What is Social Inequality Essay Example

article by Steele & Aronson (1995). They examined the effects a stereotype threat may have on the intellectual test performance of the African-American population. In any scenario, the students affiliated to the African-American race perform an exclusively intellectual or scholastic task; they are highly susceptible to unfair judgment of society constructed negative stereotype of suspicion about the competence and intellectual ability of their racial background. The self-threat the stereotype threat causes through a variety of mechanisms can embed intellectual functioning of the effected students especially when performing standardized tests. Overtime, as the threat persists, it may pressurize the students to dis-identify themselves with school performance as well as other related achievements in a bid to gain a sense of self-protection.

The urban underclass on the other hand is the population deemed to occupy the lowest position possible within the urban class hierarchy. The level is usually way below the core of the working class. The problems associated with the urban underclass have their roots in social inequality and most particularly, structural racism. This is true even considering Jencks & Peterson (2001)’s article “The urban underclass”, that posits that in spite of the disproportionate representation of the backs in the urban underclass, inner-city joblessness is largely caused by racism and discrimination. In an effort to explore the meaning of ethnicity and race to the selected employers at Chicago, the article reveals that employers perceive the inner-city employees who are mostly blacks as unstoppable, dishonest, uncooperative and with little education. Therefore, race was a determining factor that informed hiring decisions for the employers at Chicago business area and therefore, useful in analyzing the concept of the urban underclass.

In

conclusion, the video and the two articles analyzed demonstrated how social inequality through racism is so rife in the society. The two concepts of stereotype threat and the urban underclass clearly demonstrate how social inequality affects our ability to trust our judgment that we are part of society. While the stereotype threat contributes to the deviance performance in academics and other associated areas of achievement, the urban underclass fails to live up to their full potential.

References

1. Jencks, C., & Peterson, P. E. (Eds.). (2001). The urban underclass. Brookings Institution Press.
2. Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of personality and social psychology, 69(5), 797.