...Race and Social Class I don’t believe there is a true relationship between race and social class. I think we need to explore beyond race to find the true relationship to social class. I believe that the relationship we should be focusing on is the one between social class and education. Races and cultures that put a higher value on education tend to produce more members of society that move from a lower social class to a higher social class or retain their social class from one generation to another. Also, I believe that the movement between social classes becomes more available within a society that does not apply a caste system on its members. Ultimately, it is an individual’s personal responsibly to determine their outcome. This goes beyond race, social class, and culture. I believe America has equal opportunity, but not equal outcomes. As Martin Luther King famously said in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We are unique individuals and have an opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are natural rights that are given to us by God. Today the President of the United States is of mixed White and Kenyan heritage. Any remnants of a caste system, perhaps from the days of Jim Crow and the laws of “separate, but equal” are but all behind us in America. If you look at the achievement gaps in the Jersey City, NJ public schools, there is a significant gap in the graduation...
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...The Fresh Prince of Bel Air has a lot of aspects in it that deals with societal issues that are rarely seen because this show is a comedy. There are specific episodes that really show some of these issues but look at them in a comical way. If you can get away from the comical part of it, you could really delve deep into these episodes and really find and pick apart some aspects that address major issues. The show can be looked at and broken up into three sections: Race, class, and family dynamic. I will look at and analyze these three sections using Stuart Hall’s Model of Encoding and Decoding and go through the steps involved in this model, and connect them with some episodes and some aspects of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Race Using Stuart Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model of Communication, we will use a few examples from the show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air which deal with race. For each of these examples all four stages of the encoding and decoding model of communication will be applied. In one episode, Will and Carlton were driving to Palm Springs to meet up with the rest of their family, and they were following all laws and ended up getting pulled over and even taken to jail. For the first stage which is production, I look at examples of other movies or television shows, and look at what The Fresh Prince of Bel Air does. In a lot of movies and television shows, when there is a scene that involves a traffic stop, in order to build suspense, the cameras will only show...
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...Comparably, Maguire addresses the intersection between race and social class issues for the Animals negatively affect them. Maguire sets Animals as a race that they eventually must return to being animals. For instance, the Goat, Dr. Dillamond explains to his female students about Banns on Animal Mobility, “Animals were restricted in their access to travel conveyances, lodging, and public services... Any Animal coming of age was prohibited from working in the profession or public sector. They were, effectively, to be herded back to the farmlands and wilds if they wanted to work for wages at all” (Maguire 54). Emeralds’ government sets restrictive policies against the Animals and discriminate by lacking the equality of opportunities such as...
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...Race/Ethnicity Institutional vs. Blatant Racism and Education and Race vs. Social Class Race has been a serious concern in the United States. More specifically, people have been treated differently according to their race. Different races have also had different levels of academic and professional success. Despite being illegal for several decades, segregation is still existent in many public schools in the United States. However, it has become institutionalized; it is hidden deep inside society. Many Black Americans live in poor communities. Therefore, they attend poorly equipped and worn out schools. Without the necessary materials and environment needed to learn, they lose interest in school. Consequently, many of these students drop out of school before graduation. In turn, their potential to achieve higher education and economic status severely diminishes. As discussed in class, prejudice and discrimination are closely related. Prejudice is the thought one has towards another group while discrimination is the action performed towards another group. Prejudice often leads to discrimination. Derogatory terms towards other races or ethnicites have been the cause for genocides, population transfer, and segregation (Witt 2010:302) Discrimination is a great obstacle for Black Americans who seek to achieve a higher economic status. More specifically, racial profiling has been an impediment towards Black American employment. Better known as the glass ceiling, this has caused...
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...According to biologists, there is only one race, and that is the human race. However, from the commencement of the American experience, differences in perspective have impacted how persons relate with one another. For instance, being categorized as black in the United States has led to stark disparities in legal protection status and opportunity. Currently, most people are beginning to understand the significance of public dialogue as a fundamental step in making progress on race relations issues. Due to race relations, people have a chance to socialize and get to know each other, discover common ground, explore disagreements, and share different points and views. In other societies, people have developed study circles that assist individuals...
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...When examining the concept of race, it can be said that it is constantly fluctuating because of different factors. Race can be defined as a variable that is shaped by broader societal forces, whether it is political, social or economic forces. It is also important that views on race differ from country to country because of different agendas, whether it be to exert dominance or power over other groups. Race can be considered as a social construction because it is used to maintain hierarchies, as seen through it’s lack of biological support and shifting societal views on race. Race is a social construction because it is constantly changing due to shifting societal views on race. First, it is important to note that a socially constructed concept is an idea that is defined as “a perception of a group, individual or idea that is constructed through cultural or social practice” (Dictionary.com). In other words, society creates an idea of what race is, and how races should be distinguished from one another. Race does not have a consistent definition, and can change based on the society that is being examined. In “Racial Formations”, Omi and Winant discuss the use of race as a social concept and conclude that the definition is not rigid, but is used to maintain domination. Omi and Winant believe that this domination is a result of racial formation”, or the “process in which race operates as a central axis of social relations, which then determine social, economic and political institutions...
