Race, Social Stratification & Ethnic Studies in Contemporary Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

The world we live in today has complicated human life, or is it the humans that have complicated the world we live in today? Well, with the current world, ethnic studies can find broad subject fields of study due to the ethnic issues within contemporary society. Of late, Social stratification has taken an important dimension in every event involving human beings. The society has been stratified based on race. From social to the economic and political sphere, lives have been subject of race in different manners (Clair and Jeffrey 857-863.) Racial discrimination has been observed in occurrences such as during football matches, job market, and even political careers. Why does a human being have to discriminate another due to their skin color though? Did God create different races or this thing of whites and blacks have been but just a human social construct? It is so astonishing that racism has been elevated to the extent that the white race is seen as superior to the black, something that has miraculously gotten into the blood of every generation.

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As presented by Structural racism, there is an aspect of white supremacy in every society and every practice (Lawrence and Terry Pp.5-24). Today, if a child is born to a black parent, for instance, it would not be a shock to see it staring at a white man as if they were a god that has fallen from the skies above.

Simply put, the phenomenon of white race superiority has become part of a psychological construct for every other race in existence. But the question is; where are the social revolutionists? What have they done since the creation of racism until now that it has taken new directions in everyday lives? Will it ever come to an end and leave the natural creation where everyone is either black or no one is black?

You will realize that discrimination may or may not come to an end depending on the rational decision regarding the same. If it is a social construct and it happens that in one way or another both races do not decide to end it, then it will grow brighter with every birth and eventually become an irreversible psychological disease (Lawrence and Terry Pp. 5-24). With such, no white race will be able to access the black man's land, and the blacks will never cross the seas out of Africa. How will people than living?

Before I bring ancient events such as colonialism and the slave trade in the topic of racism, I want to bring to emphasize the place of natural religion in social stratification issues. I am talking about the natural character that everyone is born with. I call it a natural religion because everyone is aware from deep within that no one is superior to the other, and that regardless of whether one is white, black or red, we all are human beings. This is a feeling that is commonly buried deep within everyone, and therefore the rest of the decisions are as a result of psychological conditioning, social construct, and natural pride.

I now bring to your attention the concept of racism as a manifest of social division in today's society. Racism has been in existence since the pre-colonial error all the way to the colonial period through the post-colonial era and to date, it still is a significant concern to everyone who sees it as inappropriate (Clair and Jeffrey 857-863). What really led the whites from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and other white countries to Africa? Was it because they thought that Africa was a vast land with no occupants except baboons, chimpanzees, and other wild animals? Was it even in their consideration that Africa was a continent with human beings equal to them in all means? No, they knew exactly what Africa was. A country where a cursed race lived. A race that knew nothing about technology, wealth and even the worth of their lives. No wonder they referred to Africans as monkeys. This is where it all started, the whites feeling so superior to the blacks then proceeding to take up their lands, mineral fields, and even their freedom.

Racism has been on the rise in the contemporary world despite the efforts by religious groups and social revolutionists such as Martin Luther King Jr. to fight racism. Racism has been a significant concern in the United States since the era of Martin Luther, who fought it until the government did away with him. In his "I have a dream," He cries for the black race and hopes that one day there will no longer be a black race and a white race, that everyone will be equal. (King Jr 1-6).

It has been observed in different open events such as soccer. It also has hidden elements in political and economic development attempts. For instance, why is it that the 'white countries' are richer than the 'black countries'? It is not purely because they are endowed with resources more than Africa, but because they have the element of "we own everything in this world," all this because they misuse the African race as they have done since the pre-colonial era. This I would call individual racism. A phenomenon that mixes so well with white supremacy, such that the people of color are not seen as much important.

We now try to blend Structural functionalist theories on racism and the white supremacy concept. Functionalist theory as explained by Emile Durkheim posits that for a race and ethnic relations to be functional and thereby contribute to harmony and stability of a society, racial and ethnic minorities have to assimilate themselves into the society. Assimilation of minority ethnic and racial groups necessitates that they adopt as much of the dominant race' culture and customs. The implication is that the minority race will abandon their culture and customs and adopt the way of governance of the dominant race, their language, mannerisms, and goals of success.

