Structured Inequality

The article Structured Inequality in the United State, establishes the argument of racial equality being hard to obtain, in a system that has been flawed from the start. The flaw in the system is the favorable treatment of one racial group(whites) over others. The systems establishment of laws such as who could own land, who could vote and worse who was considered a free person created a dominant group and a subordinate group determined by race and not merit. An analogy comes to mind, if you build your house on an uneven foundation troubles will no doubt arise. Structured Inequality in the United States for me creates a new avenue of thinking. Generally, when thinking of inequality, I have viewed it in the individual sense, such as the inequality rising from an individual’s mistreatment, racism or discrimination of another individual. I had understood what institutional racism was, and that inequality could be institutionalized. However, when I thought of these things to me the negative attributes arose from a person or perhaps a few people in charge of the larger institutions promoting and allowing discriminatory practices. …show more content…
What the paper also exposes is the fact that most white privilege is not intentionally ignored by those receiving it, but rather they have been brought up in a system that has taught them not to see it. This idea is established when Peggy McIntosh writes “They take both active forms which we can see and embedded forms which as a member of the dominant group one is taught not to see”(McIntosh). As a member of the dominant group I can agree with this idea. During any one of the examples of privilege described in the paper, to which I experience on a daily basis, I rarely stop to thinking to why I am being afforded