Racial Inequality

Although African-Americans had technically been granted citizenship and voting rights when the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed in the late 1800s, they were still forced into subservient positions in society by white Americans who refused to acknowledge the former’s equal rights as citizens of the United States. They were bullied into not voting by Klansmen, forced to sit in segregated sections of restaurants and busses, and not given educational opportunities that equaled those of white students. This discrimination was especially prevalent in the deep south, where racist prejudices refused to die; the laws might have changed, but the people hadn’t.

The adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed all races citizenship and ‘equal protection of the laws’. This was the first civil rights act to recognize black’s inalienable rights, but inevitable led to racial discrimination in the following decades. A new rigid system of laws restricted blacks

Johnson, H. B. (2014). The American dream and the power of wealth: Choosing schools and inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity. Routledge.

Another premise in this review focuses on the significant divergences of opinions about the plight of the African American’s situation here in America. Some scholars are asking, how has this new pattern of inequality for the African American emerged? Many scholars point to the decline of middle level jobs (Harrison & Bluestone 1988), the redistribution of manufacturing jobs away from large cities like Chicago and Detroit, where many jobless blacks live (Sassen 1988), and the rise of earnings inequality among workers of all races (Danziger & Gottschalk 1993) as causes. One manifestation of these changes may be that gains in earnings have been offset by a growing racial disparity in unemployment between black and white men (Moss & Tilly 1991).

In the United States, African American faced prejudice for hundreds of years. Even now, African American are still facing inequality. However, though these cruelties persist, according to Martin Luther King Jr. and Elie Wiesel, the past should not be forgotten.

The social construction of race changed due to the great number of immigrants coming to the U.S. Once they arrived they must identify as a certain race which is based on phenotype or ancestry. This concept is seen in the reading What is Racial Domination? by Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer explains the effect phenotype has on an individual such as the color of their skin, eyes and also ancestry too. The social construction of race is related to the racial inequality because it determined if a person had rights or not. This idea is seen through the two supreme cases Ozawa and Thind. For the case of Ozawa for example, he used his own skin color and the idea that race should not matter but the beliefs they hold. He was denied citizenship

All that would slowly start to change after Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation in 1863. Or did it? Even after the emancipation proclamation and the 13th Amendment blacks were still considered to be nothing but a slave and they did not deserve to be considered equal to whites. They were set free with nothing no money, no shelter, and most of them had no family due to being split up during the slave trading process. The whites began to start taking huge lost in the labor force and had to do something quick for the slaves were able to take full advantage of being free American citizens and possible even try and get revenge over the plantation owners.

There are various ways that race has been utilized to rationalize inequality. For instance, the fact that America ultimately created a race. Under those circumstances, American created this ideology which has constructed political and economic goals that favor the Whites. One of the founders of this inequality is Thomas Jefferson who believed that blacks were inferior to the Whites in the endowments of body and mind. There was a belief that Africans were different kinds of people. Additionally, scientific experiments were constructed that allowed scientists to compare human beings’ skulls with one another to prove a racial hierarchy. Furthermore, race has been utilized to shift attention and responsibility away from opposers and toward the

America is known as “the land of the free”, but my question to you is, who is worthy of this privilege? For as long as I can remember, minorities in America as never received the same privilege as the so call founders of this great nation. Now America’s middle class, which consist of mainly Blacks and Hispanics are under invasion. This is what I call Racial and Ethnic Inequality. A race is defined as a person’s physical features, such as their hair, eye color, bone structure, and the icing on top of the cake a person’s skin color. Ethnic inequality is being bias, one-sided, or discriminating towards an ethnic group. For over 30 years, the fortune of the middle class black and Latinos households declined by 75 percent and 50 percent, in that exact order it was given. At the same time, white middle-class households fortune increased a bit. The middle white class had $116,800 in funds as to a disappointing $2,000 for Latinos and a stunted $1,700 for blacks. This wealth decline is unjust, not only that it is a threat to the middle-class American’s growth. I honestly must say I feel so sorry for the overall economic health. I recently came across a new report of the Institute for Policy Studies and Prosperity. The wealth gap between whites and other Ethnic groups are a big difference. In the new report of the Institute for Policy Studies and Prosperity, it shows that the white families with more wealth can buying a new home, starting their own businesses, and covering

Racial injustices and inequality have been in place in various areas of operation within the society. The existence of the notion that a given race is more superior to another has been the main source of the constant injustices across different communities. The inequality and racial injustices within the societies are deeply rooted which it makes difficult to develop policies and strategies that can have a significant impact if the past events and actions are anything to buy. Thus, the increasing inequality across the United States is based on wealth and social status where racial consideration is key in many societies. Even though there have been efforts to ensure that there is better engagement among different races within the country, there are no significant steps that have been made as the inequality among races keeps increasing.

As the only sociologist that has been chosen on the North American council I would like to address my main concern, which is that having one person voice the social inequalities for approximately 580 million people is not just. In my best attempt to be as fair and voice the major concerns that I feel are prevalent throughout North America, I chose racial inequality, educational inequality, and gender inequality. Before I further discuss these inequalities I would like to define social inequality to give the reader a clearer understanding, “Social inequality is the long term existence of significant differences in access to goods and services among social groups”, as quoted from our textbook.

Racial Inequality is a subject that can be exposed easily yet the following journalists exposed the truth behind this reality such as racism/segregation, poverty and racial injustice. The following journalists attempted to bring about change in legislation so that something could be done about racial inequality.

The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, but many Americans say otherwise. Racial inequality is the discrimination against a certain group of people. The reasons can range from the color of a person to the religion they believe in. For the past years, racial inequality has been built into the lives of people. In the United States, the “American Dream” of freedom has been shattered by racial equality because of police brutality against Americans and the targeting of the Islamic faith.

When we speak about race equality, we only think as far as black and white people, when it’s actually a lot more in depth than just the two. Racism is when a person or people of a certain color or origin feel as though they are better than another group of people, who are different than they are. Racism has been going on since time can date back. In this world, especially in the United States, we need race quality. According to different races, you’ll get different answers on the other races. Not all Caucasians are racist, not all African Americans are ignorant, and not all Muslims are terrorists, so on and so forth. With white law enforcements killing innocent black people, the new “Black Lives Matter” movement has started, the “white privileges”

Racism is defined as, “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”