Opportunity and Inequality in the United States - Term Paper Example

Sociology Sub Opportunity and Inequality in the United s Rebecca Grandinetti Lecturer's Professor Adams Introduction Inequality is as old as the very first generation in human kind. This is seen in the bible and other literature that show the beginning of the human race. The nature of our race and gender has created an avenue for the numerous inequalities witnessed in the world today. Nowadays, a person is judged according to his/her skin color. His/her gender, his /her social standing, his /her economic capability etc. The list is conceivably long enough to exhaust. All these inequalities have been a creation of human kind. Most of the factors that have fuelled this kind of inequalities such as race and gender were all meant to show how diverse the human race can be but still asserting the fact that human is human regardless of race or gender and all humans should be equal. The very human being used these factors to be markers of superiority or inferiority. Based on these stereotypes, avenues were instituted to propagate and enable these stereotypes. As such, the best schools belonged to a given race or sex, the best jobs began to be occupied by a specific social class or race or sex, specific social places got reserved for specific people etc. In effect, inequality had been instituted by such practices. Those propagating the inequality and the victims of the inequality believed in the practice, with the former group feeling elated as the latter embraced great resentment against the former. The practice continued for centuries until the very human beings that had started it started to see the evil in the practice and as such started to fight it. They are fighting to abolish classification is society along economic, racial, gender and ethnic grounds (Gilbert, 2002). Policies have since been put in place to equalize people, movements have voiced their resentments against he practice and the results The practice has receded to "under the carpet". If you though inequality is dead, you have to think again. This paper seeks to highlight the practice of inequality in the United States by looking at the equal opportunities in the same land. The paper will start by looking at the equal opportunities in the US before it finally highlights the forms of inequalities witnessed in the US. Factors Fuelling Inequality in the US As mentioned in the introduction, a number of factors have been in use to propagate the practice of inequality in the US. These factors have often been both physical and the supposed genetic attributes. Both have hitherto been used to assign all the statuses in the society which would atheism been assigned on equal terms. Race is one such factor. Racial inequality has been and still is rampant in the US. The worst of it is the manifestation in which a white individual is 90% not likely to be a suspect in a crime scene as opposed to a black individual or anyone form the Middle East who will almost be 100% criminal suspects. Ethnicity, besides gender has been the strongest instigator of inequality. Aboriginal or not, foreigner or citizen etc just demonstrates the use of ethnic inequality which is seen in the allocations of resources, positions and status in the society. Gender is yet another factor in which hitherto women have been relegated until recently when they moved their assertiveness to an all time high level. Women fought so hard to assert their position in the society and as they did this they were labeled feminists. In as much as there could be feminists, the underlying factor is that there is inequality at whatever level conceivable in the society. Other factors include wholeness of body and mind in which the physically and/or mentally challenged individuals have unequal allocation of resources, position or even statuses. Generally, inequality is never a facade nor is it a mirage; it is a reality and the US citizens are consciously or otherwise basking in this very reality of inequality (Beeghley, 2004). Nevertheless, in the attempted fight against inequality in the US, there have been instances where equal opportunity has been afforded to individuals or groups in the society regardless of ethnicity, race, gender or wholeness of body and mind. There are indeed instances and areas where the American dream has been operationalized and the concept of America as the land of equal opportunity realized. The opposite has been rampant but this doesn't erase the existence of equal opportunities in the US. History of Inequality in the US The idea of correlating inequality and race in the US is never a new concept. In spite of most personalities protesting that race is being overemphasized, historical occurrences suggest the fact that racial inequality especially against the minorities in the US shoulder this proposition of the correlation between race and inequality. Race inequality in the US dates back to the era of colonization. These early days of settlers, the Anglo-Saxons came across the people who were quite markedly different from them. These people, American Indians were thus discriminated against because the Anglo-Saxons thought that the beliefs, practices, mannerisms and intelligence were all savage, quite uncivilized and immensely backward. As such, racial distinction was used to categorize people. Later on, besides the race, religion and ethnicity were also used to divide people into two groups; inferior group and the superior group. The American Indians aside, the racial discrimination pattern was extended to the white-black relations in the US. This was represented by slavery where all the goats, cows, farms and the black slaves were counted as property belonging to the white land owner. The unlimited resources of America during this time needed expansive labor force and this explains the forced labor witnessed then. Therefore, black slaves became the most attractive option for the white land owners to help make use of these resources. As such the slaves were imported and continued to be traded for more than two centuries. The slaves were treated badly, and this continued for a very long time. The treatment was extended to other minority groups; Asians, Hispanics, and people from Middle East were all subjected to racial discrimination and inequality thus set in this way. It has since continued to exist up until the minority waged war against this practice in a bid to assert their presence and existence in education, economic, social and all the other conceivable arenas (Kelly, 2009).The struggle for liberation from this predicament saw many lives lost until the US government decided to put equal opportunity policies mainly in education and other sectors. The equal opportunities in education were meant to allow equal chances for social mobility. All these projections for equal opportunities were addressed in the American dream which never was. The continued stereotypes, racial segregation and discrimination and rampant inequality created an eternal pattern which has since led to a society with formidable racial inequality. The inequality now exists in a number of institutions and forms such as education, health, income and wealth, the criminal justice system and property rights among other institutions and forms. Equal Opportunities in the US Advances to solve to the evils provoked by racial-ethnic inequality in the US have paid particular attention on the unequal opportunity as the cause of discrimination, and the consequent unequal rewards as its real demonstration. However, equal opportunity and corresponding rewards are indispensable but often insufficient mostly in the social policies that seek to uphold societal equity. The evident equality is seen especially in Asian status in the US. Unlike other minority groups in the US, the