Labeling Theory: African Racism

Labeling theory has its intellectual foundation in the symbolic interactionist perspective. According to labeling theory, no act is deviant. An act becomes deviant only after being defined as such. In other words, deviance is a relative concept since what is defined as deviant by one society may not be similarly defined by another society. Moreover, as evidenced by self-report studies of deviance, virtually everyone at some time has violated society norms or, to use the terminology of labeling theory, participated in primary deviance. Most primary deviants, however, do not come to see themselves, or to become seen by society, as deviants by society. Power is an important ingredient in the ability to ascribe a negative label to others. Because power is differentially distributed in American society, labeling theory assets that offender characteristics, such as race, age, and social class. Given that African American tend to have little power in society, their ability to successfully rebut accusations of illegal conduct is considerably weaker than that of non-minorities. Hence, labeling theory predicts that

Numerous individuals do not know about the amount of racism in which still exists in our schools workforces, and anyplace else where social lives. Many individuals believe that it depends on if a person was brought into the world as a racist, but in fact an individual cannot be born a racist but only learn to become one as they grow from child to adulthood. Basic causes, mainstream, institutions, government, anti racism groups, and solutions to racism. To begin with, frustration is a very common cause of racism. For instance, when a person is having a tough time economically, they find it easy to blame immigrants for taking away their jobs or creating fewer opportunities. This type of an analysis is very easy to make but when one makes this assumption, it usually leads to hate towards any minority