Principles of Sociology - Essay Example

Principles of Sociology Question 2: What is the Existing Difference between Prejudice and al Racism? To establish the difference between institutional racism and prejudice, it is vital to first establish what exactly is meant by the two: According to (al- ?I?sa?, 18), prejudice is widely based on an inflexible generalization and antipathy. Prejudice is often seen to be either expressed or felt by an individual who might chance to direct the prejudice at either a certain given group or at a single individual by virtue of their membership in the concerned group. (Taguieff, 157) Defines prejudice as essentially being an empirical judgment that is generally unfounded and is of a false nature. Institutional Racism has variously been described as being the collective failure of an organization to aptly provide a number of professional services to different individuals mainly because of their innate ethnic origin, culture or color. While prejudice is seen to mostly be an essentially negative attitude exhibited by an individual over an entire racial or ethnic group, racism is seen to essentially be a form of prejudice that causes the individual to think that one particular race is inherently superior and that all the other races are inferior. Hatred is perceived to be the most noteworthy characteristic that aids in distinguishing between prejudice and racism. While the institutional racism ideology tends to involve an aspect of hatred, prejudice does not. In What Sense can Persons who are White be thought to Benefit from Conferred Dominance or White Privilege? White privilege or dominance is variously described as being the social rewards, the power to shape the societal norms and values as well as access to various resources that white people generally receive either consciously or unconsciously in a somewhat racist society merely by virtue of their skin color. In the United States, some of the privileges that whites would normally receive by virtue of their skin color included better access to long-term mortgages that helped them buy houses in various suburbs in the country soon after the events of World War II. White privilege determines the assumptions as to which ethnic groups can be considered to be dangerous in addition to affecting how emergency responses are dispatched to various communities. White persons can generally expect to be dealt with in a respectful manner by all strangers that they might chance to encounter and that their presence will generally be looked upon in a favorable manner and that they will be welcome. However, persons of African American, Asian or Indian origins are sometimes treated in an indifferent and suspicious manner by white persons. White persons can at times portray resentful feelings towards the persons of color that cause these persons of color to feel that the white persons are merely tolerating their existence in their midst and would really prefer that the persons of color were not among them. White persons can exhibit some of the more characteristic characters that have commonly been turned into stereotypes used to label persons of color without facing any criticism, this can be seen by white persons laughing loudly and conducting themselves in a rowdy manner in a restaurant or bar that is full of white persons without the customers at some of the other tables getting offended and complaining or loudly commenting that they are generally uncouth and loud mainly because of their race (Douglas 2010). Why an Affirmative Action Policy for Racial Minorities and Women should be instituted A number of affirmative action programs have been instrumental in aiding in the opening up of various opportunities for both racial minorities and women, this has helped the two take up their rightful place in society. However it should be noted that equal opportunity for the two groups is still generally a long way off and any attempts to try and curtail or eliminate affirmative action in relation to the two would serve to not only effectively halt the rapid forward progress that has been made by the racial minorities and women in the country; it would also serve to mark a backward leap of relatively gigantic proportions in the United States attempts to try and secure equal opportunity for all it citizens. Affirmative action in the United States was seen to first come into place during the 1950s when a number of civil rights activists in the country successfully managed to challenge the segregation that was rampantly practiced in the country’s food, education and transportation realms. It was mainly due to this thriving civil rights movement that the then President John Kennedy was seen to issue the Executive order 10925 of the year 1960. The executive order made reference to the use of “affirmative action” as a tool that could be used to aid in the ending of discrimination in the country. Affirmative action works by facilitating the general prioritization of the placement of the various unrepresented groups such as racial minorities and women in sectors such as education and work that they had previously been categorically barred from (Kimbrough 3). Although discrimination against women in the American society can be perceived as being deeply rooted, there have been a lot of positive progress from the days that saw classified job opening advertisements for women and men being listed separately and entry into the more prestigious universities being closed off to women. However, new examples of discrimination are being observed regularly. In an article by Jaschik, (2009) it is crucial to note that there happens to exist a number of concerns that African American students are not benefiting from affirmative action in college admission. It has been noted that immigrant black persons generally tend to attain higher levels of education and income as compared to the native African Americans. This is depicted by a study conducted Bennett and Lutz that shows that selective colleges in the country normally enrolled a mere 2.4 percent of students who happen to be of native African American origin but enrolled the much larger number of 9.2 percent of immigrant blacks. This data shows that immigrant blacks are generally over-represented in most of the United States’ elite academic institutions. How Capitalism affects Race Capitalist propaganda wrongly postulates that the different genders and races generally have vastly different needs that will forever be in conflict and that the only resolution to this is the enactment of a number of discriminatory legislations and laws. This was seen by the enactment of various discriminatory laws