Alvaro Murillo

Inequality quiz

In the first article African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004 It talks about what non-hispanic whites and african americans/hispanics believe is the cause for a major difference in the B/W SES gap. The research explains how a majority of whites believe that there is a gap because african americans lack willpower or effort instead of the old traditional thinking of genetic inferiority. The studies show that over time whites have declined in their opinions of traditional individualism or "traditional racism" while still maintaining a steady opinion on motivational individualism. The majority of blacks on the other hand and hispanics believe there is a gap due to discrimination in the system. The studies conducted throughout the years focused on surveys which contained questions that were either person individual centered or structuralist on this gap issue. Whether there was a difference in housing, income, and education between african americans and whites was the dependant variable and race ethnicity was the independent variable. The findings showed whites have decreased in structural issues and lean more towards individualism as the issue but not by a large margin. Interestingly enough discrimination among blacks and hispanics has decreased as well but it is believed to be because the hispanics are thought to become more assimilated throughout the years and agree more with non hispanic whites over time. Over time African americans and hispanics however have increased opinion on mixed modes which refers to both individualist and structure as a part of the problem. The study also shows that younger african americans are more likely to support the discrimination mode unlike conservative african americans who are more likely to be motivational individualists and are less likely to support the discrimination mode.

The second article Race ethnicity and Quality of Life in America researchers study the quality of life of hispanics in areas such as marital happiness, trust, financial satisfaction, and health status. In contrast to the first article which focuses mainly on inequality in society and such factors this article focuses more on the emotional aspect of life and quality of life between different races. The studies show that hispanics live an overall lower quality of life than whites. Also lower quality of life than non-latinos. The studies explain how latinos who come straight from Mexico have a harder time than latinos who come from countries such as Cuba or Puerto Rico. This could be because of the immigration status issues that other latinos do not have to worry about. This also reduces the gap of quality of life between blacks and whites because of the impact latinos make in this study. Both of these articles can be analyzed when looking at inequality in society as they both make a strong impression that in this country whites are favored more than other minorities. This favoritism towards whites may possibly lead them to live a "happier" and successful life than other racial groups such as blacks and hispanics. The gaps between races do seem to move throughout the years in the opinionative matters, but when you analyze economics, ways of living, housing, education, and happiness, the one thing that seems to always be the same is the way in which whites always generally tend to be favored in many important aspects of society, and do not believe the system is structured to be in that manner.