American Asians are seen to be some kind of superior model of a minority group because they have been able to afford education, social mobility, economic independence and health care and insurance among other major things only preserved for the whites. Over time, the equality envisaged in the American dream has been able to surface. The blacks and Hispanics too are slowly but steadily achieving an increasingly equal environment. They are able to attend the best schools together with other white student in a programme termed as integration which was instituted to fight racism in the US. In this programme of integration, the best facilities that had been reserved for the superior race were able to admit all minority groups and as such equal services in these institutions were afforded to everybody regardless of their ethnic background or race. These facilities include schools, hospitals, restaurants, public transport means etc (Thompson & Joseph, 2005). Another equality manifestation is what is commonly called meritocracy. The liberal camps support this especially because of the equality it is able to afford to the minority groups. This concept of meritocracy means that provided one has the capability, intelligence and willingness of doing some jobs, he has equal chances of getting these jobs regardless of the ethnic background and race or even the gender orientation of this individual. In other words, an individual can get any job in the US provided he she has met the qualifications required for that kind of job. This is more pronounced in theory than it is in practice but nevertheless it does exist albeit it doesn't suffice to satisfy the fancy of the minority groups. Further, there is equal opportunity in provision of Medicare and Medicaid provided the individual in question qualifies to get these medical covers. Other welfare arrangements are also able to benefit those in need regardless of age, gender, ethnic background and better still, regardless of the race. These programmes are able to demonstrate the practice of equal treatment of citizens in affording these citizens equal opportunities especially in the healthcare sector. Education is yet another sector that has seen practice of equality. Provided one is performing, he/she is able to achieve social mobility and secure any kind of social status or class conceivable in the American society. More blacks and other minorities are today graduating from colleges and universities more tan ever before. Besides graduation, these groups are also able to access the best colleges and universities such as Harvard. This was not possible earlier when they were facing the very worst of brunt of racial inequalities. Most organizations have opened up and are able to offer equal opportunities to applicants regardless of race or ethnicity provided they meet the requirements. Most cadres of employment initially seen as a reserve for the whites can now admit blacks and other minorities (Thompson & Joseph, 2005). Such cadres include but are not limited to law, medicine, military, politics, finance and banking among others. Because of this admission, social mobility has been afforded for these minority groups and as such they are able to have rights to property, means of production and economic power which would not be conceived in the early American years when racial inequality and discrimination was quite rampant and serious at that matter. The question that remains is how does the liberal camp take this They are quite receptive to this idea of equality in that they fight for equal opportunities for everyone regardless of their race and ethnic orientation. If anything, meritocracy has been central to the liberal camp whereby they are flexible to any new trends and social orientations provided they are able to enhance the common societal good. The conservatists on the other hand believe that the majority should owns the means of production, the best jobs, access the best health care and hold strategic employment position so that they are able to run both the economy and political government. They want to maintain the status quo and will protest at any practice aimed at compromising the status quo. This group of conservatists has continued to propagate the practice of racial and other forms of inequalities though secretly. This has impeded greatly on the efforts by the liberal groups to end inequality. As such, inequality has receded to the underworld and since the liberal camps detest inequality of any form, they continue to fight to do purge the American society of any form of inequality. Inequality in the US America is proud, more than any country in the world, of its collective dream the dream that defines economic opportunity and an equal upward social mobility. It is also proud to offer a chance for the best of lives provided one is bale to work hard for it and play within the rules and regulations governing that life. All this has been an average facade. If you dig a little bit deeper, you will realize that things are not what they seem. Appearance diverges greatly from reality. The reality is that there are still some components of inequality in the US. Class rivalry and competition has always been the stronghold of liberal politics. More often the politicians have shown this one America made up of two Americas; the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the one that works really hard and the other that reaps the rewards of the hard work and the one that pays taxes and the other that gets tax reliefs. The list is inexhaustible and the underling fact is that the inequality in the US has divided it down the middle realizing two Americas in one. As far as income and wealth are concerned there still exists inequality though it is steadily on the decline. Income in this sense refers to the inflow of resources over time. It is often represented by wage and salary in the labor market. Before the liberalization of the labor market, there was marked gap between the incomes of the whites and that of the minorities (Johnston, 2009). However, with the liberalization of the labor market saw the gap close in significantly as a result of the enhanced value of both the social assistances and the pensions. Income is a very formidable gauge for inequality in the US. Wealth also can be used to gauge inequality. Home ownership one major wealth portfolio and the main differentiating factor between the white and black families. The rates of home ownership for blacks has stagnated at 20% lower that of the whites and this in itself is a formidable representation of the economic inequality in the US (Kelly, 2009). All the other inequalities will basically trace their roots back to the economic inequality because everything else in away requires finance. As such, when there is economic inequality, often represented by the income and wealth inequalities, then it is in a way communicating the presence of multifarious forms of inequalities. As such, it will be of importance to mention the other inequalities implied by the economic inequalities, these include but are not limited to gender, educational, healthcare and employment among other disparities. Conclusion In conclusion, the American dream illustrates the presence of inequality in the American society and the proportionate effort of the American society in fighting this vice. The fight has been divided with the conservative group wanting to maintain the status quo that survives well within inequalities and the liberal camps which roots for equal opportunities and meritocracy. Democracy has been heightened and anybody can air his/her views without fear of victimization. But is there unequal democracy as well (Bartels, 2008). What is more is to wait for the full realization of the American dream. 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