A Review of Racial Inequality Using Different Theories and Perspectives

I chose racial inequality as my social problem. Racial inequality is a problem consisting of many different things such as prejudice, racism, discrimination, and segregation. Racial inequality is an issue because it affects people in society severely. It affects how they work, socializes, and live with others. Most people find this a problem in our society. Some do not find the problem in the racial inequality but in the people themselves. It is just like any other problem, it is disagreed on very largely between different people.

The conservative view is that the problem is in the people themselves. They say that people are responsible for their social standing. They do not approve of government policies that treat certain categories of people differently. This can be applied to certain stereotypes such as African-Americans and being obsessed with food. Maybe if African-Americans didn’t put themselves in that situation by joking around about it and purposely going along with the stereotype. This is the conservative view on racial inequality.

The liberal view on this problem is that the problem is in the social structure. They say that the social structure creates institutional prejudice and discrimination. They believe that these are the main cause of racial and ethnic inequality. They not only agree to government programs and policies to promote equality, but they also endorse them and help fund them. This could be the view that people associate with the trend that we had that we didn’t have any presidents that were not Caucasian.

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This could be because the government denied letting any people in because of the stereotypes about how the different races work. This is the liberal view on racial inequality.

The structural-functional theory puts importance on culture, and how culture makes people act. This can be applied by talking about how being around people of different races changes how they act because people see us Caucasians acting a certain way. They start acting like us to fit in so that they would not be judged by us. This happens in many places such as schools, workplaces, and public places such as stores. There are certain acts that African-Americans view as “acting white” and certain things that we view as “acting black”, and if we both did these acts more often, we would eventually come together into one big race.

The conflict theory states that the inequality of minors comes from the structure of society. They believe that class, race, and ethnicity are all important factors of social inequality. This brings the thoughts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels into the picture. They believed that inequality came from the class of people. They said that the reason that the working class hadn’t come together to form a movement was that they were so separated by race, that they couldn’t do anything about it. The two hoped that if they increased the misery of people, they would hopefully unify and rise. The conflict theory also points to culture.

The Multicultural theory states that the government offers better opportunities to Caucasians than other races. This affects the diversity of people and how they think of the government.

The symbolic-interaction theory sets whites as the norm that all others are compared to and are devalued compared to. This makes the other races less superior in people’s eyes. For example, African-Americans after slavery was abolished African-Americans still looked at themselves with a “double consciousness” which was looking at themselves through the white people’s eyes. This is the theory that makes us Caucasians feel great and superior and the other races feel very bad and devalued.

I could not find any laws in my small town of Monticello. This didn’t surprise me because everybody I know in this town is very accepting of everybody. I found that in Iowa, there is the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965. This act prohibits any act of discrimination or the different treatment of citizens in different areas of housing, employment, and schooling. This act is not only for racial inequality, but it works hand in hand with gender inequality. I found for the federal level that there is the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). ICERD is a treaty that prohibits unjustifiable discrimination that has an impact on a group, regardless of whether the discrimination was intentional or not. I think that the extent that these laws reach is different. The state law does not reach as far as the intention of the discrimination, and it is overall discrimination. The federal law is a little harsher, and most likely has more harsh consequences.

If I were in charge of creating a law for Racial Inequality, I would create a law that is a mixture of both federal and state laws. My law would prohibit any act of discrimination in all public places. The consequences would depend on the severity and the intention of the discrimination. I feel like this law is a lot like the Iowa state law that I found because it has to do with public places. My law would also be able to be altered depending on the place of use. If it was in the South, the law would be slightly more enforced and changed because racism and discrimination are different in the South. In the North, it would be less severe because we are less likely to be discriminating largely.

Sources

1. Macionis, John J. “Racial Inequality.” Social Problems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2011.
2. “Civil Rights « lowa Pathways.” Civil Rights « lowa Pathways. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb.
3. “Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States.” Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.