Question

Describe how race and ethnicity shape the type of work that people do as well as their odds of receiving advanced schooling and being poor.  Feel free to start each one in a new thread.

Answer 1

Throughout the world, racial, cultural, and ethnic differences are used to place people into different categories. Once people are placed in these categories it is assumed that they have the basic characteristics of this category that will determine their life course. For instance, whites have mostly been categorized as being racist, intelligent and superior whereas African Americans have been described as uneducated, aggressive and unemployable.

The differences in life for the major racial/ethnic groups has manifested itself in the socioeconomic stratification that patterns American life. People of different social statuses lead lives that differ in almost all aspects—childhood circumstances, educational experiences, work careers, marriage and family experiences, leisure, neighborhood conditions, and health care.

This has important implications for educational outcomes more so in case of minority children. The minority schools are often observed to have fewer and lower-quality books, curriculum materials, laboratories, and computers; significantly larger class sizes; less qualified and experienced teachers; and less access to high-quality curriculum. Many schools serving low-income and minority students do not even offer the math and science courses needed for college. In fact, the U.S. educational system is one of the most unequal in the industrialized world, and students routinely receive dramatically different learning opportunities based on their social status. All this has severe implications for their higher education chances and consequently ending up being poor.