The Hidden Cost Of Being African American By Thomas M. Shapiro

Summary: The article of research is “The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality by Thomas M. Shapiro. Shapiro, a Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy at Brandeis University, was interested in social class and racial-ethnic differences in the indicators of socioeconomic status. Shapiro wanted to examine a data that shows persistent wealth discrepancies between whites and African Americans with similar achievements and credentials and how their lives differ because of racial inequality. Shapiro conducted his studies in 2004 by analyzing the differences in assets and wealth in four families, one which consisted of an African American, while the others are White. The first family studied was Vivian Arrora, a 40 years old single mother of a teenage son, Lamar, and 4-year-old twin girls, Bria and Brittany. Vivian is an African American who grew up in Watts, which is considered as one of the poorest section of Los Angeles, and who aspires for a home in a more middle-class West L.A area away from crime by gang members and drugs. Vivian took classes at a technical school to learn computing. After completing the program, she received her certificate, but also gained students loans and has a bad credit. In contrast, she was able to find a full-time employment where she earns $20,000 per year, just …show more content…
Racial Stratification refers to systems of inequality in which fixed groups such as race, religion, or national origin is used as criteria for raking social positions and their different rewards. This is portrayed in the reading doing a comparison between an African American family, and White families, and the different opportunities they have do to assets, and therefore lack of for the African American. Hispanics experience racial stratification because of lower chance of opportunities due to racism, and barriers they face like