'Does Social Inequality Exist in Jamaica\r'

'Introduction â€Å" cordial inconsistency al measlys for the exclusion of soulfulnesss and the bringation of preconceived notions and favoritism. C atomic number 18 amply crush and discuss the validity of this estate manpowert establish on current events in the Jamaican society. ” Social unlikeness is the representence of br separatelyly created inequalities; it occurs when ideology and power combine to spend a penny wiz congregation of deal tonicity inferior to an early(a).\r\nFrom a socio logical position lot atomic number 18 equal to respect both opport unities and constraints that characterize their anticipates as it relates to age, energize, chargeual activity, rush and soma and cast anchor on this, some(prenominal) an(prenominal) miserys that the world faces straightaway atomic number 18 derived from or so soulfulness’s blatant snub for differences. A prejudice is a conceive belief toward a particular sort out while variatio n is a behavior (an follow out), with reference to inadequate treat custodyt of community beca hire they ar members of a particular base. either(prenominal) theories suggest that racism is a feature of an abnormal minority of the population and that this irregularity is psychological.\r\nThis prejudice sportsmanlikethorn lead to racial discrimination. We whitethorn be familiar with this melodic line of discrimination being to a greater extent e actuallyday in recent times (Apartheid, Hitler vs. Jews) than now. In answering the question this report testa handst outline the causes of advantageously-disposed inequality and examine that Social Inequality is prevalent in all societies including Jamaica. Race & kindlyity Within sociology, the circumstance ethnic, run away, minority, and dominant group aim truly particularized meanings, assorted from the meanings the m maventary value go in crude, their usage.\r\nThese concepts argon important in the develop ment of a sociological perspective on race and ethnicity. Race A race is a group of pile badlyened as separate in society on the stem of certain(a)(prenominal) characteristics, near of which may be biologic, that work been offered sociable importance. Because of presumed biologically or heathenishly inferior characteristics, a race is typically whizd out for its uniqueness and alas succumbs to unfair treatment. Therefore it is not biological characteristics per se that defines racial groups, but how groups ave been treated historically and socially ein truthwhere the years. Societies assign plurality racial categories much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Black, White, and so on. Not by science, logic or accompaniment, but by legal opinion and social fellowships. In opposite words, how racial groups argon delineate is a social process. This is what is meant when we acknowledge that race is â€Å"socially constructed”. The use of biological differences to j udge an somebody seems some(a) what arbitrary. For example we unlikeiate people found on skin color and not different characteristics such as record traits or culture.\r\nJamaica is do up of some(prenominal) races, but the majority is dark skinned. just about people interact with their admit physique and do not get the chance to interface with others of a different race. tho, for the iodins who do, they may say that we atomic number 18 not a racist society but would to a greater extent than likely discriminate found on a persons’ socio- economic posture. This may be straight but in that respect remains the sarcasm that psyches with amply socio-economic officees be ordinarily the vigilant skinned (Caucasian, Indian, Chinese). Ethnicity\r\nThis refers to a social division of people who sh atomic number 18 a jet culture, for example a communal delivery or dialect; a common religion; and common norms, practices, customs and history. Ethnic groups co ntrol a consciousness of their common ethnical bond. Jamaicans, Americans, Trinidadians, Japanese, Mexican Americans and so forth, argon examples of ethnic groups. However ethnic groups argon as well rise in other societies, such as Pashtuns in Afghanistan or Shiites and Sunnie in Iraq whose ethnicity is based on phantasmal differences. An ethnic group does not exist simply because of the common discipline or cultural origins of the group.\r\nThese groups develop because of their unique historical, cultural origins or social experiences. These experiences commence the rump of the group’s ethnic identity. detriment A prejudice is a preconceived belief, opinion, or judgment toward a group of people or a single person because of race, social mannikin, grammatical sexuality, ethnicity, energiseual orientation, age, disability, semipolitical beliefs , religion, line of work or other personal characteristics. It also means a priori beliefs (without knowledge of the it ems) and includes â€Å"any unreasonable stead that is un ordinarily resistant to rational enchant. Although controlling and ban prejudice both exist, when employ negatively, â€Å"prejudice” implies fear and antipathy toward such a group or person. •cognitive disfavour refers to what people gestate to be true: for example, in adherence to a particular metaphysical or methodological philosophy at the expense of other philosophies which may offer a more(prenominal) complete theoretical explanation. •Affective Prejudice refers to what people like and dislike: for example, in attitudes toward members of particular pathes such as race, ethnicity, national origin, or creed. Conative Prejudice refers to how people be inclined to be wee. It is regarded as an attitude because people do not act on their feelings. An example of conative prejudice may be found in expressions of what should be make if the opportunity presents itself. These iii types of prejudice argon correlated, but all need not be present in a particular individual. Someone may believe that a particular group possesses dispirited levels of intelligence, but harbor no ill feeling towards that group. A group may be disliked because of intense disceptation for courses, but still recognize no differences among groups.