Running head: A CLASS DIVIDED 1
A Class Divided
Amia Trevino
SOC 2:
West Hills College
A Class Divided When we take a look at discrimination, there is no reason someone should judge based on race. Being mean, and hateful has no benefit, however, with symbolic interaction attached to it, that’s how it forms. Most people wouldn’t discriminate without symbolic interaction. People are attaching negativity and bad behavior to race, and good positive behavior for other races. For example, in the movie Jane Elliott made the statement that blue-eyed people were better, smarter, quicker at grasping things. She also reinforced that belief by stating she was the teacher with blue eyes and therefore blue-eyed people …show more content…
In job applications, everyday life, or even school, we can see that people discriminate and view minorities as being inferior, not as intelligent, slow, and maybe even violent and reckless. These symbolic views are unfortunately aiding in this behavior, we can see that the children who were in the bottom of the experiment did poorer and felt inferior because of this discrimination. It actually affected their test scores and mentality. They were the same children but being placed on the bottom lowered their performance. These children already learned the symbolic meanings associated with race before the experiment began. Greg proclaimed “like they 're not part of this world. They don 't get anything in this world” (Peters, 1985). These were learned and that’s what symbolic interaction is about. Discrimination is viewing these associations with race, and this teacher was able to change this mindset in her experiment and it was able to stay with the children into adult hood. When they were older Susan stated “I still find myself sometimes when I see some people together and I see how they act--you know, I think, ‘Well, that 's black’ (Peters, 1985). I think this is very important to point out. We cannot ignore the fact that people look different, from one another, but the symbolic associations with these differences are what make it an issue. Susan further states, “Well, I 've seen …show more content…
According to Quintana, S., Boykin A. W., Fuligni, A., Graham, S., Ortiz, S., & Worrell, F. C. (2012), ethnic or racial disparities of achievement in education “are the consequence of discrimination by educators, whether intentional or not.” Furthermore, they mirror the disparities in socioeconomic status as well and heath outcomes and healthcare, and are evident in early childhood persisting through all of education (Quintana et al., 2012). As far as socioeconomic status goes, Black and Hispanic children’s parents for the most part have lower incomes and lower educational attainment compared to that of white parents. This affects the educational opportunities that can be provided for the children of minorities. White families can usually are able to provide better educational opportunities for their children (The Educational Opportunity Monitoring Project, 2013). Moreover, Carl (2013), mentions that poor and undereducated people are segregated into inner-city schools. This is where teacher and administrators are likely to have low expectations for the students as well as limited resources (p. 132). This leads to the teacher expectancy effect. Studies show that expectancies influence not only individual student performance, but performance for the entire school (Carl, 2013, p. 133). When we look at ways to solve these issues, Carl (2013), mentions
A Class Divided
Amia Trevino
SOC 2:
West Hills College
A Class Divided When we take a look at discrimination, there is no reason someone should judge based on race. Being mean, and hateful has no benefit, however, with symbolic interaction attached to it, that’s how it forms. Most people wouldn’t discriminate without symbolic interaction. People are attaching negativity and bad behavior to race, and good positive behavior for other races. For example, in the movie Jane Elliott made the statement that blue-eyed people were better, smarter, quicker at grasping things. She also reinforced that belief by stating she was the teacher with blue eyes and therefore blue-eyed people …show more content…
In job applications, everyday life, or even school, we can see that people discriminate and view minorities as being inferior, not as intelligent, slow, and maybe even violent and reckless. These symbolic views are unfortunately aiding in this behavior, we can see that the children who were in the bottom of the experiment did poorer and felt inferior because of this discrimination. It actually affected their test scores and mentality. They were the same children but being placed on the bottom lowered their performance. These children already learned the symbolic meanings associated with race before the experiment began. Greg proclaimed “like they 're not part of this world. They don 't get anything in this world” (Peters, 1985). These were learned and that’s what symbolic interaction is about. Discrimination is viewing these associations with race, and this teacher was able to change this mindset in her experiment and it was able to stay with the children into adult hood. When they were older Susan stated “I still find myself sometimes when I see some people together and I see how they act--you know, I think, ‘Well, that 's black’ (Peters, 1985). I think this is very important to point out. We cannot ignore the fact that people look different, from one another, but the symbolic associations with these differences are what make it an issue. Susan further states, “Well, I 've seen …show more content…
According to Quintana, S., Boykin A. W., Fuligni, A., Graham, S., Ortiz, S., & Worrell, F. C. (2012), ethnic or racial disparities of achievement in education “are the consequence of discrimination by educators, whether intentional or not.” Furthermore, they mirror the disparities in socioeconomic status as well and heath outcomes and healthcare, and are evident in early childhood persisting through all of education (Quintana et al., 2012). As far as socioeconomic status goes, Black and Hispanic children’s parents for the most part have lower incomes and lower educational attainment compared to that of white parents. This affects the educational opportunities that can be provided for the children of minorities. White families can usually are able to provide better educational opportunities for their children (The Educational Opportunity Monitoring Project, 2013). Moreover, Carl (2013), mentions that poor and undereducated people are segregated into inner-city schools. This is where teacher and administrators are likely to have low expectations for the students as well as limited resources (p. 132). This leads to the teacher expectancy effect. Studies show that expectancies influence not only individual student performance, but performance for the entire school (Carl, 2013, p. 133). When we look at ways to solve these issues, Carl (2013), mentions