SOCIOL713 Social Inequality

This discussion will outline the meaning of social inequality in brief with the help of a case study and some theories. A case study is done of George Floyd to explain the racism which is a part of social inequality. After the case study, economic inequality and how this inequality affects the people of low class is discussed in the following discussion. Theory of Functionalism, Feminists Theory, Marxism theory is discussed which describes the individual ideologies of the creators of the theory.

Social inequality arises when the resources given to the society is distributed unevenly, through norms of allocation, that give rise to the patterns with the line of social categories of people. This differentiation in the society is brought by the power, religion, prestige, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and class. The social rights consist of labour market, source of income, health care, education, political representation and participation (van Eijk, 2016). However, the regulations of sociology and economics use different outlook to examine economic inequality theoretically.

In recent incidents, in Minneapolis, United States, a huge protest was risen up by the people called “Black Lives Matter” after the demise of George Floyd by police officers. On May 25, George Floyd was arrested by police officers when a store employee reported that George Floyd bought the cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. After seventeen minutes of investigation, George Floyd was put down by three police officers and after sometime George Floyd was not showing any signs of life because one of the officers put his knees on his neck which disabled him from breathing. Police officers disobeyed the policies instructed by the department by taking series of actions which turned fatal, resulting in death of George Floyd (Barbot, 2020). Like this incident, there are many incidents in the past which are the proof that social inequality is practiced and this practice of inequality comes under the term Racism. Racism is a belief that a particular group of individuals is better than the other group of individuals based on their skin colour. Following this belief, in history, black people have to do Bantu education while white people were educated in schools. Black people were not allowed to enter the public places. According to Bonnila Silva, racism is produced because of the racial domination projects like colonialism, slavery and labour migration. Racism should not be considered as idealist fashion but should be considered as materialistic. When the times goes over the struggle, the racial categories emerges and manifold processes (Bonilla-Silva, 2018). Even though if race is classified as a classification scheme for the society, this classification should not be used to make someone feel low because of their colour and race. It is hard for the black people to enter the market and occupational mobility is also hard for them because whites are given more salaries than black people in level of education. In October 2012, the overall unemployment rate was 7.9%, yet unemployed whites were 7% while unemployed black people were 14.3%. These differences in income can pointing to unequal level of educational attainment.

Another type of inequality is economic inequality which deals with the financial status of individuals. Socioeconomic status is a tool which is use to place individuals based on their occupation, education and income. Economic inequality basically focuses on wealth and income. When wealth is talked about, inheritance is the first word that often comes to the mind. Something which is inherited is passed down from generation to generation. When looking at the wealth from the monetary point of view, for people with higher socioeconomic status it is easier for them to sow a financial seed which can reproduce in the future but people with low socioeconomic status do not get the same opportunities (Payne, Brown-Iannuzzi, & Hannay, 2017). For example, people with inherited wealth are capable of investing in stock market but that is not the case with minorities. This explains why minorities are considered as low class because they do not have the means to create money that is sufficient for their household.

The theory of Functionalism, by Emile Durkheim, focuses on the social structure at macro level. Each part of the society is interpreted by the functionalism and its contribution for the stability of the society. Functionalist theory is composed of different parts of the society, each with different needs and different role for the society. Institutions of this theory are defined by sociology including family, government, economy, education, media, and religion. The existence of the institution is only for serving a critical role in the functioning of the society and if the institution does not serve its role it dies away. Functionalists believes that in general people have an organic analogy and society itself is characterised by consensus (Sohrabi, 2019). Norms, values and stability is reinforced by the social structures. Values, beliefs and norms channel social norms which results in social cohesion, enabling society to form a social order.

However, Feminists do not agree with the theories of functionalist because they are only focusing on the functions that are carried out institutions positively. Feminists argues that the traditionally unclear families oppress women because they are expected to fulfil the role of housewives which make the women to be dependent on men for the money and this ends up in benefitting men who then take advantage of domestic labour of women (Bell, Meriläinen, Taylor, & Tienari, 2018). Feminists also claims that functionalists also ignore the domestic violence and sexual abuse. Functionalists still claims that people are better with boundaries, provided through institutions by socialisation which prevents anomy. Despite people being socialised into traditional gender norms, many people still develop LGTBIQ identities. It is like people are impersonating to obey social norms but when the things are looked more qualitatively, the conditions are not the same. Everyone is doing their own thing; people may think they are free but still their actions are patterned and things like educational success and suicide seems to be shaped by social background of an individual.

The advocacy of rights of the women on the grounds of social, political and economic equality to men is called feminism. Feminists have placed gender inequalities at a higher importance than class inequalities by following the ideology of Marxism because of the oppression of the women by men. This social inequality exists for women because of gender stratification in the society which is patriarchal and these inequalities should be tackle to bring the change in the society for the women in private and public areas of life (Banet-Weiser & Portwood-Stacer, 2017). Within homes, women are economically disadvantaged as males tend to manage the income. In workplaces, women are often stopped from achieving their dreams to manage the household work which constrains their potential. In offices also, when women are promoted to the senior positions, their salaries are significantly less than the pay of the men promoted to the same position.

Marxism is the theory based on political and economic philosophy introduced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In this theory, concept of class inequality plays a major role in understanding of development of the society from the bourgeois oppression. Marxists claims that there are conflicts in the society because of capitalist and class system (Kotz, 2017). Bourgeoisies who have status and wealth while the proletariat does not have the same conditions like because proletariat are exploited by bourgeoisies and capitalist system. Capitalist system initiates and reinforces inequality in society as the one who is rich, controls the ideas regarding work, education, media and the poor is taught and persuaded that capitalism is beneficial for them.

In the above discussion, social inequality is described briefly with its types which are racism, economic inequality and inequality among women. With the help of case study of George Floyd, racism is explained in the above discussion. Theory of functionalism discusses about the social structure of society at macro level which is composed of different parts and institutions of the society and Marxism theory is based on the political and economic philosophy.

References

Banet-Weiser, S., & Portwood-Stacer, L. (2017). The traffic in feminism: an introduction to the commentary and criticism on popular feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 884-888.

Barbot, O. (2020). George Floyd and Our Collective Moral Injury. American Journal of Public Health, 1253-1253.

Bell, E., Meriläinen, S., Taylor, S., & Tienari, J. (2018). Time’s up! Feminist theory and activism meets organization studies. Human Relations, 4-22.

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). “Racists,” “Class Anxieties,” Hegemonic Racism, and Democracy in Trump’s America. Social Currents, 14-31.

Kotz, D. (2017). Social Structure of Accumulation Theory, Marxist Theory, and System Transformation. Review of Radical Political Economics, 534-542.

Payne, B., Brown-Iannuzzi, J., & Hannay, J. (2017). Economic inequality increases risk taking. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 4643-4648.

Sohrabi, H. (2019). A Durkheimian critique of contemporary multiculturalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1283-1304.

van Eijk, G. (2016). Socioeconomic marginality in sentencing: The built-in bias in risk assessment tools and the reproduction of social inequality. Punishment & Society, 463-481.

Looking for affordable assignment help online? Need someone to offer you prices that would go easy on your pocketbook? Bothered, “Can I pay someone to do my assignment at the best industry price?” Of course, you can. MyAssignmenthelp.co.uk has the finest paper writers. They are dedicatedly available to back you up with well-knit assignment papers at the best industry price. 

Sign up for finance assignment help or management assignment help and enjoy a flat 20% off along with an additional $20 sign-up bonus. How cool is that? So, think no more and count on our expertise for affordable assignment help in the UK.