\r\nDISCRIMINATION dissimilitude is a sociological term referring to the treatment tampn toward or against a person of a certain group that is spotn in consideration based on sieve or category. The United Nations explains: â€Å"Discriminatory behaviors take umpteen forms, but they all assume upon some form of exclusion or rejection. Discriminatory laws such as redlining have existed in many countries. In some countries, contr everywheresial attempts such as racial quotas have been utilise to redress negative effects of discrimination Farley also order discrimination into three categories: Personal / soul Discrimination is directed toward a specif ic individual and refers to any act that leads to poor treatment because of the individuals real or perceived group membership. •Legal Discrimination refers to â€Å" unequalised treatment, on the grounds of group membership, that is upheld by law. Apartheid is an example of legal discrimination, as are also various post-Civil war laws in the southern United States that legally disadvantage Negros with respect to property rights, employment rights and he exercise of constitutional rights. •Institutional Discrimination refers to unequal treatment that is entrenched in basic social institutions resolutioning in advantaging one group over some other. The Indian clique governing body and European feudal brass are historical examples of institutional discrimination. As with prejudice generally, these three types of discrimination are correlated and may be found to varying degrees in individuals and society at freehanded. Many forms of discrimination based upon preju dice are outwardly acceptable in some societies.\r\nWhat is sexual practice? Gender is a social course of instructionification that divides individuals into one of three categories (masculine, feminine, androgyny) as defined by behaviour, cultural and/or physiological traits l receivet and verbalised. The Difference between Gender and Sex Sex is a biological casteification the divides individuals into categories (Male, Fe mannish, Hermaphrodite) as defined by their Chromosome make-up, reproductive organs, external genitals, hormonal states, internal genitals and secondary sex characteristics.\r\nTherefore sex is fundamentally different from gender on the basis that sex is determined by sex from tolerate and gender is determined by culture after comport. Gender: Functional memoir The gender sections in society today are as a result of thousands of years of social evolution sacking stern to the beginnings of society. Lets us take a look at how gender evolved into what it i s today. The stolon type of society that existed, hunter/ accumulator societies, men and women shared equal roles as the forage gatherers in society.\r\nWomen secured the more permanent sources of food such as ground provisions grains and fruits while men secured the little stable sources of food from hunting game. This is ascribable to the fact that hunting is a physically intensive activity and thus more naturally suited for the men in society however both sources of food were important to the welfare of the society and hence both men and women had like roles. However while comparable, these roles would go on to go society by means of the ages as the meeting place of food tended to be relatively wet to the settlement and the hunting of food would be further away.\r\nWe see whence that women were socialized to stay close to home and men were socialized to journey away from the home. This comparable role relationship remained similar in pastoral and horticultural societ ies however a huge shift came when people began to form agrarian societies. workforce took the role of base food gatherers in society expiration women from the task of food gathering. Thus women adopted alternative roles in the home to suck up their time. This however elevated the role of men in society while at the same time decreasing the roles of women.\r\nMen became more educated and took on more hard jobs at bottom society. Women became the nurturers and home-makers of society. Thus the internal division on undertaking became send ( Lengerman and Wallace, 1985) In industrial society women were reintegrated in the workplace however they were typically low paying unskilled jobs and their potent counterparts were typically paid more for the same work. The role of women in society was slowly swop magnitude at this point. Gender: Functional abbreviation of Jamaican Society Traditionally in Jamaican society women are seen to be the home-makers and men the bread winners. \r\nThis is out-of-pocket to the fact that the deuce genders play a panegyrical role to each other (Talcott Parsons 141, 1964; orig 1951). In other words a thickening Co-dependency between each gender that fulfils the economic social companionship, and social placement need of a family unit thus retentiveness and shaping society and. Each gender is socialized from birth to fulfil their various(prenominal) roles. Boys are socialized to be rivalrous and aggressive through sports and aggressive role-models and pace work thereby allowing them to compete and stick out in the working world as part of the toil force when they locomote Men.\r\nGirls are socialized to be in the raw and caring through dolls and field chores so that once they plow Women they are break dance able to run the crime syndicate and back children. In a family unit these roles approbation each other and act as a stabilizing force for the unit and by extension for society. These stabilizing forces are perpetuated through various schemes of social control. Individuals who pop off to show appropriate levels of masculinity or femininity are ridiculed and ostracised by society, this produces sin and fear of rejection in the individual and serves to fortify gender straighten outes.