Structural Functionalist Theory And Conflict Theory

927 Words4 Pages
Freedom is ideological based on two basic sociological theories, Structural Functionalist Theory and Conflict Theory. Freedom is a privilege that not all people have in the United States or other countries. For example, African Americans and the way that freedom was not a privilege that they could not fully attain after the Emancipation Proclamation and other rights that they attained as time passed. Freedom is an ideology that could be explained through Structural Functionalist Theory. Functionalist theory is a system of interconnected pieces that work together to maintain a state of balance and social equality in institutions. One of the five main institutions is government. Government is one of the main institutions that I found to be most involved with freedom being an ideology. The first example is in 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, the proclamation exclaimed freedom for enslaved African Americans. Yet African Americans were not free, and the government was involved, African Americans were denied the right to vote, “Between 1882 and 1968, more black people were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state. “You and I know what’s the best way to keep the nigger from voting,” blustered Theodore Bilbo, a Mississippi senator and a proud Klansman. “You do it the night before the election” (Coates). The freedom was only an idea to African Americans at that time they were never free after the Emancipation Proclamation. When the Voting Rights Act was

More about Structural Functionalist Theory And Conflict Theory