The Consequences of Inequality - Essay Example

Part I: Inequality: How has inequality affected your own life? What is your own social class, gender, race, and ethnicity?

        Rather than merely pointing to a handful of situations and instances in which inequality has impacted my own life, is fair to say that life as an African-American female is something of an uphill struggle with regard to inequality and social issues concerning class, race, gender, and ethnicity. Accordingly, the very first section of this research paper will focus on the means by which inequality has impacted my own life and the way in which class distinction, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, and ethnicity all work together to categorize and denote expected and stereotypical behaviors from groups of individuals. At their very core level of understanding, all of these definitions, and/or handles that have thus far been discussed, are contingent upon a level of the stereotypic occasion of the individuals within each group. Stereotypes in and of themselves are not necessarily always a bad thing; however, they invariably reduce the amount of inference that an individual can make with regards to a given situation and encourage the user to merely generalize with regards to some supposedly and believed least common denominators between individuals/groups.

In this way, the inequality that I have most oftentimes experienced has been concentric upon the stereotypes that individuals have attributed to me based upon the fact that I am either African American, female, or both.  The first point about inequality that an individual comes to notice is the fact that oftentimes inequality is not recognized. Due to the fact that environmental and social factors contribute to an understanding of one’s own worldview, many of these factors are merely taken for granted as part of the environment and merely a way of life. However, as one matures, the level and extent to which such a worldview is readily accepted are oftentimes questioned. This was very much the case with me with regard to what I began to notice when I first attempted to integrate with the job market. As a high school student, I was legally allowed to work and sought out several opportunities with regard to gainful employment that I could better myself with. As a motivated and intelligent young woman, I believed that the American dream was one that allowed me to pursue and derive a level of profitability based upon my dreams if only I pursued them strongly enough.  Sadly, I was both naïve and misinformed as I soon came to realize that many individuals were not interested in hiring me based upon either my gender or my ethnicity; or some combination of both. The reason that I am able to definitively state that this level of inequality was the result of my gender and/or my ethnicity is the fact that the job that I was applying for was ultimately low skill level and commensurate with an individual who only was beginning a part-time job as a means of deriving a bit of additional income.

This inherent level of societal inequality fundamentally questioned the level and extent to which upward mobility is possible for individuals such as myself. Although it is the goal in the intent of each individual who graduates from college to seek to better their life and ultimately end up in a higher socioeconomic status than they or originally hailed, such a reality is oftentimes not a possibility due to the fact that inequality is such a very prevalent issue within current society. To the extent that stereotypes are continually employed to define individuals and rapid judgments are made not upon relevant and/or salient facts based upon prejudice, the level and extent to which inequality will continue to define the way in which the world is structured will be profound. From personal experience, inequality is something that is not merely concentric upon a given age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. The fact of the matter is that society by its very nature attempts to delineate individuals into two different easily defined and understood groups. Due to the fact that human nature continues to place an emphasis on the importance of simplicity in defining interaction, the temptation to stereotype and incorrectly identify people based on preconceived notions is strong. Regardless of all of the information that is thus far been presented, it is the strong and distinct hope of this author that even though inequality, stereotyping, and discrimination continue to take place to a great degree within current society diligent work and hard effort can at least help to allay some of the negative ramifications that this exhibits within the environment.