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Sociological explorations of education inequality
Education inequality theory
Education inequality theory
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Recommended: Sociological explorations of education inequality
Stereotypes are like scalp dandruff, unnecessary, ugly, and hard to get rid of, unless you have the right shampoo. That shampoo could symbolize proper education or enlightenment for getting rid of that particular stereotype. Some stereotypes are so absurd we sometimes wonder where the heck did they even originate from. For example, Asians are bad drivers, or white people cannot dance. However there is a type of stereotype that has some little truth to it, but you find it is not the people who we are stereotyping’s fault. To be more specific, there is a stereotypical view that poor minorities are sometimes considered uneducated. This lack of minorities’ education is not their fault, but the fault of unlikely outside forces. Therefore there is some truth to this particular stereotype, but the minorities are not to blame for their lack of education. Few opportunities are given to them, starting with housing then leading to schools which would then affect their individual education.
So why would one have the connection with minorities and poverty? Could there possibly be some sort of relation between race and class? This all started with our Federal Housing Agency or the FHA. In the book The Possessive Investment in Whiteness the author George Lipsitz put extensive research into how the FHA started and how its agency ties into minorities receiving loans or the lack of. In 1934 the FHA was provided from the government who then gave the agency’s power to private home lenders, and this is when racial biasness came into place through selective home loans. Lipsitz says “[the] Federal Housing Agency’s confidential surveys and appraiser’s manuals channeled almost all of the loan money toward whites and away from communities of color”(5). These surveys were conducted by the private lenders who had free reign to prove the loans to whomever they want. Because the minorities did not get a chance to receive the FHA loans that they needed, they are then forced to live in urban areas instead of suburban neighborhoods. There was this underground suburban segregation going on with these private lenders, which would then greatly diminish better opportunities for minorities to live in better neighborhoods.
Then comes the education part, where according to the author Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities Children in America’s schools, property tax is one of the main financial distributions that goes towards local schools. In Kozol’s book he quotes that, “typically in the United States, very poor communities place high priority on education, and they often tax themselves at higher rates than do the very affluent communities.
Squires, G. D., Friedman, S., & Siadat, C. (2001). Housing Segregation in the United States: Does Race Matter? Cambridge, MA.
In today’s world, the American still has barriers to overcome in the matter of racial equality. Whether it is being passed over for a promotion at the job or being underpaid, some people have to deal with unfair practice that would prevent someone of color or the opposite sex from having equal opportunity at the job. In 2004, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores Incorporation was a civil rights class-action suite that ruled in favor of the women who worked and did not received promotions, pay and certain job assignments. This proves that some corporations ignore the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects workers from discrimination based on sex, race, religion or national origin.
In contrast to popular assumption, discrimination in public housing is becoming more prevalent than ever before. Testing done by the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston has found that today people of color are discriminated against in nearly half of their efforts to buy, sell, finance, or rent property (“1968-Present Housing Discrimination). The statistics are even worse when considering colored people who have families as the testing found that they are discriminated against approximately two thirds of the time (“1968-Present Housing Discrimination”) In addition to facing great difficulty in property affairs, people of color are less likely to be offered residence in desirable locations. 86 percent of revitalized
Compare and contrast the ways in which housing inequalities are discussed from the perspectives of social policy and criminology, and economics (TMA 02)
In America, the idea of equality between people is important, it is in fact, written into the Constitution. However, for years the American educational system has operated in a completely inequitable manner due, in part, to the way that schools are funded, mostly through local or property taxes. The differences between schools in wealthy neighborhoods and those in poor neighborhoods are, many times, reminiscent of the differences between white schools and black schools before the end of segregation. While there is a desperate need to fix this broken system, there has been little progress. The issue is so divisive and the problem so big and entrenched in American laws, many politicians refuse to even attempt to come up with a solution. The answer lies with the federal government. To make American public schools equitable the federal government needs to step up its role in funding and administering the schools.
