Racial Inequality: Contemporary Issue and its Historical Roots (Essay Sample)

Racial Inequality
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Course Date
Question One A
Racial inequality has been a major issue all over the world. Many see it as categorizing various races according to their biology make up. People are commonly categorized according to their physical appearances and the race naturalness seems quite obvious to many people. This concept reflects a major misunderstanding about classifications of races. Race belongs to the social category rather than biological category. While classifications of race in general use biological traits that are inherited as a classification criterion, how these traits are translated and treated is defined not by biology but by social conventions. In the United States for example, a person is referred to as ‘Black’ if they are of the African ancestry. Classifications of people into races leads to them been treated different, thus race inequality occurs. Intense debate has risen in regards to understanding the reasons for current inequality in race. There are various reasons that have been brought forward including personal, genetics and even backwardness of the minority. Many argue that the interaction of discrimination in race and poverty can somehow explain disparities seen currently (Snipp, 2016).
Question One B
Racial inequality connects to the theme of inequality studied in contemporary issues. It is a very sensitive issues that affects each and every single person regardless of their race. Racial inequality has been there for a very long time now. Despite there been measures to try to control it, there has not been much progress. People may not speak about it now because it is not as much as it used to but there is still so much that needs to be done.
Question Two
In an article written by Carolyn Johnson, she argued that minorities in America were likely to be discriminated against even in the hospitals. According to her, Hispanics and Blacks were likely to spend more time waiting to be attended to as compared to the White (Johnson, 2015). In her article, she suggests that the minority are likely to die out of preventable diseases and diseases that can be adequately managed like diabetes due to the fact that they are treated with no respect in public and private hospitals. For a very long time in United States, Blacks and other minorities have been treated like second class citizens. This is due to the historic events that took place in the 1800s where Blacks were sold as slaves to White people. The mentality that they are only there to work and their opinion does not matter has been passed done to generations. In Africa, some races are considered superior than others. A case in mind is that of South Africa, where Whites for a very long time oppressed Blacks. There have also been cases where people kill each other due to difference in race especially in East and Central Africa. Therefore, the race problem is not unique to the United States only.
Question Three
When settlers from Europe came to America, they met the Indians who were the indigenous population and they had control over economic resources like land. From the very beginning genocide and displacement were the ways used in dealing with conflicts that rose in regards to this resource. Over time, the Indians were suppressed and became the minority due to this. By the end of the 19th century, Native Americans had been displaced and were only confined to what were known as the Indian Reservations (Feagin, 2014).
It is known that most of the Blacks living in America today with African ancestors are the descendants of people who were sold as slaves to the White Americans. Those days, these slaves were treated as property and had no say, their masters would even kill them as punishment and nothing was done to them by authorities. After the Civil War slavery was abolished, however that did not mean that racial oppression ...