in the United States after the end of slavery. The laws were designed to stop the former black slaves from obtaining any equal employment with their white counterparts in the capitalistic society. This development was only halted in the 1960s via the efforts of the civil rights movement that managed to obtain affirmative action for the minority groups. Currently, although capitalism is seen to actively call for members of the various races to work due to the demands of the global conquest achieved by capitalism, racist ideas have generally been helping capitalism justify its rampant super-exploitation of various ethnic and racial minorities as well as other non-white people. In line with this, Marx’s main view is that capitalism and racism can be perceived to basically be cut from the same cloth. He demonstrated the role that is found to be played by racist ideologies and systematic practices in the general development and history of a mainly capitalistic production mode (Jeannot 87). Question 3: The Contribution of Religion to the Socialization Process According to (Andersen and Taylor 76), religion is perceived to be a very powerful agent of socialization as it greatly contributes to the identities that children normally end up constructing for themselves. It has been found that children normally tend to adopt their parent’s religious beliefs and it is often rare for them to switch to a different belief. Religious socialization is seen to greatly influence a relatively large proportion of beliefs that adults use to organize their lives. These includes beliefs pertaining to the roles ascribed to women and men including the engagement of men in house work and women employment opportunities, moral development and sexuality including an individual’s tolerance for either gay or lesbian sexuality. Effects of the Absence of Religion in Society Over time, religion has constantly been shown to be a powerful force in human society. Religion is seen to positively affect human behaviors, lives, conceptions and ideologies. Most religions have been shown to generally exert a relatively positive influence on society causing it to be better (Ezeh 73). Eliminating religion in society can have the effect of causing a basic moral degradation in the society in question. The effects of no religion in a given society can best be seen in the American education system which has overtime been progressively eliminating the teaching and observance of religion. This has resulted in a higher dropout rate and increased crime in the schools. Incidences of violent shootings have also been recorded with alarming frequency. The Potential Effects of Adoption of Jesus’ Original Teachings in America If America were to opt to seriously adopt Jesus’ original teachings, there would be a number of positive benefits to the general society. Most of the teachings by Jesus attempted to help correct the various ills that were prevalent in the society. Most of these societal ills have largely been adopted by the current society. These vices are seen to touch on almost all aspects of the modern day society ranging from morality and attitude to the political system and economic systems. Adopting the original teachings will serve to help in greatly reforming these systems in the American society. The Difference between Spirituality and Religion Although they are commonly perceived to be similar, religion and spirituality generally tend to have a number of key differences between them some of these marked differences include: Religion is seen to essentially be an organized and formal activity that variously involves a number of rituals, beliefs and practices that are found to be intricately related to a god or supernatural being or as is often seen to be the case in some of the Middle Eastern religion, these are found to be related to the eventual attainment of some form of reality or truth. In marked contrast to this, spirituality is generally seen to have a more personal nature that is generally defined by the individual as opposed to being prescribed by other persons. Religion is often seen to describe what is supposed to happen after one’s death and it generally codifies a number of rules to help guide moral behavior, on the other hand, spirituality is often seen to generally be devoid of the responsibilities, conventions and rules that are found to often be typical of religion. It often falls upon an individual to personally define what exactly is moral in accordance to their individual spirituality. As opposed to the practicing of spirituality, the practicing of religion normally involves the congregating of a number of persons keen on expressing their similar religious beliefs. It is found to be quite possible for individuals to be spiritual without portraying any religious tendencies (Greenberg 104-105). An Example When Religion made a Difference to Me Being a religious person, I was once confronted where my religious convictions greatly helped me in dealing with the death of a close relative. Upon the death of one of my aunties, I was deeply grieved and troubled as I had happened to enjoy a particularly close relationship with this relative. However, being a Christian, I was somewhat comforted by the knowledge that my devoted Christian aunt was definitely in heaven. This thought greatly comforted me as according to the Christian teachings, heaven is a happy place where dead persons are able to obtain eternal happiness and we the living should all aspire to venture into it by observing the various instructions laid out in the bible. Works cited al- ?I?sa?, Ih?sa?n. Ethnicity, immigration, and psychopathology. New York [u.a.]: Plenum Press, 1997. Print. Andersen, Margaret and Taylor Francis. Sociology: the essentials. Belmont, CA : Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. Print. Douglas, Laura. How I Benefit From White Privilege. 2010. Web. 9th July, 2013. Ezeh, Christopher. The Disaster of the Absence of Moral and Religious Education in the American Public Schools: Controversies and Possible Solutions. Xlibris Corporation, 2010. Print. Greenberg, Jerrold. Empowering health decisions. Burlington, MA : Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2014. Print. Jaschik, Scott. Black (Immigrant) Admissions Edge. 2009. Web. 6th July, 2013. Jeannot, Tom. Marx, Capitalism, and Race. 2007. PDF file. Kimbrough, Natalie. Equality or discrimination : African Americans in the U.S. military during the Vietnam war. Lanham, Md. [u.a.] : Univ. Press of America, 2007. Print. Taguieff, Pierre-Andre?. The force of prejudice : on racism and its doubles. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Print. Read More