The patterns of human relationships have now become one of the major subjects for scholarly discussion due to the researchers’ ambition to establish a theoretical basis for this communication. In order to achieve this, sociologists examine all the precedents to human behavior in certain settings and divide them into various categories, which later form sociological paradigms. However, out of all approaches established today, there is no theory or concept that would exhaustively justify human social behavior. The dissonance between the ideas and real-time actions is especially vivid in the context of the modern US society driven by multiculturalism and capitalistic values. Hence, the major aim of the following paper is to examine recent media representations of social stratification across the state as well as to conduct a contrastive analysis of this precedent in relation to existing sociological concepts.
Over the last decade, the US has become an extremely controversial state in terms of social justice and equality. However, 2020 can be marked as an absolute leader in terms of social inequality display. Recently initiated anti-racist protests have served as a catalyst for further racism patterns investigation in the state. As a result, it was found that the US, a seemingly democratic and diversity-celebrating state, has been humiliating African-Americans’ rights and freedoms for decades. Thus, as one of the most unbiased papers in the state, The New York Times has issued many resonant articles over the last month. One such article, called “The black-white wage gap is as big as it was in 1950,” displayed the statistical data of the wage gap between black and white employees and unemployment rate across the US for the last seventy years (Leonhardt, 2020). The situation represented in the article describes the dissonance between the wage gap data introduced to the vast majority of the population and the actual numbers existing in the labor market nowadays.
The story itself involves both the black and white working-class population, which already creates the dissonance presupposing that there should be no such division in the first place. Being a national issue, the income difference between Americans reflects upon a much bigger issue – the rate of African Americans’ incarceration rate and limited access to the labor market. The statistical data to illustrate the root of the issue represents the contrastive analysis of the wage gap over the last seventy years, including the data of institutionalized and out-of-labor black men. Hence, the following situation is a prime example of social stratification existing in the US social class system nowadays, requiring a more meticulous analysis in terms of sociological paradigms.
Assessment
To begin with, in order to apply sociological paradigms to the existing and thriving issue of ethnic inequality, it is important to define which theoretical approach would exhaustively refer to the notion of racism. One of the most extensive catalysts to social inequality is the genesis of capitalism, marked by Karl Marx’s ideas (Chambliss & Eglitis, 2018). With the Americans’ adherence to the capitalistic model of governance and lifestyle, national authorities seem to perceive the idea that “there is no profit where there is equality” literally. As a result, society has been mostly driven by the social conflict paradigm, aimed at finding differences between social groups instead of focusing on the things in common. In fact, the basic principles of the theory are quite applicable to the existing issue, as the elites and those in power will do everything to remain in charge. However, the cruelty behind the idea has nowadays become difficult to be justified by a plain conflict.
Closely correlated with the notion of social conflict theory, the sociological paradigm of the US labor aspect is driven by the peculiarities of capitalism and the service economy. Whereas the former presupposes a free market that evokes healthy competition among the business units, today’s national environment is steadily turning into a monopoly. Such an issue is closely related to the problems discussed in the article, as the thriving of monopoly leads to an increasing rate of white privilege in the labor force, limiting African Americans’ abilities. Hence, it is the number of flaws tackling the capitalistic model that currently matters. Speaking of the service economy, emotional labor required behind the notion is nowadays quite limited in terms of access despite the increasing demand in the segment (Chambliss & Eglitis, 2018). Today’s perception of service economy leads to a great deal of discrimination against ethnically diverse US populations, as employers tend to “label” workers of different cultures and ethnicities according to the socially established bias.
Another sociological aspect that contributes a lot to the aforementioned issue is the concept of symbolic interactionist paradigm. Certain symbols, serving as the fundamentals of the individualistic environment perception, have shaped the Americans’ attitudes to various social groups and separate people (Chambliss & Eglitis, 2018). Such an outcome was mostly developed through media representation and various educational tools. Hence, in terms of the aforementioned stratification case, the employment rate and overall economic image of African Americans were highly influenced by people’s interactions with the symbols displayed.
When dealing with racism in the context of the US labor system, one should, by all means, develop the concept of life chances available for African Americans in the state. Over the past years, with rapidly growing education quality and resources, employers across the country have started to raise their expectations from the workers. Such requirements were also justified by the increasing wage rates among the workplaces. However, in such situations, it is the average life chances data that defines the expectations in the first place. When talking about African Americans, the vast majority of the population still has no access to quality education and a healthy environment.
Moreover, if to look back at today’s attitude to African Americans in terms of social life, it becomes clear that while this social group is exposed to such amount of public pressure and prejudice, their life chances will be limited. It was shown in the article that due to high incarceration rates, the part of which was mostly caused by cultural bias, African Americans do not have the opportunity to qualify for wages increase (Leonhardt, 2020). Hence, the sociological issue of inequality across the US requires much effort in terms of combating the roots of the problem shaped over centuries. In the context of the current wage gap between African and white Americans, the sociological concept of social conflict paradigm, capitalism and service economy, symbolic interactionist paradigm, and life chances were defined as crucial for the situation. However, these concepts only form the tip of an iceberg called “racism in the United States.”
Although the article’s major message bears significant sense concerning the issue of inequality across the state, some of the author’s cultural assumptions might be considered biased. When dealing with the wage gap between the working social groups, there is an impression of the author’s sympathetic attitude to the African Americans’ current economic and social state, whereas all they need is equality and respect. In the context of the 21st century, such perception may be considered prejudiced. However, both the newspaper’s and the author’s representation of the article was marked as “opinion,” which basically leaves the final word to the recipient and his/her point of view on the existing problem. The ideology of race, being a central subject of the discussion, is supportive of the currently widespread status quo of anti-racist policy. Speaking of the major gist of the article, it is important to mention that the text does not express a personal attitude to the situation, being rather an analytical article. However, when it comes to sociological issues of such significance and nationwide scope, journalism dispassion might be as well seen as a biased position.
Conclusion
Racial inequality within the US society has become old news over the last decades of systematic discrimination and injustice. In order to address the issue in the context of the latest events, The New York Times journalist D. Leonhardt published an article on the wage gap between black and white employees across the state. In the course of the discussion, the issue was regarded from the perspective of capitalism, social conflict, life chances, and symbolic interaction, resulting in the strong need for more serious intervention in the issue. Hence, while it is of crucial importance to highlight the major inequality issues in the state, more dedication to the subject should be displayed in order for people to realize the scope of the stratification.
References
Chambliss, W. J., & Eglitis, D. S. (2018). Discover sociology (4th ed.). Sage.
Leonhardt, D. (2020). The black-white wage gap is as big as it was in 1950. Web.