Introduction
Social inequality refers to uneven distribution of resources based on factors such as race, gender, wealth, and religion among others. This situation leads to favoritism, which obstructs fair allocation of resources to people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds.
Primarily, social inequality occurs in societies that experience racial and ethnic distinctiveness in terms of skin color, physical attributes, origin, and/or culture. This essay provides an overview of social inequality by examining how racial segregation has resulted in uneven attainment of education amongst the black and white students in America.
Social Inequality and Uneven Educational Distribution
Social differences occur when people split along racial lines that lead to development of various social hierarchies. Eventually, social hierarchies lead to conflicts that lead to formation of majority and minority classes in the society. Social inequality has a greatly influenced the distribution of resources in the American society.
Particularly, educational resources have been unevenly distributed amongst American students due to social distinctions that are based on color, race, and ethnicity. The majority class has created a culture of favoritism that has resulted in suffering amongst people of the minority class (Carson 28).
In the United States, social inequality is significantly pronounced in the education sector. Racial inequality has been rampant in the American schools. The blacks, who form the minority group, are alienated from the whites, who comprise the majority group. Although this situation has gradually changed, schools that are meant for both blacks and whites face discrimination challenges. This state of affairs has affected the quality of education of the black children owing to educational bias (Carson 25).
A survey that was conducted by Bazelon reveals that the performance of white students who attend the white schools has been higher than the performance of the black children who attend less privileged schools (2). Segregation in schools has profoundly led to emergence of psychological effects amongst the black students. As a result, their grades are lower than the grades of the white students (Bazelon 3).
Bazelon proposes that social integration is crucial for leveraging the use of educational resources in a society that has experienced social segregation for many decades (2). The assimilation of children to different schools by considering the number of black students in each district has served as a workable plan to address the problem.
This strategy involves fair distribution of black and white students amongst the schools in each district. This situation has significantly improved racial integration; hence, mixing students of different colors and origin is likely to bring about equality in the American society (Bazelon 3).
Krugman posits that the white community has a superior influence on the goings-on of the American society than the influence of minority group; hence, it possesses dominant power to control important matters that affect the society (1). The actions of the majority group on the society can determine the future of the society by swaying the opinions of the minority groups (Krugman 2).
Conclusion
The above analysis shows that racial segregation is a crucial strategy than can be geared towards the attainment of even education amongst the blacks and the whites. It is evident that inequality affects a society in diverse ways. Superior groups enjoy better educational resources than the inferior groups by tapping the best opportunities and controlling the key societal matters.
On the contrary, the minority group is deemed to suffer psychological consequences because of diminished resources and deprivation of their rights to gain access to satisfying educational facilities. Nonetheless, coherent educational systems that offer equal opportunities to students will have a profound implication on the degree of societal cohesion.
Works Cited
Bazelon, Emily. The Next Kind of Generation. New York, NY: The New York Times Company, 2008. Print.
Carson, Clayborne. “Two Cheers for Brown vs Board of Education.” Journal of American History 91.1(2004): 26-31. Print.
Krugman, Paul. We are the 99.9%, 2011.