Question

Discuss how racism can be viewed as both functional and dysfunctional for a society. Be sure to include the three major sociological views in your discussion.

Answer 1

Racism is defined as a belief that one race is supreme and all others are innately inferior. It is becoming a major challenge for most developed economies in the world. There are usually three major sociological views regarding racism. They are discussed below:

Functionalist Perspective: In the view of functionalism, racial and ethnic inequalities must have served an important function in order to exist as long as they have.

Functional for society: Racism gives people a reason to continue on with an unbalanced society. This constantly robs a minority group of their rights and privileges.

Dysfunctional for society: This means that the minority will always be less than, we will see the top through the Glass Ceiling but never get there.

Conflict Perspective: Conflict theories are often applied to inequalities of gender, social class, education, race, and ethnicity.

Functional for society: Racism keeps minorities at low paying jobs so that the bourgeoisie can stay on top and any employee that wants higher wages can be replaced.

Dysfunctional for society: Unfortunately this again means that the minority will always be the proletariat.

Interactionist Perspective: For symbolic interactionists, race and ethnicity provide strong symbols as sources of identity.

Functional for society: Based on the term 'contact hypothesis' putting different races in the same job allows them to drop prejudices.

Dysfunctional for society: When the time comes to promote someone the superior will almost always choose someone that's not a minority.