Persistent racial and ethnic gaps in the United States have become an issue of social concern, especially in the United States. Following persistent and expanding social and economic gaps, this issue becomes critical as it underlines the issues of poverty and the lack of access to basic services that characterizes specific racial and ethnic groups within the United States (Shapiro, Meschede, & Osoro, 2013). Moreover, this gap has raised questions concerning the sustainability of the US economic path. This paper discusses racial gaps in the country as a social concern and delves into various aspects of the issue in detail.
The United States population is no longer dominantly white. It has recently undergone significant changes with regards to population make up to bring about changes that are far-reaching in their consequences. Populations from racial groups that were thought as minorities at one point in history are well on their way to becoming majorities in the coming decades. For example, Latin Americans are expected to become a significant and swaying majority in the United States by the year 2050. For this reason, racial and ethnic gaps among populations in the United States becomes an issue of social concern, because if certain racial groups are associated with widespread poverty and a lack of access to basic services such as healthcare and education, it means that a significant part of the American population will suffer the lack of access to this services. As a result, the gravity of the issue changes with expected increases in racial and ethnic gaps.
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Looking at this issue without the sociological perspective gives the issue slightly less importance than is due to it. In the case of Latin Americans who experience higher challenges with regards to access to services such as healthcare and education, it would be considered as part of personal inclinations. A sociological perspective gives the issue of racial gaps significant effect on the population as a whole rather than occurrences among communities and individuals. Of necessity, a social perspective is required to give a critical analysis of the effects of seemingly harmless actions to consider their impact on future generations, and possibly reverse the trends of inequality that are prevalent (Lee, 2002). Furthermore, racial gaps need a broader interpretation of their impact in society so that occurrences such as single parenting and poverty become understandable on a much broader scale. This will enable the government and other policy makers to come up with sufficient strategies to overcome inequality within the American society.
Sociological research on the subject enables proper planning towards poverty eradication and economic empowerment to become more effective. In the case of Latin American populations in the United States, it becomes apparent that sociological research is able to determine effective methods of gap reduction through explicit research into national strategies (Kaba, 2011). With the influx in immigrants into the United States, the interplay between personal and state efforts is measured against the effectiveness of reducing economic gaps. Of importance is that trends have shown reducing economic gaps between racial groups within the United States. For example, in 2013, the gap stood at 13-percent point between non-Hispanic males (10%) and ethnic minorities (23%) in the United States. This signifies a 7 percent decrease in the gap from the same period in 1987 where poverty levels among immigrants were significantly higher at 29% (Mather & Jarosz, 2014).
Sociological knowledge provides insight into the social and political attributes of current living that contribute to higher economic gaps between the races to determine methods of coping. For example, the recent economic recession has negative short-term impacts on the economic gap. Ethnic groups were not proportionality affected by job loss during the downturn. Furthermore, social issues will determine demographic issues in explaining the existence of the racial gap. For example, the event of an economic downturn may mean that the younger generation, which is more likely to consist of racial and ethnic minorities, will suffer poverty. This is because baby boomer generation adults, who are now old, will most likely survive on social security and may not feel the pinch of economic downturn. Therefore, a sociological perspective gives a researcher adequate social knowledge to determine the causes of economic gaps between the races and adequately provide possible policies that would alleviate the effects of the racial gap.
Having identified poverty as a major problem facing different racial and ethnic groups within the country, it becomes necessary to determine the best way to approach the policy making to the advantage of the society. The advantage here would be reducing the racial gap to the least possible value. Therefore, equality-based policies form the basis of operation for the eradication of the gap (Shapiro, Meschede, & Osoro, 2013). The Obamacare program is one of the programs that were specifically created to cater for the racial and ethnic gaps among populations in the country (Lillie-Blanton & Hoffman, 2005). Here, the under-insured and uninsured obtained a chance to gain quality healthcare in cases where they would otherwise have not. The role of accessible healthcare services in providing grounds for equality of the races means that all races have access to adequate health services. This includes reproductive health services which would determine specific economic conditions that would be ideal to raise children in.
Culture sensitive education is also critical in providing minority groups with tailor-made education services that would accommodate a culturally-diverse learning environment (Fryer Jr & Levitt, 2004). With the increase in immigrants to the United States, providing education that reflects the diverse learners will provide adequate platforms for the development of equality from the tender age of the children. As a result, children will feel more empowered to express themselves as Americans right from a very tender age, taking advantage of the opportunities that are present to them. This perspective would equally effectively dissolve education-based stratification among different races and ethnic groups (Kao & Thompson, 2003).
Among other needs, basic needs should be provided on the basis of equality rather than economic empowerment. It is noted that the environment in which people live will largely reflect their socio-economic status and abilities (Kaba, 2011). Housing and wealth inequality therefore depicts the true nature of one’s ability to meet their needs. Therefore, necessary housing equality policies need to come into place to ensure that every citizen has access to adequate and respectable housing for the furtherance of economic equality. Minimum wage provisions should be considered adequately to provide Americans with sufficient platforms for their economic expression (Krivo & Kaufman, 2004).
In conclusion, a majority of political issues can also be considered from a sociological perspective, since they raise social questions. The ethnic/racial gap in the United States is one such issue. Considering it from a social perspective gives the researcher adequate knowledge into the nature of the problem and enables them to critically formulate possible solutions to the problem that address both social issues and political issues.
References
Fryer Jr, R. G., & Levitt, S. D. (2004). Understanding the black-white test score gap in the first two years of school. Review of Economics and Statistics, 86(2) , 447-464.
Kaba, A. J. (2011). Explaining the causes of the black-white wealth gap in the United States. Sociology Mind, 1(3) , 138.
Kao, G., & Thompson, J. S. (2003). Racial and ethnic stratification in educational achievement and attainment. Annual review of sociology , 417-442.
Krivo, L. J., & Kaufman, R. L. (2004). Housing and wealth inequality: Racial-ethnic differences in home equity in the United States. Demography, 41(3) , 585-605.
Lee, J. (2002). Racial and ethnic achievement gap trends: Reversing the progress toward equity? Educational researcher, 31(1) , 3-12.
Lillie-Blanton, M., & Hoffman, C. (2005). The role of health insurance coverage in reducing racial/ethnic disparities in health care. Health Affairs, 24(2) , 398-408.
Mather, M., & Jarosz, B. (2014). Persistent Racial/Ethnic Gaps in the U.S. Retrieved from Population Reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/Publications/Reports/2014/us-inequality-racial-ethnic-gaps.aspx
Shapiro, T., Meschede, T., & Osoro, S. (2013). The roots of the widening racial wealth gap: Explaining the black-white economic divide. Institute on Assets and Social Policy , 1-8.
