In our modern-day lifestyle, we don’t usually wonder what it feels like to be in someone else ‘shoes. It is not because we are selfish or greedy, it is just something we usually lack in from our imagination. We don’t really have an idea of how many people who don’t have as much as we personally have. People who are in need, need attention or any human compassion. What we should do is be able to question the reasons of how we function as a society in the United States. Many unprivileged events that can occur to an individual it creates inequality. Inequality may be defined in numerous ways because in our modern-day United States, inequality has occurred throughout our society, and has affected the lives of people with different race/ethnicity, gender, and social class.
Explaining inequality as mentioned before is difficult to describe because, it comes with many versions of it. Describing inequality is an individual or a group who is underprivileged and is faced with prejudice and discrimination through the following of race/ethnic groups, gender, and social class. Within the definition, having used the words ‘privilege’ and ‘discrimination’ as terms being used to describe inequality. As stated in the book, ‘privilege’ and ‘discrimination’
can also be described in numerous definitions, and even have more specific terms. Individual discrimination for example is, “the negative treatment of one person by another.” (Henslin 2018, Section 12.2) Another term is institutional discrimination which is defined as, “negative treatment of a minority group that is built into society’s institutions; also called systemic discrimination.” (Henslin 2018, Section 12.2). In Theodor Adorno’s term for people who are prejudiced, “rank high on scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect for authority, and submissiveness to superiors.” (Henslin 2018, Section 12.3)
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People do not acknowledge the discourse that occurs in society, the communication, and the way we behave, and police ourselves is because for generations we were taught to behave a certain way towards different groups or individuals. Which cause inequality in the United States because we don’t realize that we are discriminating and creating prejudice acts towards individuals without even realizing it day-by-day. Whether it be individual, institutional discrimination, or even Adorno’s term to prejudice we define those terms through our behavior and how we act and perceive one’s view of a certain group/individual. One example is that prejudice and discrimination is targeted towards race-ethnic relations in the United States.
Race and ethnic groups have always had it difficult in the United States ever since the Europeans have arrived in it. Many groups have suffered discrimination towards people specifically those who are Wasps because through generations they have been dominant and have forced immigrants to modernize themselves into adjusting into their culture. Pressurizing them into understanding mainstream culture. In modern-day United States, even though there are still inequality towards race/ethnic groups in our country we have improved in a short amount of time, many people are now protesting and fighting for the rights of every individual outside of the majority group. And in the future the United States can coexist no matter the ethnicity or color of skin. As stated in the book, “The United States has the potential to become a society in which racial-ethnic groups not only coexist but also respect one another-and thrive- as they work together for mutually beneficial goals.” (Henslin 2018, Section 12.6) Other than race and ethnicity having a difficult time in modern day United States, sex, and gender are also the ones that are suffering inequality.
In the past, women have received a tremendous amount of suffering and lack of rights in the United States. Since prehistoric times, women were credited as weaklings and was not awarded for their behavior. As a man, they have been recognized and awarded to be dominant and appear masculine. Over the past decades, women in America suffered with gender stratification. In definition it is the unequal access to property, power, and prestige. (Henslin 2018, Section 11.1) It was until recently that women were given the right to vote, after years of protest and hardship and sexual harassment wasn’t noticed until 1970s.
“Unwelcome sexual attention at work or at school, which may affect job or school create a hostile environment- was not recognized as a problem until the 1970s.” (Henslin 2018, Section 11.4) In our modern era, women are still suffering inequality in the United States but, as a society we are now continuing to improve equal pay, decreasing sexual misconduct, and having women become part of higher authority careers. Ethnic/Race and gender may suffer inequality in the United States but, we also have to consider how both of those traits are interwoven through social class.
Social class is a hierarchy of how much property, power, and wealth one person has compared to people in the rest of the country. Many people have suffered the poverty level especially in major cities. This is interwoven to race and gender because it creates this prejudice and discrimination stereotypes towards both groups. It is stated in the readings, “Racial-ethnic minorities (except Asian Americans), children, households headed by women, and rural Americans are more likely than others to be poor.” (Henslin 2018, Section 10.5) This proves that men, and the majority group have affected the lives of minority groups and women for generations because, they put them in poor neighborhoods without any assistance financially. And even publicly blame minority groups for not adding benefit to the country economically and even try to show that women cannot survive independently especially in a difficult situation such as living under the poverty line.
In sociological perspective, “theorists focus on the role of the owner (or capitalist) class in exploiting racial-ethnic divisions, symbolic interactionists examine how labels affect perception and create prejudice.” (Henslin 2018, Section 12.3) Between these two types of perspectives, they both study the reasons why the United States inequality towards ethnic groups and gender inequality and how people’s behavior affects this. Throughout the country, people have changed their behavior overtime and are continuing to improve behavior and change stereotype that have affected minority groups.
In conclusion, inequality is defined in so many ways but, personally define it as an individual or a group who is underprivileged and suffers prejudice and discrimination. It affects the lives of people who are of different race, part of minority ethnic groups, and gender minority. The minority groups are also interwoven with social class because, they are being affected against privilege, wealth, and power that many people cannot afford. In sociological perspective, behavior from people may create prejudice and discrimination towards people in modern-day United States. In the past, equality for many minority groups were difficult to achieve and rather rare. We can expect that in our current state and our future we can provide a coexisting country where people are equally beneficial towards each other into providing a more equal and rightful nation.