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...What is race? Common responses in the Sociology 222 class were, 'race is something we are born with' and 'race is the same as skin colour'. When looking at these statements from a Sociological perspective, we have to ask ourselves a few relevant questions. Why are sociologists critical of the above statements? How do research writers challenge ideas about social construction and institutionalisation of race under apartheid and colonialism? This essay is going to discuss a number of readings in order to answer the above questions. This essay will also look at the relevance of the Jane Elliot experiment for thinking about, and understanding of race as a social construction. Lastly, this essay will discuss what we can learn about the dynamics of apartheid from the experiences of Sandra Laing in the film 'Skin'. In conclusion this essay will evaluate the various opinions and research done on the matter of race, and how race is socially constructed. Firstly, we have to look at how and why sociologists are critical of race as a biological phenomenon. Race is widely discussed and debated all over the world. The main sociological focus is the effects of social race and how race is used to categorize people into groups. When we look back in history, we see that race was seen as a biological factor for many centuries. When explorers from Europe in the New World discovered people who looked different, raised questions such as ‘Did God only make one species of humanity?’ and ‘Where...
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...Accuracy of Braveheart The mass media plays a large role in modern society. Indeed, many have argued that people spend more time in “mass-mediated” interaction than in actual human interaction. The mass media, then, would seemingly be an excellent position to initiate social change, positively affect social problems, and help combat social ills that are considered normal patterns of behavior. Yet, the mass media has largely failed in addressing and helping to solve social problems. As seen through its presentation of the three major variables of race, class, and gender, the mass media has actually served to contribute to the social problems it covers, reinforcing them, and creating an inter-related cycle in which these problems continue. TV has become perhaps the primary vehicle that society receives its information and presents its values and expectations. One of the most important roles television plays is its presentation of news and information. What a station chooses to present as newsworthy can play a strong role in how people view their society and the world around them. Often, television news sources have followed a philosophy of “if it bleeds, it leads”, focusing on violence in urban environments. This violence occurs more frequently in black neighborhoods, resulting in what amounts to essentially as a steady, nightly stream of reports on violence in the inner-city by and among African-Americans. In this way, the television media plays a strong...
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...Dimensions of Social Inequality Julie McElwain Park University Abstract Social inequality is how different categories of individuals are prescribed by the society. The society uses basic characteristics such as gender, sex, education, and ethnicity among other factors in order to categorize an individual. The social inequalities determine the access to limited goods such as market labor force, education, health care facilities, and other forms of participation in the society. Different forms of social inequalities are constructs of geographical distribution, and status within the country, however, cultural aspects, mostly integrated with cultural identities, of society are perceived to be the major contributor of social inequality. Discourses have, therefore, been raised on whether the poor deserve to be poor or not and whether the rich deserve to be rich or not. In order to address this question, I examined different dimensions of social inequalities in my life such as social class, educational level, and race among other factors. In this paper, I will also try to bring out understanding of different theories in attempt to explain social stratification. A comparison will be done between different perspectives through interviews and my own perspective of social inequalities. In essence all factors discussed in this paper show a link between social inequalities and different factors such as economic and political system. Trends such as widening inequalities...
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...I. Racial and Ethnic Identity The distinction between ethnic group and race are too subtle for clarification; however, Scientists distinguish race on the basis of “physical characteristics” (11), such as a person’s skin tone, texture of hair or facial features. As people continue to migrate into this country, the increase number of interracial children will eventually alter the biological composition of future generations. This evolution of race will impair the variables that scientists use to classify race. Society distinguishes a person’s race based on collective conjecture; while the majority of us accept appearance as the driving force we assign a race or ethnicity. As the races intermingle, societies’ ability to categorize American’s by “social construct,” will be contingent more so on “Social assumptions,” such as language, religion, customs and ethnic group membership to determine race. White like me—Judith Levine I loved reading this! Ms. Levine has step outside herself and realized what the majority of white people in America may never be aware—“whiteness” (48). This became evident to Ms. Levine as she moved from New York’s highly diverse culture, to mainstream white neighborhood in Vermont. She says “Whiteness purports to be both nothing and everything” (48). She explains how whiteness is this invisible power that makes the majority of white people their race is superior bar none. She realized her skin shielded her from the struggles of minorities and...
