Question

Provide an example of a cultural inconsistency between ideal culture and real culture in the U.S. How/why do you think this inconsistency was developed? How would a sociologist explain this seemingly paradoxical relationship?

Answer 1

Ideal culture refers to a culture which a society boasts of having while in reality it would have a different culture. Although there are many dimensions of culture, equality is one of the most important things which the US society boasts of having while there is institutional racism which rejects people of color from education, employment, medicine, housing etc. This is in complete contradictory with the claims. Another issue is gender equality which is still an issue in the American culture where women are still discriminated int terms of salary, promotion and higher posts. Conflict theory suggests that the society is in a perpetual conflict for the limited resources available where order is maintained not by consensus but by domination. So, the white dominance and male dominance are the two factors that affect the equality in the American culture.

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