From slavery to Jim Crow, the impact of racial discrimination has had a long lasting influence on the lives of African Americans. While inequality is by no means a new concept within the United States, the after effects have continued to have an unmatched impact on the racial disparities in society. Specifically, in the housing market, as residential segregation persists along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, limiting the resources available to black communities such as homeownership, quality education, and wealth accumulation. Essentially leaving African Americans with an unequal access of resources and greatly affecting their ability to move upward in society due to being segregated in impoverished neighborhoods. Thus, residential segregation plays a significant role in
In conclusion, stereotypes are always going to come in different shapes and forms. We may not realize it at first, but we need to know they are there. In order for stereotypes to be broken, people need to stop feeding people what they think it is to be something or someone they have no idea about. Stereotypes come from uneducated biased people and with that cause a lot of false information. We need to change what information we give out because we are hurting other humans with our assumptions.
The first article I reviewed was The Geography of Exclusion: Race, Segregation, and Concentrated Poverty. Lichter et al. stated “the twenty first century began with a great recession which brought the collapse of the stock market, falling house prices, high foreclosure rates, and increasing unemployment rates”(Lichter, et al. 2012). The year 2000 found 32 million Americans living in poverty and by the end of the decade 46.2 million. Over half of those people include ethnic minorities. Overall, African and Hispanics americans’ poverty rates are three times as high as whites. Which has brought up the question of a targeted concentrated poverty (Lichter et al.2012). Thirty percent of America’s poverty live in poor places, which supports the idea of concentrated poverty. Lichter and et al. (2012) believe too much time has been spent studying and helping the people in inner cities while neglecting the rural poor.
Do you see segregation in your society? If yes, you will see segregation of society like neighborhood, educational and inequality in school system. You will see that effect of segregation in society and culture that we all don’t get equal opportunities and how the American dream may be in crisis.
The public education system, however, was supposed to enable lower income students to gain an education comparable to private education. However, there is no comparison between private education and public education, especially when public education is not equitably funded. Beyond differences in education funding from state to state, individual school districts have funding disparity from school to school. This is rooted in the primary source of its funding: property taxes. . Higher income neighborhoods pay higher property taxes than lower income neighborhoods, as the properties are worth more. Therefore, they provide more money for public education. Rather than equally allocating funds, the school districts grant funding to schools based on how much their respective neighborhoods pay in taxes. Consequently, lower income areas have schools that are underfunded, leaving the poorest students with low paid (and often poor quality) teachers, dilapidated facilities, and minimal resources. This trend is seen all over the United States, with some districts seeing differences among schools in spending per pupil by nearly $17,000 per year. This divide is only growing as the United States sees an increase in the wage gap, which only adds to the differences in housing costs and therefore education
At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate.
Public housing did not originally aim to provide housing for the “extreme” lower-class, it was actually aimed towards select members of the working class. More specifically, public housing’s original design intended to serve the needs of the industrial middle class, who were temporarily unemployed or lacked adequate employment during the Great Depression. After the Second World War concluded, many individuals and members of the working class were able to purchase their own homes by utilizing low-interest mortgages through the VA and FHA. However, discriminatory practices took place through these benefits. In their study, sociologists Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, demonstrate the discriminatory nature of these practices. These benefits were targeted, for the most part, towards non-Hispanic whites and consequently helped move non-Hispanic whites into the suburbs, while simultaneously keeping blacks. This was especially done in the...
In Illinois, local education funding comes from property taxes within the district. Areas with higher property values pay higher property taxes. This means more money is funneled into the schools in the area.
These studies focus mainly on the overrepresentation of African Americans in the media but in reality, these stereotypes are prevalent for anyone of a different race or ethnicity. This source is bit dated and touches on income inequalities, which is another chapter in the textbook but it supplements just how far back inequalities among races go. Massey and Mitchell argue that housing segregation is the key factor behind thee unusual and growing concentration of poverty among blacks and some Hispanics and that the persistence of racial segregation is essential to understanding the plight of the underclass (Massey & Mitchell, 1990). Bringing it back to modern time, it appears that racial segregation is still prevalent but in a less forward manner. Those who can afford housing, have it; those who cannot depend on welfare or assistance to provide a place to live. Since many minority groups are discriminated against, this could make getting public housing assistance more difficult than say if a white family were to
Education can also be considered one of these economic factors. Less educated people are often taken advantage of in the housing market because they are less aware of their rights. A person’s access to resources can be affected by their social status (Krysan, 2007). Therefore, people who live in low income areas may not have access to quality education. Thus, creating a cycle where minorities maybe be essentially stuck in an area for generations due to limited access.