Racial-Ethnic Inequality - Assignment Example

RACIAL-ETHNIC INEQUALITY The “Inequality Reader” offers a selection of contemporary essays from leading scholars on social inequality. The book confronts issues such as race, discrimination and gender both in the past and the present. The book offers fodder for thought for undergraduate students on how to tackle inequality. In Omni and Winant’s, “Racial Formation in the US”, the authors deconstruct the commonly- held view of race as a product of biology. They present a theory of race as a social construct determined by societal interactions and pressures.

According to this theory, racial formation developed out of social, economic and political forces. These forces worked with scientific justifications to oppress specific minorities. In Farley’s, “Racial Identities 2000”, the author talks about the progress in the racial system of classification. In the 2000 census, people were allowed to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. This gives a better perspective of the multi-racial identities that people identify with. In Wilson’s, “The Declining Significance of Race, the author talks of how race barriers are breaking down as Blacks become economically empowered.

In Feagin’s, “The Continuing Significance of Race”, the author holds that racial discrimination is still present. The White class is still dominant due to the unequal distribution of resources. Bertrand and Mullainthan conducted an experiment in “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” They found that there was discrimination in the labor market, with white names receiving more job opportunities than their black counterparts. Steele’s “Stereotype Threat”, refers to the anxiety someone feels when they have the potential to confirm a negative racial stereotype.

An example the authors use is the failure of black students in intelligence tests due to conceptions of inferiority. In Oliver and Shapiro’s “Black Wealth/White Wealth”, the authors delve into the deep economic divide between whites and black due to generations of inequality and economic oppression. Waters’ “Black Identities”, talks of the issues West Indian immigrants face in their quest to fit into New York City. Prager’s “Marked” talks of the entrenchment of racial inequality.

These entrenched ideas make the oppression of some people seems normal. Bobo’s “What Do You Call a Black Man with a PhD?” talks of how the arrest of a famous black professor outside his own home is a sign that racial bias still exists. ReferencesGrusky, B. D., & Szelenyi, S. (2007). The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class and Gender. Colorado: Westview Press.