Summary
As a result of numerous socio-cultural and scientific revolutions that took place throughout the 20th century, the attitude towards many social groups was revised by the collective majority. In the process of social revolution, the scientific community coined the word “marginalized” groups to describe people who do not fit into the standard perception of the normalized American. These people are devoid of the social benefits that are implied to be inalienable to ordinary citizens. The disadvantaged as a category can include various social groups that are distinguished according to different characteristics, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. The same and unifying principle for these groups is their relationship with the surrounding society, in which they are deprived of the basic conditions that are considered necessary for a comfortable existence. This is due to their opposition to the mainstream of American society, as a result of which disadvantaged groups are in the position of a minority, suppressed by the systemic reality of the collective majority. Having considered two different social groups that fit this characteristic, it becomes possible not only to trace the history of changes in the political and cultural landscape but also to critically comprehend it.
LGBTQ+ Rights: a History
The struggle for homosexuals and transgender for the right to express is long enough and can officially date back to the founding of the Human Rights Society, one of the oldest human rights organizations in America. This society was the first to openly support people with non-normative sexual orientations, and their book Friendship and Freedom was the first publication for homosexuals. Due to prolonged legislative pressure, this society was soon disbanded, but its appearance marked the beginning of the legal history of gay activism. This historical example seems indicative of demonstrating the pressure of the prevailing social forces over the groups marginalized by it. Subsequently, the fight against homosexuals was at the official level after the end of the post-war restoration (Portmann, 2018). During that time, thousands of people were fired from their jobs in government or military service. This was done because homosexuality was categorized as a mental illness that distorts the stable functioning of the psyche.
LGBTQ+ Struggle for Rights Now
More recently, in America, LGBT + activism continues to bear fruit, seeking to neutralize the attitude of the social majority towards their representatives. The empowerment of the transgender community deserves a separate mention here since, at the moment, the normative restrictions that exclude transgender people from a number of social practices are really neutralized. Toilet visits consistent with gender identity have become a separate issue here, as the Obama administration’s rule was overturned by the next President, Donald Trump. For four years, a schoolboy suffering from gender dysphoria Gavin Grimm fought the court for the right to visit the women’s toilet and won the case in 2020 (Meyer & Keenan, 2017). This example is illustrative to demonstrate how the concept of gender identity overcomes the limitations posed by normative representations of sex. This year, President Biden allowed transgender military personnel to join the army, stating that every qualified American can fulfill a duty to a country.
Native American Populations: an Overview
Native American populations experienced an unthinkable number of acts of oppression and violence throughout the 19th century and beyond. Historically, following President Jackson’s decree, the forced relocation of tens of thousands of Indians resulted in a staggering number of deaths. Genocide or ethnic cleansing has led to the murder of over 50 million indigenous people in America over the course of a century (Hackel, 2017). To this day, Native Americans are a socially vulnerable group of the American population since a complete reparation of the damage caused to these people seems to be still impossible.
Indigenous Populations’ Rights Today
The main problem that Native Americans face in modern society is their primordially distorted and biased cultural perception of them. Indians in modern society are exoticized, considered different, and in this regard, they distance themselves from the mainstream of American society. The answer to this misunderstanding may be the spread of cultural knowledge that would destroy stereotypes. Only by educating others, who usually voluntarily abandon new knowledge in the name of a stereotype, will it be possible to overcome prejudice against the indigenous population of America. The Native American Rights Foundation is a prime example of a Native American rights organization that preserves not only their culture but also their tribal natural resources.
Patriarchy and Homophobia
The concept of patriarchy implies that in the system of social order, it is men who determine the organization and arrangement of society. In it, males have the highest authority and social privileges, being in a dominant position over the rest of society. Through this concept, it seems possible to analyze the phenomenon of rejection of homosexuals and transgender people in American society. Same-sex relationships seem unacceptable in such a society, which can also be called heteropatriarchal in feminist theory. In such a system of social-hierarchical interactions, only a normative cisgender man can have an authoritative position. Thus, homophobia can be and is often one of the negative manifestations of patriarchal ideology.
Stratification and Indigenous People in the US
The concept of stratification in sociology is a designation similar to the notion of the distribution, arrangement, and distribution of elements and categories. Stratification means a division of society into social strata determined by particular signs and criteria. Speaking about the history of the indigenous peoples in the territory of the United States, it should be noted that from the very beginning of their interaction with the colonialists, they were socially marginalized and pushed to the bottom of the new social order. At the moment, their position is also different from the standard – according to the stratification system, they are at the bottom of the social pyramid in a number of parameters, such as income or types of activity.
Self-identity and LGBTQ+
It would be interesting to consider the struggle of the LGBTQ + community for equality from the perspective of the concept of self-identification. This theoretical development of perceiving a person is included in the process of constant self-reflection on the subject of their personality. A person is always aware of who they are in the process of how they become someone. The fluidity of gender inherent in transsexual culture receives an original reading through the theory of self-identity since it is thus a stage in the process of knowing oneself and one’s own formation. Therefore, it is important to support these social groups since, otherwise, they are marginalized, and there is a risk of loss of social identification or discrimination.
Functionalism and Indigenous People
Through the theory of functionalism, in particular, developed by the famous sociologist Emile Durkheim, one should carefully consider the current state of the indigenous peoples of America. Functionalism seeks to view society as something that is not in a state of conflict but in a constant striving for unity. The conflict between societies arose due to the lack of common goals and the desire to possess one certain image of the future. The behavior of the settlers turned out to be dictated by two attitudes revealed by Durkheim – selfishness and belief in moral values. Dominance over the indigenous population is due to the desire for enrichment and missionary belief in the truth of their own value system. In modern reality, indigenous peoples find themselves on the fringes of society precisely because of this massive trauma inflicted by English-speaking society. We can say that the indigenous population is a separate society striving to preserve the remaining areas of their culture.
References
Hackel, S. W. (2017). An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian catastrophe, 1846–1873. Journal of American History, 104(2), 502–503, Web.
Meyer, E. J., & Keenan, H. (2017). Can policies help schools affirm gender diversity? A policy archaeology of transgender-inclusive policies in California schools. Gender and Education, 30(6), 736-753. Web.
Portmann, J. (2018). Women and gay men in the postwar period. Bloomsbury Publishing.