Racism In Sociology

Tristan Fenton was shot and pronounced dead Saturday, due to a fatal gun wound. Tristan was shot by a former friend he called a “brother,” David Provencio, on accident with a gun he thought wasn’t loaded. David and some other friends called the police immediately reporting a possible suicide. Police later found that David pointed what he thought was an empty gun at Tristan, pulled the trigger and soon realized what he had done. Tristan’s family is going through a huge loss because they didn’t just lose one person, but perhaps two. Tristan’s parents say, “He was a part of our family;” they also said,

Institutional racism is a kind of discrimination formed by society to target a specific race, compared to having an individual’s personal racist belief. Having a personal racist belief is centralized. It is influenced by the society but it is determined by a single individual. Institutional racism and an individual’s racist beliefs go hand in hand. A person will always have his or her own individual racist beliefs, but when a society has one, it is usually about one specific race but it does not showcase the true meaning and depth of life supported by Bettie (2002) “do not reflect complexity of life”.

The social problem that I chose was homelessness. Homelessness has increased by 8% since 2011-2012 to more than 225,000 people in 2014-15 and in 2011 censers 105,237 people where homeless.  As also the unemployment rate and the domestic violence rate which both are increasing as well as these are some of the big factors . The biggest reason homelessness is  domestic violence. We look are homelessness and functionalism and  how on a macro leave how it affects homeless. We also look at the programs that available for people.

Essentially, these forms relate to a struggle for power and resources, one side being the oppressed and the other the oppressor. As racism holds unfounded bias, prejudice and discrimination within its core ideologies, the conflict theory undoubtedly supplies the best approach to obtaining a general conception of the effects racism has on society. Compared to functionalism or symbolic interactionism, the conflict theory addresses the exploitation of groups, ultimately making it the best course of action to begin a rational

Introduction and thesis: The topic chosen for this essay concerns the relationship between racial profiling and sentencing. It is relevant to the course material because it concerns the ways someone is treated depending on his or her ethnic origins, and it makes it an interesting sociological and criminological phenomena. This is the reason why I chose to write on this topic, and because I find it an important issue in our society. This essay will demonstrates that visible minorities are more likely to be subjects to harsher sentencing than the majority, and more than them.

December the 6th, 1865 marks the end of slavery and white supremacy. A glance at the 21st century America manifests otherwise. Racism is an ongoing issue that contributes largely to class boundaries within significant aspects such as economy, education and society of the United States, making people of color inferior to white people. The key components that construct a country into greatness are economy, education and society. The inequality and injustice present in these interlinked components, bound by social class hierarchy, can lead to desisting the full potential to be a globally respectable nation.

Cincinnati had race riots going on since the 1800’s. A riot is a public outbreak of fights and violence between two racial groups in a community. One outbreak started in 1829 between Irish immigrants and African Americans for jobs in Cincinnati. Their goal was to get rid of the Black African Americans.They were wanting the African Americans to move to Canada or get out of Cincinnati period. The Cincinnati Race Riots has been starting in the late 1800’s which the author believes it is still occurring in today’s world.

Garner died on July 17 , 2014 in Staten Island, New York . He died after a confrontation with the police in which police officer Daniel pantaleo put him on choke hold. Then other officers appeared to slam his head against the side walk. Garner then kept screaming "I can't breathe" repeatedly but pantaleo kept him on choke hold he didn't stop. Garner then "passed out" and was handcuffed. 1 hour later garner was pronounced dead in the hospital.

These officers subjected these victims to racial profiling and police brutality. Although not a police officer, George Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watchman, profiled the unarmed black Trayvon Martin and followed him because he saw “a suspicious person” in the neighborhood. In Zimmerman’s statement to the police he claimed that Trayvon assaulted him and also reached for his gun. Sandra Bland, an African-American, was driving through Texas where she had just moved to start a new job. She was stopped for a traffic violation when she was arrested. According to Officer Brian Encinia, Bland had been uncooperative and tried to assault the officer. She was found hanged in her cell three days later. Evidence has come to light to prove that Bland was beaten in custody, which according to Officer Encinia is because she tried to hit him while she was handcuffed. The question still remains; did she commit suicide? The officer in question claimed self-defense but was still indicted of perjury as he falsified his statement about the event and also for not following departmental protocol. Another innocent, unarmed victim killed in the hands of the police. Eric Garner is also an example of racial profiling and police brutality. Garner, a black male, had been stopped a couple times, previous to his death, for selling untaxed cigarettes. This time

In my daily life, one of the things that I am very conscious about is the color of my skin and my background. This is because of the different types of stereotypes that I may be associated with. In the article, “Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale” by Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, she talks about the social construct of race and its impact on racism. Dr. Jones broke down racism into three levels: institutionalized racism, personally mediated racism, and internalized racism. She also suggested that the reason why there is inequality in the United States is due to the government not being concerned about equality. I think that racism will continue to occur as long as there is inequality.

among humans in our daily life. Sex is the biological term that determines the biological and

Sociology is the study of the society and human behavior whereas, the word perspective can be defines as a view of things in their true connection or importance. Hence, the social perspectives provide standpoints used to look at human behavior and interaction as they relate to individuals and groups within society. The social perspective emphasizes that to understand humans for not what is inside of them, but what’s influencing them that should be observed. There are four theoretical perspectives used to understand society and human behavior. The four discussed here are structure functional, consensus and conflict, the gender problem and symbolic interaction.



Emile Durkheim developed a theory called functionalism, which explained how the individual and society were related and how society changed over time. According to functionalism, society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole. Durkheim believed that society should be analyzed and described in terms of functions. Society is a system of interrelated parts where no one part can function without the other. These parts make up the entirety of society and therefore, if one part changes, society is impacted.

When taking a look into the society I call myself a part of; it can be placed into three perspectives. The three theoretical perspectives we may live in are; Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism. The world may be a place where we all live congenial among each other with open arms and helping hands guiding us with structural functionalism. Rather, then live in harmony with everyone we may be in a world filled with greed and power

When discussing functionalism and conflict theory, one has to look at the beliefs of the theorists who created and contributed to these theories. One of the main theorist behind functionalism was Emilie Durkheim, while Karl Marx was the main proponent of conflict theory. These two theories both view society as a system of social structures and agree that these social structures exist within a society. However, they differ greatly in that functionalism views society as a large system working together for the good of the people. While conflict theory believes that society is set into place, and will vary depending on the wealth and power of the people involved (Dottin).