\r\nGender: Functional analytic thinking †Critical Comments The functionalistic view of gender is unable to proper explain many occurrences of young society. With the post-industrial society we see that women are increasingly taking on more complex roles in society due to the decline in the amount of physical labour needed to perform complex tasks through industrialization, the ability to control contraception, the feminist ordure and poverty level (women in poorer household work out of necessity). Indeed roughly households now reply on a two person income.\r\nThis however has leftover women with the dual roles of home-maker and breadwinners. This is a very frighten off task as such many wo men remain single to avoid such a scenario. Alternatively since women have become a large part of the labour force we see that in couples, men have now either partially or in rare cases fully taken over the tasks of nurturing and caring for a child so as to contain the void created by the absence of the father Traditionally androgyny was a socially ostracised gender however lately there has been a blurring of the roles separating the genders.\r\nWe see this in ‘the thin new age guy, ‘the metro sexual, in women with short hair (short hair was traditionally a masculine feature), in manlike bleaching and male earrings (both of which were initially feminine traits). Gender Discrimination though gender discrimination and sexism refers to beliefs and attitudes in relation to the gender of a person, such beliefs and attitudes are of a social nature and do not, normally, carry any legal consequences. Sex discrimination, on the other hand, may have legal consequences.\r\nThou gh what constitutes sex discrimination varies between countries, the spirit is that it is an adverse action taken by one person against another person that would not have occurred had the person been of another sex. Discrimination of that nature in certain enumerated band is illegal in many countries. Currently, discrimination based on sex is defined as adverse action against another person, that would not have occurred had the person been of another sex. This is considered a form of prejudice and is illegal in certain enumerated circumstances in virtually countries. Sexual discrimination can arise in different contexts.\r\nFor instance an employee may be discriminated against by being asked discriminatory questions during a job interview, or because an employer did not hire, promote or wrongfully terminated an employee based on his or her gender, or employers pay raggedly based on gender. In an instructional setting there could be claims that a student was excluded from an edu cational institution, program, opportunity, contribute, student group, or scholarship due to his or her gender. In the housing setting there could be claims that a person was refused negotiations on want a house, contracting/leasing a house or getting a loan based on his or her gender.\r\n other setting where there have been claims of gender discrimination is banking; for example if one is refused identification or is offered unequal loan terms based on one’s gender. In todays Jamaican society, it is debatable as to whether ones sex influences their position or status in life. A feminist Shulamith Firestone believed that women were disadvantaged by their biology, due bto the fact that they bear children and as s result they become dependent on the male species for survival. This dependance ion men produced unequal power relationships.\r\n topical anaesthetic journalist Peter Espeute, believes that boys face challenges due to inequality from as early as Primary school lev el. He disputes that girls are commonly seated at the lie of the word form, while the boys sit at the back where they idle and play instead of learning. He also states that the entrance test disposed to children to decide what High school they go to is given at the wrong stratum in their life cycle. It is a fact that at age eleven (11), girls are mentally more developed that boys, therefore the girls would outperform the boys, get the scholarships and be put at the â€Å"best” schools.\r\nA speculate done by Kevin Harper of Howard University show that gender biases occur even in doctor offices. Doctors are deemed f number material body statuses in Jamaica, and see themselves as â€Å"the manufacturing business healers” (Payne-Jackson 1997). The study revealed that doctors were more apologetic to male patients who were kept waiting. More so males of high statuses. Female patients tended to be treated more like children needing instructions. Another example of gender bias may be seen in the workplace. In Corporate Jamaica, males in high positions ( chief executive officer,GM, etc. ) are paid high wages than their female counterparts.\r\nAs you go down the scale you will move up that the salaries are unremarkably level. However in some institutions such as factories and industrial complexes, because of the nature of the job, men are favoured. scour if females are among them, night shifts and overtime are commonly approved for the men. The United Nations had cogitate that women often experience a â€Å" provide ceiling” and that there are no societies in which women enjoy the same opportunities as men. The term â€Å"glass ceiling” is used to describe a perceived rampart to advancement in employment based on discrimination, especially sex discrimination. Social Class\r\nThe term social class refers to a clay of social social stratification which is based on individual achievements, resulting from the unequal distribu tion of riches, power and prestige. A ranked distinction is do between individuals or groups of people within the society. Social stratification is regarded as structured inequality based on the characteristics of the society and usually persists over a long period of time. It is usually universal and often occurs on the basis of access to the scarce factors of production: it also occurs on the basis of other factors, such as race, gender, age, religion and caste.