This theory is so applicable as this is the exact case in contemporary society. It is not just in contemporary society but it started way long ago when the whites exported their religion, education and western culture to the Africans. Due to the aspect of white supremacy, the blacks started giving up on their culture and adopted western elements such as eating mannerisms, dressing, government formation such as the adoption of western constitutions among other things.

The black race forgot their former religion and left their gods with nobody to worship them. Their shrines became lonely places and the traditional medicine was no longer of value to the blacks because they had found better medicine. This is a form of racism which I would term as functional racism as the black race have to leave their way of life so as to remain functional and relevant in the white-controlled world.

As I mentioned earlier, racism has been witnessed in the field of soccer and other games, something that has caused chaos in the dressing room and after-game cases. This starts with the presence of individual racism and prejudice within individuals coupled with race supremacy. The black soccer players have been severally booed by white fans during football matches despite the fact that the owners of the football organizations pledge loyalty to non-racism. For instance, Samuel Eto'o, Patrice Evra and Mario Balotelli are good examples that have been booed not once during football matches. The same has happened severally in athletics. Cases have been solved over and over again with the same events happening afresh every other time.

Racism is a serious problem in this field because fans cannot all be homogeneous and as so there must be a few elements who have inborn pride, feeling of superiority, prejudice and consequently, racism. Racism in this field has however been on the declining trend with almost every soccer club going for black race footballers.

Racism is also manifested in the economic and political sphere. Economic development and political power have been associated with the white countries. Given that country like the United States, Britain and China have an adequate resource endowment in terms of advancement in technology, capital base, and human capital have led to an increment in racism. For instance, brilliant black minds are taken hostage by the white nations by being offered jobs that they could not afford in Africa.

This is still as a result of black inferiority that has been socially constructed in the psychology of the African race that Africa is poor and therefore it is only by working overseas that can bring African families a better fortune. The result of this has been that Africa has always remained behind while its sons and daughters build the white man's countries. This to me is the racism of the highest order because Africa is deprived of its brilliant minds which could have helped build Africa.

The reason for my stand is that while investors in Africa practice profit repatriation. They come to Africa and invest, they use Africa as the market for their products and then they repatriate all the profits back to their countries. I am not saying that the whites are oppressing the blacks here, all I am saying is that the issue of white supremacy still lingers in the depths of most people either black or whites.

In as much as racism has contributed to the oppression of people in different societies, it has been coupled with the class stratification and gender discrimination. Anderson and Collins recently came up with the intersection perspective theory which sees racial discrimination as not strong enough to cause a polarization situation of such level as witnessed in contemporary society. They have combined racism, classism and gender segregation as the factors responsible for the dissociation of the society today.

According to these scholars, wherever anyone is located, there exists an element of race, class, and gender and therefore looking at only one of these would be a disguised case as race, gender and class are all have a casual-effect relationship and are therefore dependent on each other (Reich, Pp. 526).

I want to appreciate the efforts of governments and states, non-governmental organizations and individuals to expose and eradicate racism. It must have been realized that racism is a disease that takes people to kill one another for no good reason. The efforts to bring the world closer together have been done through organizations such as United Nations that brings warring nations together, regardless of the color of their people, establishment of a common International Criminal Court (ICC) so that no political leader feels superior to the other and also through common competitions such as world athletics and world cup football competitions. These are just but a few examples of efforts that have been advanced to bring people together through socialization. I would say that these methods have been working well, despite just a few hiccups which are again a common phenomenon if changes have to be indispensably successful.

It can take one a whole voluminous book to highlight cases of racism because such occurrences date back to the pre-colonial period when the slave trade was the order of the day and up to the current era where everyone knows their origin and the value of their natural riches, they still fall prey to such a vice. Furthermore, every race is the best in one field where the other race cannot win even for once. Again, the white and black races are equal in that they are all one creation.

Therefore, for those who have a slight belief in the existence of a bible, then they would know that white supremacy is nothing more than a bright color of the skin. Likewise, the black skin should be taken as an adaptive feature against the hot weather that the African continent experiences.

Symbolic interaction theory addresses the role of social interaction in reducing racism and ethnic discrimination. The theory also has something to say concerning the social construction of racism. We cannot talk about racism without...