Summary Of The Resegregation Of Jefferson County

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In the article, The Resegregation of Jefferson County, a wide variety of different sociological aspects are portrayed under the fight to separate the school, Gardendale, from the rest of the Jefferson County school system. Multiple different inequalities are discussed in different forms throughout this article specifically including income, institutional racism, and neo-racism. All of these forms of social stratification are still alive today. Social stratification is described as “inequalities among individuals and groups within human societies. (Giddens, Duneier, Applebaum, Carr, p. 194)” In this reading, social stratification is displayed by the means of living from the aspects of individuals subsiding in Jefferson County, Alabama. Jefferson …show more content…

The parents of most of the white children attending Gardendale make a significant amount of money, while the children of mixed race come from lower income homes. The parents of the white children at Gardendale are able to attempt to use their income difference to have the possible opportunity to create a new school system. The hopes of these parents are for their children to get a good education while being separated from the other low income children. Income also plays a role in the type of school that children are able to attend. If the income of a family is higher, they will provide their child with different opportunities to pursue life chances. If a family is able to afford to do so, they have the option to send their child to a private school to ensure a good education. Also, these parents may choose to send their child to a private school, knowing that there is less diversity of race there. This would keep their children segregated from children of other …show more content…

This is known as institutional racism. Institutional racism is racism that is built into our society. A perfect example of this would be an institution such as a school. The white children are taught to be racist. They are not born racist. As they grow in school, it is built into their schooling system and other institutions around them. This idea of institutional racism is furthered when the parents of the children want to separate their white kids from the other black kids in the school system. Gardendale is a perfect example of institutional racism and how it is preformed into society. Further more, the court system for the Jefferson county has institutional racism built in as well though the their judges who are all white. All of these different aspects of social stratification are found all over the US today. This article discusses events that took place in 2013. This shows that even today, racism is still alive and something that is a day to day battle for people all over the country. However, today it much more prominent in the fact that it is often hidden. Neo-racism is much more commonly found because it is