Racism In Sociology

2066 Words9 Pages
One of legend leaders who was an activist once said, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully we shall overcome. Overcoming racism is a journey that needs the current generation to understand how it is formed and what is continuously making it exist in the world at large. Having a background on its’ construction will help us decide how we want ourselves and our children to approach it and conquer its tragedies. The question currently at hand is why issues of race and racism about more than the attitudes and behaviours of individual. We are to look at the sociological imagination of different societies, the sociological thinking that leads to the construction of identities.…show more content…
McLeod gives a similar perspective that elevates the ideas we have about sociology through the theory of social identity. Social identity “is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s)”, ( Tajfel cited from McLeod, 2008, pg.1). McLeod explains Tajfel proposal that who we are as human beings, having a particular group to belong to result in being the most important foundation to our self-esteem and self-importance. In order for that source of self-importance to be maintained we try to compare ourselves with other groups. We find point what we can use as flaws and discriminate against those people who do not ake part of the group we belong to (McLeod, 2008, pg.1). An observable example can be seen in schools where students are divided by the subjects that they do, that is classification. It is believed that learners that choose Mathematics and Physical Sciences more intelligent and have more career opportunities than those who do Mathematical Literacy and History and even in the larger scale of society this stereotype does exist, we are just not sure if it is a stereotype or it has become a proven fact. However this type of attitude and mindset has given these two groups mentioned different status, the first group sees being an engineer or physicist or mathematician as the most importance beings…show more content…
Based on the two previously mentioned classrooms, for them to have solidarity amongst each other they have to stop comparing and creating prejudices about one another. They have to be in a neutral state where they see each other as importantly equal in the society, whether you study Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy, no one is dominant over the other and no one is oppressed by the other. This assumes that concepts of exploitation, marginalization, powerless, cultural imperialism and violence do not exist; giving a link to the application of the third point stated by Young, that labour is divided and decision-making includes those who are disadvantaged and permits them to contribute without foregoing their particularities (Eisenberg, 2006, pg.8). This could be a utopia society, however looking at this theory with a critical eye we need to ask; is the theory distinctively different from wealth redistributing politics, if so, does it provide a normatively better approach to social justice or not (Eisenberg, 2006, pg.8).FIND A WAY TO LINK BARRY AND FRAZER’S POINT THEN LEAD THIS TO CONSTRCTION OF
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