Racial Discrimination Essay

The scene of ghettosThe with poor living conditions of the ghettos in whichwhere black people live is not uncommon. , Iit actually manifests a larger picture of racial discrimination which is closely related to poverty. Racial discrimination is about the pre-conceived notion that black people are inferior; they are more prone to violence and totally relianty on social welfare to survive. As a result of these stereotypical images, black people receive low quality education and they will have less job opportunities, not to mention the limited access to the welfare system. In this essay, we shall discuss whether racial discrimination causes poverty among this minority community in America. Racial discrimination undoubtedly appears in the education system in AmericaAmerica’s education system, as Gordon, Piana and Keleher (2000) points out that the public schools in America failed to provide the same quality education for the blacks compared to the whites. In minority schools where African American and Latino are concentratedthere is a concentration of African-Americans and Latinos, there are limited resources and professionally trained teachers for students. Tthis phenomenon conveys that resources are unevenly distributed among schools as a result of racism. Besides resources and quality of teachers, there is a higher rate of suspension and expulsion for black people, as suggested in the search by Applied Research Center for Expose Racism and Advance School Excellence, suspension and expulsion rate is three times higher for African AmericanAfrican-Americans, with the rate of 56% compared to 18% of general school population. This may be due to the unfairness in treating the treatment of black people in the case of zero-tolerance policies such as the Gun-Free School Act (GFSA) enacted in 1994. It is important to note that schools expel African AmericanAfrican-American students at a disproportionate rate compared to white studentsstudents, as schools seem to have a convenient reason to expel the â€Å"unwanted† students. This clearly illustrates how such kind of policpoliciesy aggravates existing disparities in the education system. Uneven distribution of wealth is also a major problem, causing poverty among black people. It is suggested that due to racial segregation and a controlled political environment by white people, black people usually find it difficult to assimilate themselves into the labor force and civil society (Ducan, 1999). In the U. S. , per capita income of the whites is almost five times more than that of the blacks, which clearly illustrates the serious problem of a widening wealth gap between these twodifferent racial groups. The findings from Mean Racial Wealth Gap across 181 U. S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas shows that the standard deviation of wage between the blacks and the whites is the highest in among comparison toof different racial groups such as Latinos and white people and Asians and white people. , Iit clearly points out that the most severe wealth gap exists between black and white people. However, upward mobility is restricted for the black blacks as they face racial discrimination in the process of hiring and firing. Only about half of working-age black men are employed, compared to two-thirds of white men, but even if black menpeople are employed, they are usually engaged in low-paid jobs so that they can barely affordsupport their daily expenses. It is likely that black people are being exploited in the labor market because they are seen as racial minorities (McCall, 2001). As a result of lower wage rate comparably, black people are more likely to live under the poverty line than white people. It seems to be a logical conclusion that sinceas black people are less able to support themselves, they will become the major beneficiary of the welfare system. However, figures show the opposite situation; , only 7. 7% of retirement insurance are received by black peopleblack people receive only 7. 7% of retirement insurances. Researches also shows that a social welfare other than retirement insurance, such as disability insurance, medical healthcare and housing, benefit black people to a limited extent (Davies & Derthick, 1997). Another example of institutional racism is that in hospitals in AmericaAmerican hospitals, black people will beare segregated from white people, and and they will receive lower quality of medical healthcare services. han white people and Hhospitals that primarily serve the minority community are disproportionately closed without sound reasons (Randall, 2011). All these examples clearly illustrate the fact that equal opportunity isare not provided to people of different races. , Ppeople in need are not being subsidized enough simply because they are black people. The two social problems of, racial discrimination and poverty should not be seen as separated issues. , Iin fact, they are closely correlated in the sense that racial discrimination directly causes poverty. The three arguments above portray a vicious cycle: low education level will cause black people to have less job opportunities, together with limited social welfare, and the resulting ins poverty. When a family does not have enough resources to support their children to receive better education, poverty will pass on to the next generation. Black people end up being socially and economically inferior compared with to white people. Racial discrimination undeniablye creates and perpetuates unbalanced economic opportunitiesy, which should be eradicated in all sense.