Social Inequality : Inequality And Inequality

Income inequality is on the rise and it is evident in most cities throughout the United States. There are individuals with six to seven figure incomes and then there are individuals whose income is just enough to get by. The middle class is not as prominent as the upper and lower class. This should be the other way around. There should not be so many cities with very wealthy neighborhoods right next door to low class, rundown neighborhoods, with little middle class households. Digging deeper, 47.6% of the money in the United States belongs to individuals that receive $98,200 or more (“Distribution of U.S. family income”, 101). The middle class should be much more noticeable with the upper and lower

Economic benefits are at the center of white privilege. Dating back to slavery, the majority of labor was provided by African Americans from which both the North and the South benefited and is one of the founding source of economy. Yet, African Americans and other minorities still struggle to get their slice of the American pie. Poor and working class whites strongly object to the idea of white privilege, stating or pointing out what they consider the obvious, that not every white person has wealth and power. Other benefits enjoyed by white people, including one which W. E. B. DuBois called the "psychological wages of whiteness." (Williams, 2004) This refers to that age old membership in the privileged group, even for whites on the bottom rung, confers a social status and recognition which is denied to all but the most powerful members of oppressed groups. The history of racial oppression in American is not disputed. However, what is disputed is whether and to what extent, four hundred years of oppression continues to harm African Americans and other minorities and their life chances unjustly. Looking at the way benefits and damages are allocated in the U.S., for example wealth, income, equality of our court system, treatment from the police, access to colleges and universities we see white privilege. As a group, white people have more income, wealth, political representation, status, power, and social reinforces of their human dignity and self respect than any group in

Finally, age is another social inequality that is taking place in society. However, certain individuals in society has being restricted from certain opportunities based on their age. According to Nick Triggle from BBC News, he reported that thousands of older people are not getting their support from the state or private sector. However, according to the Age UK, they stated that 800,000 older people has being take off from the system and the figure is going to be increase in the future. Society has been unequal in relation to ageing population, the ministers are looking at making an increase in funding based on the ageing population of older people. However, they are looking at excluding older people whose savings are above £23,250. Beside

Social inequality is the reality of unequal chances and rewards for diverse social positions or categories

The research into racial inequality has mostly focused on the disadvantages experienced by the oppressed group. As the field continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to examine the privileges experienced by Whites (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). But to effectively examine this, the White individual must accept the fact that White privilege and racism still very much exist in the United States and how it affects all aspects of our culture and institutions.

Poverty and income inequality is an enormous obstacle in which certain Americans may face daily. Poverty refers to economic or income deprivation (Iceland 2006). Some may refer to poverty as having material hardships, or having one’s income and assets compared against a standard. If an individual’s income falls below the standard, they’re considered “poor” (Newman and O’Brien 2011). Poverty may be currently measured in two common ways, either through an absolute measure or relative. The poverty measure I am proposing would be looking at “family/couple/household” as the unit of analysis, cost of food, childcare, housing, and transportation as scale of resources, and the threshold will be using a more relative dimensional perspective.

Social Inequality has existed since the start of humanity, to be more exact it “begun over, 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era”(1) and we have grown with it as a civilization. It all started at the stone age and has gradually grown and evolved over time where other factors such as skin, race, culture, religion, and sex all take part in social inequality. In the Americas there is a great deal social inequality among the entire country where we know a bit about. Racism is something that was created by humanity and started in Europe as a way to create a hierarchical view while keeping those in power in power. According to “Race and Racism” “Race is a social construction, and ideas we endow with meaning through daily interactions”(2) and by doing this we prefer one over the other. We use stereotypes to greatly influence racism where one or the other has an economic advantage over the other. The race that has benefited the most from this are the whites, who receive unearned privilege over other non-white races. White Privilege has a huge impact in the economy, in who gets the job, who goes to the top, who gets housing, a head start, and other benefits of essentially being white.

