Inequality- Jesus B. Lopez

Jesus B. Lopez

Word Count 403

 

Inequality

 

The article entitled "African American, Hispanic, and White beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004," by Matthew O. Hunt, tries to provide evidence for why African Americans compared to Whites and Hispanics have a feeling of disadvantage when it comes to being equals in societies socioeconomic status.

Selected data was used from passed surveys from the General Social Surveys between the years 1977 through 2004.  The question asked for the dependent variable was "on the average, blacks have worse jobs, income, and housing than white people.  Do you think these differences are, A. Mainly due to discrimination; B. Because most blacks have less in-born ability to learn; C. Because most blacks don't have the chance for education that it takes to rise out of poverty; D. Because most blacks just don't have the motivation or will power to pull themselves out of poverty."  Non-Hispanic whites score higher in choosing a motivational explanation compared to blacks.  African Americans were more towards choosing the discrimination factor.  From the 1990s and early 2000s we see a decrease in the support of the belief in the innate inferiority of African Americans amongst non-Hispanic whites.

 

The next article I chose is titled, "Understanding Latin American Belief's about Racial Inequality," by Edward Telles and Stanley Bailey.  This article takes a look at the racially diverse population of Latin America to see their ideas on equality within their countries.  The United States and Latin America are very similar when it comes to racial hierarchies.  One difference that sets them apart is the idea of mestizaje, which was an idea to unite people together through mixed race population. The method used for the findings involved eight countries data from the 2010 AmericasBarometer survey.  These countries were Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mecxico, and Peru.  Each person that was surveyed was asked the following.  According to the Census, indigenous persons/black persons/darker sin persons are poorer.  What do you thnk is the main reason for that? 1. Because they do not work hard enough; 2. Because they are less intelligent; 3. Because they are treated unfairly; 4. Because they have a low educational level; 5. Because they do not want to change their culture.  A second dependent variable was also added to narrow the possible explanations. "do you believe that indigenous persons/black persons/darker sin persons are treated 1. Much better; 2. Better; 3. The same; 4. Worse; 5. Much worse than white persons?"  Findings of this survey showed that Latin Americans showed to chose structural explanations for their disadvantage for those who associate themselves as being of a multiethnic race.