Racial and Ethnic Inequality in the United States

Racial and ethical inequality has been a problem in the United States since the beginning of the United States. Many people over the years have argued that the reason there is so much inequality in the United States is that because that blacks and other minorities in this country are just naturally less intelligent and other innate flaws that keep them from getting a good education and other opportunities that their white counterparts do.

Think about what was said above. Inequality was always here. Look at the treatment of the Native Americans, for example. Another reason for inequality disparities is the cultural aspects. It is believed that the failure to believe in hard work and the lack of strong family ties as opposed to that of a white family affects them in getting ahead and moving forward with how they work and keep a job thus holding down wages and keeping that poverty level down. This doesn’t go for everyone, but when you take a whole community as a whole, it holds that number down.

US racial and ethnic inequality is based on conflict theory and reflects the blaming-the-system approach. This view attributes racial and ethnic inequality to structural problems, including institutional and individual discrimination, a lack of opportunity in education and other spheres of life, and the absence of jobs that pay an adequate wage. (Feagin, 2006) The feeling that this is the reason has some merit but is not always the reason. The reason could be that many minorities have been brought up in neighborhoods that were poorer than that of their white counterparts. Because of this, they were not given the same opportunities, such as better education, which would be the biggest one because a better education leads to bigger opportunities which leads to college, which leads to better-paying jobs, which leads to growth and more opportunities for you and your family.

Another factor to bring into this is immigration. Immigration is obviously a huge problem in this country now more than ever. The wages that some of these people make are ridiculous, and some of these immigrants are working jobs that most Americans will not do. Let’s be honest. There has always been a disparity in wages between blacks and immigrants as opposed to their white counterparts; it goes way back in history books. The wealth gap, health care, poverty, housing segregation, education, and unemployment rates, just to name a few. All the answers can not be given in one failed swoop, and many presidents and administrations have promised to fix these problems over and over, and yet nothing happens. Racial inequality should never happen, yet it always does. This goes for jobs, education, and everything in general; why? Not sure why there isn’t an answer yet. The fact that people are still fighting for their own civil liberties in this country is crazy and shouldn’t still be happening. Is it because people are lazy and don’t want to work or are uneducated, as some of the polls and charts believe? Maybe, or is it because the world we live in is skewed to believe that people of colour or immigrants are less than white people? That is obviously again, an answer we will never know.

In conclusion, the disparities between white people and people of colour and different nationalities are evident in everyday life. Trying to fix the problem starts with you as the individual and has to make its way to the top. How that happens is to be determined, but if people of colour and all other races were afforded the same opportunities as those of white people, how do you think they would be fair? Would their grades go up? Would they excel in school and go on and be very successful people in life? I am willing to bet that if they were afforded the same opportunities all the way around these, many of them would be very successful, and the rhetoric would start to shift in the direction that many people would be happy with, but until that happens, the rhetoric will stay the same as it has over all these years, and people of colour and immigrants will continue to fight for their racial and ethnical rights.

References

Feagin, J. (2006). Systematic racism: A theory of oppression. Routledge. 3.6 explaining racial and ethnic inequality – social problems. (n.d.). https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/3-6-explaining-racial-and-ethnic- inequality/

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Assignment Details

Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the United States, and healthcare organizations have been working to decrease inequities in access and quality of healthcare. Delivery of healthcare services must be responsive to an individual’s communication needs, preferred language, health literacy level, and cultural beliefs and practices. To help healthcare organizations establish guidelines for meeting the needs of a diverse patient population, the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) developed the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. The CLAS standards are designed to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities by showing respect for the culture and language preferences of patients.

Racial and Ethnic inequality in the United States

Review the standards on this Web site.

Consider the CLAS standards as you watch the following case study videos:

• Cultural and Religious Beliefs
• Using Language Access Services
• Culturally Tailored Healthcare in Orthopedics
• Culturally Tailored Healthcare in Obstetrics

Choose 1 video case study as the basis for and answer the following questions:

Briefly describe what type of healthcare inequity was depicted in the video.

Which CLAS standards are or are not demonstrated in the video? How would meeting the standards reduce health inequity in the example that you chose?

What could the healthcare organization do better to provide patients with the best care and eliminate the health inequities illustrated in the video?

If you were faced with similar types of situations in the future, explain how you would be better prepared to handle them appropriately after viewing the standards.