Inequality in the United States Among Minorities - Free Essay Example

Social Inequality in the United States among Minorities By: CLK Have you ever been treated unfair, not equal because of your race, gender, status, wealth. Every day in this world people are judged and discriminated against just for these things and sometimes for other simple reasons. So many movements have happened in the United States to try and right the wrong of unequal things against minorities. For example women’s suffrage which was the fight for the right for women to vote, they weren’t allowed to vote just based off the fact that they were woman. Another movement was the civil rights movement which if you think about it was not that long ago, it was long overdue, but the movement was not that long ago. As many know it was the fight for the equal justice and treatment of blacks in this country. Being a minority has a broad wide range it is just not black people , or anyone that is not white there are other groups of minorities such as Hispanics, or being a woman, gays and lesbians, religion groups. While in this course I have learned so much about many different kinds of social problems in societies around the world and in the United States, such as poverty, social inequality, race and cultural discrimination, gender stratification, environmental damage, population growth, and urbanization. I chose my final essay to be on Social Inequality and the Minorities in the United States. For me this subject raises many points of our daily life and brings us to the point of reality in our world. While we think such things as racism and discrimination are minor things in our bust lives or in our changing world, but those things are still very much alive, maybe just not in the for front like they were once before but they still do exist and very much alive in out country. My paper is going to discuss how minorities are treated unfair or unequal in this country, and what I think we can do to better solve this silent growing problem here in the great United States, for I believe our country has come alone way but we have so much further to go to help and to benefit everyone here, man or woman, black or white, gay or straight. Let’s start off with what are social inequities and what is minorities. Social inequality refers to a lack of social equality, where individuals in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care and other social goods. Inequality is socially created by matching two different kinds of processes. The social roles in society are first matched to ‘reward packages’ of unequal value and individual members of society are then allocated to the positions so defined and rewarded† Social inequality is different from economic inequality but the two inequalities are linked. Economic inequality refers to disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. While economic inequality is caused by the unequal distribution of wealth, social inequality exists because the lack of wealth in certain areas prohibits th ese people from obtaining the same housing, health care, etc. s the wealthy in societies where access to these social goods depends on wealth. Most Americans have a sense of the presence of inequality. We learn about it in many ways on a daily basis, from our observations of people, homes, cars, neighborhoods, and news accounts of the rich and famous. There is good evidence that we start to learn about inequality at a very early age and accumulate additional knowledge throughout our lives. Most Americans are aware of different forms of inequality. They know about income inequality and the patterns of discrimination against women and racial and ethnic groups. As we prosper through time, inequality is slowly less evident. A lot of people dont realize that although things are improving with time, inequality is still prominent in our society. The people that are failing to realize that there still is inequality are the fortunate ones. They rise well above the poverty line, and usually live relatively economically sound lives. They are the people who are supplied with our societys benefits. The people that are in pursuit of social change, and constantly bring attention to issues of equal rights and privileges, are often the people that do not have them. They are the ones who suffer daily from different levels of inequality. Minorities are people who are a racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part, which can be a board spectrum of people. Minority groups are made up of people who share a common set of cultural or physical characteristics that marks them as different from the powerful dominant group and for which they often suffer social disadvantages, because of their lack of power. As in the case of race and ethnicity, minority group membership is given by society. The most common minority groups are African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Women. A social inequality that is happening in the United States right now is health care among blacks. For blacks, health inequalities are the cumulative result of both past and current discrimination throughout U. S. culture. Due to discrimination and limited educational opportunities, blacks disproportionately work in low-pay, high-health-risk occupations (e. . , they are migrant farm workers, fast food workers, garment industry workers). (Vernellia). The lack of having a good job really affects the way people are cared for. Having a good job that provides good health care is the key, but like stated by Vernellia a lot of blacks don’t have good paying jobs that offer good health care, they either don’t have any or on public health care, which doesn’t cover much and what it does cover, doesn’ t grantee they proper heath care provider or health care choices. In fact, for blacks, racism is a primary factor. Even when you control for economics, blacks have poorer health. That is, middle-class blacks suffer poorer health than middle-class whites. In fact, middle-class whites live ten years longer than middle-class blacks, while poor whites live only three years longer than poor blacks. (Vernellia). Even though health care right now in the United States is becoming a big issue right now, the point is still clear that they have and have-nots are treated different. People who lack good insurance or insurance at all get the short end of the stick and get the â€Å"just to get you by† health care and health care providers, and most of these people are minorities. This is an issue that needs to be solved for many people are dying before their time just because they didn’t or don’t receive the best health care that is out there. Another big issue that has been hitting the news lately is another inequality here in the United States, and against another minority that a lot of people over look, the LBGT (Lesbian Bisexual, Gay, Transgender) community. These groups of people are normally looked over for their sexual orientation, or sexual preference. Most people over look this group because of some moral/religious views that they have about this group of people and then cast their discrimination upon them, which there for they are subject to is treated unfairly and unequal. As I did my research I came upon an article that was surprising to me, and was about the U. S military and how they deny veterans who are of the LBGT community their rightful benefits from being in the military. This was a shock to me for I know of the â€Å"Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy†, which I think is a disgrace to our country and our military, but to deny a person who put their life forward for a country and then not to receive their rightful benefits because of their sexual preference is ludicrous in my mind. For example: if a service member lives in a state where marriage (Massachusetts, California) or civil unions or domestic partnerships (New Jersey, Vermont, Washington, D. C. , etc. ) are available, they are prohibited by law from taking advantage of those legally recognized relationship statuses while still serving in the military (either on active duty or in the reserves) because of DADT. Once an LGB service member is discharged and becomes a veteran, he or she can marry, enter a civil union, or register as a domestic partner if the state so allows. However, because the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the federal government from recognizing these same sex relationships, spouses and partners of LGB veterans are denied access to death benefits, pension benefits, home loan assistance programs, medical benefits, the commissary, and any other benefits offered to heterosexual veterans. Hecht). That is just one of the unfair things that the U. S military upholds, you would think someone serving the U. S would have the same rights as their fellow heterosexual members have but they don’t. In the article they also mention the paying back of some benefits if military members were to â€Å"come out† to a commander that they will have to pay back all the funds given to them by the military and will receive a bill from the military. Like I mentioned while out country has come a long way, we still clearly have a long way to go. For this is one of the most discriminating things and error in our government, which is supposed to be for all people and not against its people. My research has proven that minority groups are still being treated unfair and unjust, and for many reasons. As we portray ourselves to be Americans and the land of the great American dream and opportunities for all. All are not granted the same things as others. Jobs, benefits, opportunities, education are all subjected to be taken away from the minority groups, which than lessen their success or goal of reaching that American dream, as they seek out to have one day. Our country us a melting pot and has always been that way from the being of time, we all learn from one another and should help one another. The founders’ of the Constitution wanted nothing more than for everyone to have the same opportunity to the joys of life and the joy of the American dream of being successful in life. While out country has come a long way we still have a ways to go, everyone is not equal, everyone is not assured to have the same benefits as other have, and it’s not right, and just like the suffrage movement, the civil right movements, and the movements that will take place in the future or that will occur in the present things have to be changed so that everyone has the same opportunity and benefits that everyone has, because as a American that is their right as a citizen of this wonderful country. References Institutional inequality denying benefits to lesbian, gay and bisexual veterans. Hecht, B Emily (2008) https://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=truedb=f5hAN=34796299site=ehost-live Inequality in healthcare is killing African Americans. Vernellia R. Randall (2000) https://search. ebscohost. com. ezproxy. apollolibrary. com/login. aspx? direct=truedb=f5hAN=47903159site=ehost-live* .