Economic and income equality have risen significantly in the United States over the years. In 2013, the top 1% accounted for roughly 20% of America’s income, before taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the average income of the top 1% of America’s population has “grown by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007,” even after taxes. In stark contrast, the middle class has experienced growth of about 40 to 60% and the lowest income population has only experienced growth of about 18%. This resulted in the richest households nearly tripling their share of the country’s income while the majority struggled to keep up.

Social class inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. Factors of social class inequality are wealth, income, occupational, schooling, race, and ethnicity. Our society has changed from a manufacturing run workforce to a service ran workforce which has provided less jobs and increased unemployment rates. With all the changes our society has become much more depended on technology and one-minded thinking. Mechanisms that our society has are migration, emotions, youth perspective, and education.

Social Inequality; as defined by sociologists is the unequal opportunities of different social statuses and positions within a group of individuals or in society. The opportunities we receive, our wealth, our rewards, and our punishments, can all be influenced because of our positions we hold in society today. Remember the saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, why is this? It’s all because of inequality, there is no fairness when it comes to opportunities, employment, housing, etc. and it is in fact evident. After reading the article, “Race and Gender Discrimination, Contemporary Trends” there were many trends that I would of liked to discuss in my reflection, however the two trends that I found to be importantly associated with social inequality is the percentage of people who deny racial discrimination against people of color and the belief that blacks and whites have the same standard of living.

1 a.) As defined by sociology, a minority group is one that is singled out and treated as lesser people, and given less say and resources than those who are of a higher station in society ((Ed.), (n.d)). The importance of having different ‘classes’ in society is that it defines who will be the one who serves those at the top and those who will be at the top. Although the separation of each class gives a clearer definition of who we are in society we should not allow that to stop us from striving to move up the stratification ladder. The poor in the U.S. begin at the door step of the single minority single White mothers, who make up the bottom thirty percent of the population (Meyer, 2014). Black women are even more of a minority than the White woman in today’s society. This is closely followed Black men and the Hispanic population coming in at 27 and 26 percent-respectively (Commerce, 2014). Women are minorities in many areas such as employment, education, and government support. Women are overlooked when it comes to being ‘allowed’ into certain jobs, neighborhoods, colleges and universities. Women are in general paid less for more work, longer hours and with less benefits. The working conditions for women are less stable than those of a man in the same position. The wages that they work for are even lower than that of their White contemparies and the conditions are even worse for them. Women earn about 77 cents for every

In some cultures, such as some Latino cultures, people believe in putting their family ahead of

Racial inequality has indeed become less common than in the past, but it is still very much present in our current everyday society. It may be true that the overt practices such as slavery, beatings, or blatant segregation are rare, but our American culture is progressing towards more covert racism, discrimination and segregation. This form is just as painful to subordinate groups, although increasingly discrete. There are many reasons to which we can attribute inequality. The article “Worsening Wealth Inequality by Race,” written by Taylor Luhby, specifically exemplifies the attribution theory and cultural and structural explanations. These explanations are very common and often times

The aim of this essay is to address the problem of inequality and oppression through three separate texts, The Second Sex, The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage. The Second Sex focuses on the woman and her role compared to man. The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage are both texts that describe experiences about the constant racism felt by blacks. To thoroughly examine these texts and how they are related to oppression and inequality it is important to first define what each mean. Oppression and inequality each have different definitions but they go hand in hand. Oppression is the state of being subject to prolonged unjust treatment. While inequality is defined as lacking equality, equality is the state of being equal especially in status,

In briefly evaluating the classical and modern explanations of social inequality, it is essential that we step outside the realm of our own lives, class position, and discard any assumptions we might have about the nature of inequality. This process of critical pedagogy allows us to view our world, not from our perspective, but from a wider, more critical analysis of inequality's nature. Also, it should be considered within this wider perspective that all theories of inequality have a class perspective, where the theorist, based on the position their theory takes, is making claims from (or for) a particular class (whether they want to or not). With this in mind, it seems that most of these theories come