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Sociology and other social sciences
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In “Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America” Dalton Conley argues when addressing the vast economic difference between blacks and whites, it is essential to consider wealth ownership of each group in addition to their socioeconomic status indicators such as income. The author suggests that accumulated wealth and class position matter more than race, and without radical policies on wealth reform the wealth gap between whites and blacks will continue to grow (Conley, 2009).
In order to examine the effect of race on socioeconomic performance, Conley compares blacks and whites after taking their wealth difference into consideration; his findings illustrate no significant difference between blacks and whites on education or occupation (Conley, 2009). Unlike conventional
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Even though race and class impact each other, the main significant basis of racial inequality is the difference in net wealth of blacks and whites who share similar income, occupation, and educational levels. While standard SES indicators can be used to attain valuable information, without looking at assets owned by individuals and households they are merely limited in explanation of class and class dynamics as the main components of the capitals mode production (Conley, 2009). By claiming the inequality is no longer embedded in labor market and unfair opportunity, he suggest the race-based policies are outdated and should be changed to address the issues of social distribution and class-property relations; without a radical and progressive wealth reform, the black-white wealth gap will keep on increasing "merely eliminating remaining discrimination – be it
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
Specifically, she found that members of the Black middle class still face income and wealth disadvantages, housing segregation, limited job opportunities, racial discrimination, family disruption, and crime victimization, among other social problems, at a higher rate than their White middle-class counterparts. As a result, Pattillo (2013) concluded that Black middle-class neighborhoods often “sit as a kind of buffer between core black poverty areas and whites” (p. 4). Otherwise put, the Black middle class are situated in a position between middle-class Whites and underclass Blacks, where they are not at parity with the former, and are only slightly better than the
William Julius Wilson creates a thrilling new systematic framework to three politically tense social problems: “the plight of low-skilled black males, the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, and the fragmentation of the African American family” (Wilson, 36). Though the conversation of racial inequality is classically divided. Wilson challenges the relationship between institutional and cultural factors as reasons of the racial forces, which are inseparably linked, but public policy can only change the racial status quo by reforming the institutions that support it.
Marshall (2005) identifies that “financial inequality” is not the solitary cause of “social inequality”, but it is often related. She suggests education plays a significant role in ‘class stratification’. Marshall (2005: p1), Part 2:
In her book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Annette Lareau argues out that the influences of social class, as well as, race result in unequal childhoods (Lareau 1). However, one could query the inequality of childhood. To understand this, it is necessary to infer from the book and assess the manner in which race and social class tend to shape the life of a family. As the scholar demonstrates, each race and social class usually has its own unique way of child upbringing based on circumstances. To affirm this, the different examples that the scholar presents in the book could be used. Foremost, citing the case of both the White and the African American families, the scholar advances that the broader economics of racial inequality has continued to hamper the educational advancement and blocks access to high-paying jobs with regard to the Blacks as opposed to the Whites. Other researchers have affirmed this where they indicate that the rate of unemployment among the African Americans is twice that of the White Americans. Research further advances that, in contrast to the Whites, for those African Americans who are employed, there is usually a greater chance that they have been underemployed, receive lower wages, as well as, inconsistent employment. This is how the case of unequal childhood based on race comes about; children from the Black families will continue residing in poverty as opposed to those from the white families.
Race as a factor in inequity. Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) posit that race continues to be a significant factor in determining inequity in the United States. Race matters in society. If we look at high school drop out, suspension, and incarceration rates of men of color in America we see a disproportionate amount of men of color marginalized and profiled by society. This is further compounded by the perception that male faculty of color cannot be educators or at least are not often conceptually visualized in that capacity (Bryan and Browder, 2013).
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
Racial segregation has been a tactic used to isolate certain populations from success, while concentrating wealth amongst specific communities. San Francisco is a quintessential example of how an exceptionally affluent city is able to segregate poverty-stricken individuals from one of the worlds most prosperous economic regions Since the inception of the tech boom two facts have become evident, the wealth of Silicon Valley has risen exponentially, and the black population has plummeted. In a city where the top five percent of workers earn over $400,000 annually, 20 percent of the population still earns less than $30,000. From a monetary standpoint the numbers alone are staggering, but when taking into account racial components, health disparities
from U.S. high schools in 2008, compared to 78% of White male students” (Kafele, B. (2012). Not only were...
There are several differences that exist between white and non-white youth that live in poverty. Recent research for low-income youth has shown that the most important factor that contributes to the gap between employment rates of minority and white youth can be attributed to their social network.
This article was stimulating to me because it related with me on a personal level. I have been discriminated upon many times in my life and this article excellently explained how white privilege plays a role in determining which groups are in the high or low end of the hierarchy spectrum. In Sklar’s article, Imagine a Country, she explains the growing income inequality between individuals by using several statistics that show the rising wealth gap between the lower, middle, and upper class. Throughout her article, Sklar addresses the controversial topic of high government spending by pointing out that there is an unequal amount of resources that are distributed between large programs such as defense and social programs that help reduce poverty. Her critics have stated that because she is presenting statistical facts as it pertains to income inequality, that she is therefore obligated to include proposals that will address and solve this dilemma. The purpose of this article, contrary to what her critics have criticized her for, is not to present a solution to this
...disparities between the two ethnic communities that can be traced back to the legacy of slavery and other forms of oppression that blacks have suffered.” Supporters of this view felt that educational achievement correlates more strongly with economic status than with any other single variable. Since the majority of the black community lags behind whites in income and wealth, the educational inequalities are caused by the economic inequalities. They believe that once the inequalities disappear, the educational disparities will as well. Many argue that this is not a viable argument. They point to other minority groups such as Asians, some of whom are financially worse off than blacks, and they excel in school . They felt that because the civil rights legislation removed all roadblocks back in the 60’s and 70’s something else must be contributing to the large gap.
With these information about wealth and history, it is concluded that one of four races considered nonwhite have one chance of growing in their economy. The racial wealth gap can take people back in time to see how the economy of the nation was created. There is no fairness in base of the economy. If each one of the citizens in the coutry are considered equal under the law, why can’t it be the same in the economy? Segregation and discrimination continue to exist in the nation. Whites are not considered equal as nonwhites. In conclusion, if this gap between the races perdures to be open there will never be true equality and justice.
Oates, Gary L. St. C. "The Color of the Undergraduate Experience and the Occupational Attainment of Blacks and Whites: Evidence from Longitudinal Data." Sociological Quarterly 45.1 (2004): 21-44. JSTOR. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
Mason, P. (1998, June). Race, cognitive ability, and wage. Retrieved January 14, 2012, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1093/is_n3_v41/ai_20809842