There is a casual relationship between ideology, intersecting forces, the human condition and disparities in life chances in U.S.
| Subject: | 🧑🤝🧑 Sociology |
| Type: | Analytical Essay |
| Pages: | 2 |
| Word count: | 580 |
| Topics: | Racial Profiling, Community, Discrimination, Race, ⏳ Social Issues, 🏛️ Justice |
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The casual relationship between ideology, intersecting forces, the human condition and disparities in life chances in U.S. are just too obvious to be ignored. The prevailing ideology is associated and defined along with the color of the skin where whiteness becomes the dominant ideology. White ideology as a dogma is an idea, attitude, or practice which reconstructs White and Black Identity, and treasures “whiteness as property”(Harris 1995)”. And because of the dominance of white ideology, discrimination is spawned where it excluded and diminished individuals or group of individuals from rights, opportunities, and resource preventing them not only from full participation in the activities of society but also from enjoying the fruits of society’s produce (Pinkard, nd). The discrimination of the Whites against Non-whites resulted in disparity of economic status and uneven administration of justice where Non-whites become economically marginalized with a greater likelihood to land in prison with a stiffer sentence.
According to Golash-Boza, the dominance of white ideology in society has resulted in various forms of discrimination which has not only stratified society but has also alienated and created false norms as it elevates one race (white) over non-whites (2015). This is most obvious in economic opportunities where whites in the U.S. enjoys the most of the fruits of its society. This can be seen in the median household wealth in the U.S. where the whites enjoy a whopping $134,230 household wealth and the blacks and Hispanics do not even account a tenth of it where Blacks only have $11,030 household income and the Hispanics not too distant $13,730. This figure is further supported by poverty rate where Blacks and Hispanics had the highest rate of 26.2% and 23.6% compared to a meager 10.1% poverty rate among whites. This means that non-whites account half of the poverty rate in America and whites only a tenth of the poor people. One of the major reason of poverty among non-whites is the lack of opportunity among them where the highest incidence of unemployment rate is among the Blacks and Mexicans at 9.2% and 6.3% respectively (Luhby, 2015).
The discrimination spawned by white ideology is not only apparent in economics but also in the administration of justice. In New York city, the whopping disparity of people being stopped and frisked is just very hard to ignore as Blacks and Hispanics are stopped and frisked 80% and 85% of the time compared to a mere 8% among whites (U.S. Department of Justice, nd). And the discrimination is not limited to stop and frisk policy but even after being arrested. Figures show that if Blacks and Whites are simultaneously arrested, Blacks have 33% more likelihood to be detained compared to Whites. The inequality in the administration of justice extends up to sentencing where Blacks are likely to receive 10% longer prison sentences than their White counterparts and it gets worst in life sentences where Non-whites receive 2/3 of life sentences (Quigley, 2010). At present, Blacks also composed more than half of state prisons at 57% (Sledge, 2013).
The above figures show that the dominance of White ideology has economically marginalized non-Whites that the marginalization it caused has intersected and spilled over to uneven administration justice that justice system assumes that non-Whites are more likely to commit crimes because they are poor. This argument may be denied by the dominant White majority but figures and facts show that White ideology has created discrimination that marginalizes non-Whites that deprived them of rights, opportunities and even liberties.
- Golash-Boza, Tanya Maria (2015). Race and Racism: A Critical Approach. University of California, Oxford University Press, N.Y., N.Y.
- Luhby, Tamy. “The black-white economic divide in 5 charts.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 25 Nov. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. <http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/24/news/economy/blacks-whites-inequality/>.
- Pinkard, J.E. (nd). African Felon Disenfranchisement: Case Studies in Modern Racism and Political Exclusion. LFB Scholarly Publishing, LLC.
- Quigley, B. (2010, July 26). Fourteen Examples of Racism in Criminal Justice System. Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/fourteen-examples-of-raci_b_658947.html
- Sledge, M. (2013, April 08). The Drug War And Mass Incarceration By The Numbers. Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/drug-war-mass-incarceration_n_3034310.html.\
- “The Reality of Racial Profiling.” The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. <http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/racial-profiling2011/the-reality-of-racial.html>.
Offered for reference purposes only.