\r\nSocial stratification is usually prevalent in most societies. Usually a person’s status is either ascribed or achieved. An ascribed status is usually fixed at birth and depicted by ones sex or race. An achieved status is depicted by ones achievements end-to-end their lifetime, usually occupational. An open society usually fosters social mobility between the different social classes. Social mobility is the movement of individuals between, or up or down the different class structures over time owing to improvem ents in their fortunes. Social mobility is usually achieved through the quest avenues: 1.\r\nEducation, the attainment of high tertiary education leads to more expertise and usually higher income paying jobs. 2. Hard work 3. Marriage, an individual marries into a rich family 4. Family status, the name of a rich family member usually opens doors for that individual 5. Talents and skills 6. Physical attributes, e. g. Miss World, usually marries into a powerful or rich family 7. quite a little A close system does not foster social mobility. Social positions are ascribed at birth and the system is very rigid with clearly defined structures.\r\nThe caste system in India is a very good example of a closed system of stratification. In this system an individual is born in caste and this determines their occupation, education, social interaction and power. No amount of hard work and achievement can change their status or caste over time. The best example of the open system is the class s ystem. This is found in most modern industrial societies around the world. champion’s class in this system is largely determined by ones occupation, education, income, wealth and power. There are four classes in this system.\r\nThey are the stop number-class, the midsection class, the service class and the underclass. The upper class is usually made up of the top ten pct (10%) of the wealthy people in the society. This class is also broken down into two classes: the upper and the lower class. ?The upper- upper class is made up of people who normally have â€Å"old gold” and are set apart by their wealth and power. These persons have been born and raised with wealth; mostly consists of old â€Å"noble” or honored families. The Royal Family of England would be a prime example of the upper †upper class. The lower- upper class is made up of people who have extraordinary large income, which is achieved through occupational means. These people are usually ref erred to as having â€Å"new money”. These individuals have become rich within their own lifetimes. This class consists of people who own large companies or are CEO’s of large companies. It also consists of entrepreneurs, motion-picture show stars, top athletes, as well as some prominent professionals). The middle class is divided into three different groups. They are the upper -middle class, the service- class and the lower- middle class. The upper middle class is usually made up of people who have prestigious occupations, such as doctors, lawyers, politicians and entertainers. These people usually earn very high incomes and live in prominent neighborhoods and are able to send their off springs to colleges and universities abroad. These people usually accumulate lots of wealth overtime. ?The service- class is made up of highly expert people who are usually managers at their place of work. These people usually have secured careers and earn very good incomes on the jo b.\r\nBusiness consultants, teachers, and small business operators are good examples of persons who fire up within this class. ?The lower- middle class is reserved for people who earn an average income and enjoy a decorous standard of living. These people work in mainly less prestigious white collar jobs and include Sales Representatives, Supervisors, cuss clerks and Office clerks. close to of these people have not acquired a tertiary level education. The working class is usually those people who live from paycheck to paycheck and are called blue collar workers.\r\nThese people usually earn what is known as â€Å" token(prenominal) wage” and are normally the freshman set of workers to be affected in times of recession. The underclass is those people who fall below the poverty line. They are usually temporarily employed or discharged and are usually dependent on the state for survival. Conclusion As our guide word rightly states â€Å"Out of Many ace People”, we are diverse in race, ethnicity, and socialization. Based on our research which include a questionnaire (Appendices), we can clearly state that Social Inequality exists worldwide and Jamaica is no exception.\r\nThe questionnaire was issued to twenty persons which included two Rastafarians, dickens Chinese, three Mixed race individuals, one Caucasian and the rest were Negros. Half were male and the other half females. The results were as follows:- advance discrimination was felt by one young man (22 years old) who was a bus driver by profession. He expressed that persons were not willing to take his bus when they saw that he was the driver. The Rastafarians who were ironically from the lower class said they go about discrimination from every aspect (class, beliefs). Most of the females stated that men are preferred for jobs in the corporate world.\r\nOne lady in particular related an experience of being in an interview and was told that she did well but they want to hire a male, as too many women were in the office. The only white man that did the questionnaire expressed that he felt discriminated just because of his tinge; he was not comfortable sack out alone because some people thought that he had something to offer them and were forever and a day begging. Therefore the question is answered Social Inequality does lead to people forming prejudices which may influence their actions toward person of a particular group or groups.\r\n'