Charles Hurst Social Inequalities

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Recommended: Explain social inequality

The first chapter of Social Inequality, Forms, Causes, and Consequences by Charles Hurst discusses the main concepts that are related to inequality. Race, gender, income and other factors play into inequality. A major question about inequality is if it is inevitable or can it be changed. The poverty gap is increasing in the United States. The United States is not seen as having different classes. Social class plays a more significant role in inequality then economic class does. The first episode of The Wire is dealing with the justice system and different races. The gang members are all African Americans who are selling drugs. One of the gang members is found not guilty of a murder because the gang had the witness change her statement. Social status is playing a role in the first episode. The film shows how different the two social statuses are compared to one another. The chapter one ideas connect to the film. …show more content…

Hurst describes social classes as, “different categories of people in which individuals in the same category happen to have similar levels of education, income, and occupational prestige” (Hurst 9). In the first episode you can see examples of different social classes. It shows the gang members as a lower class. Selling drugs is considered their jobs and their way of income. The detectives represent the upper class. They have higher paying jobs, more power and a better education. Hurst brought up a major question about inequality. When you think of the reasons behind inequality is it because it is inevitable or can it be changed. Hurt states, “if such inequality arises because of the conscious, intentional, and freely willed actions of individuals or the structures they create in society, then perhaps it can

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