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...People can immensely benefit from what social class an individual is positioned in, what race they are assigned, and what gender they identify as. According to Conley, social class, also called socioeconomic status, is “an individual’s position in a stratified social order” (2017 p.521). While social class is composed of any combination of parental education attainment, parental occupation, family income, and family wealth, someone’s social class can have a whopping impact on whether a child attains a decent amount of education in order to provide for oneself. Furthermore, students that come from an upper-class background are encouraged by parents to acquire a higher level of education. Likewise, this urges the students to challenge themselves...
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...200 3/15/11 Social Identity Vs Personal Identity In this paper I will discuss the differences and similarities between the two using three texts from June Jordan, Tim Wise, and Avery Gordon as well as give you my personal opinion about the topic. Social identity, in my opinion, is a bad thing as a whole because it doesn't take into account the experiences that any one person has, it just lumps them together. There are many factors that one needs to take into account when discussing these topics and I will try to explain them as best as I can. Social and personal Identity in today’s society is very much blurred, the individual person has his or her own identity that she relates to but when viewed as a whole in today's society people get lumped together with all the same “people” whether that be race, class, gender or status. The first article I will talk about is Tim Wise’s "Preface" and "Born to Belonging” in this article Wise talk about being born to belonging and what he means by this is that white people that are born into white homes don’t usually have to work that hard to get far in life such stated in this quote “We, are unlike people of color, born to belonging, and have rarely had to prove ourselves deserving of our presence here” (Wise 3). What this quote talks about is that the white race is generally seen as the better race, and because of this white people won’t have to work as hard to get good jobs and have a good income. This is a social identity that...
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...Power, something difficult to attain and a tool to weakness to others. With the power Mayella has, she uses it to her advantage to convict an innocent man because of her wrongdoings. Because of Mayella’s class, and gender, Mayella lacks power, but her race makes her powerful. Again, Mayella Ewell lacks power because of her social class. “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a negro cabin” (Doc A) shows and tells us that the Ewells class falls very low, limiting Mayella’s power socially. Mayella’s limited social power is also shown in the quote “Mayella must have been the most lonely person in the world… white people had nothing to do with her because she lived among pigs, and the negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she is white” (Doc E) because Mayella was not socially accepted by anyone. It is lastly shown in the quote “‘Won’t answer a word long as you keep mocking me”’ because this shows Mayella has never seen the power to be called “ma’am” or “Miss”, so she takes great offense to it when Atticus speaks (Doc C). Besides the lack of power socially due to her social class, Mayella also...
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...importance of adequately reporting and collecting relevant SES parameters, including race and ethnicity is evident. However, the question of how to properly categorize, measure, and report some of these parameters has been in the center of discussion for some time. In accordance with the Affordable Care Act, The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) came up with the new data standards for the collection of race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status. It is required by law that these standards be used in all the national population health surveys (Dorsey, 2011). The new standards have been in use since November 2011, and their stated purpose is to “understand the causes of health disparities, design effective responses, and evaluate progress in decreasing health disparities” (Dorsey, 2011). With the deepening social disparities and the effect they have on the nation’s health, it is essential to have a well-established system of documentation. It is also important for the researchers to select and appropriately measure all the indicators relevant for their study. HHS’s new data standards include fourteen racial and five ethnic categories, with the option to include more than one category within each group. When used as proxy for more accurate SES indicators such as education or income, race/ethnicity do not give the realistic picture of the population of interest. However, both race and ethnicity are important indicators of health disparities and need to be carefully...
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...Social Stratification in modern South Africa by Jabu Banda 512424 Introduction Max Weber viewed social stratification from three dimensions (Wright, EO): economic class, social status and power (party). According to Weber each of these dimensions had its own stratification: the economic, represented by income and access to goods and services, the social, represented by prestige and honour and the political, represented by power .Unlike Marx Weber paved the way for us to incorporate race and ethnicity dimensions in relation to social stratification. South Africa has always been and still is very much a society divided along racial lines. There has however been a gradual but undeniable shift from a society divided along race under apartheid towards division along economic class post 1994. We can attribute this shift largely to the significant political landscape change but we still need a deeper understanding of the forces driving this shift. This paper will therefore attempt to analyze modern day South African society in relation to Weber’s model of social stratification with the view establish its validity and relevance in a local context. We are presented by opportunity to perhaps explore impact this shift has had economically. In other words what the impact has been on access to products and services, media, health, education and so forth. The dimension of power and politics was very central to Weber’s theory, it is therefore natural that we examine the impact the shift from...
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