuals and this has become a norm within education and society.