Find two articles regarding the topics of either or both Gender & Sexuality or Racism & Discrimination

Racism and Discrimination

Racism and discrimination contribute to societal problems within our contemporary world. Remarkably, people’s attitudes and perceptions about life determine the manner of coexistence and interactions. Majorly, racism and discrimination are some of these behaviors that directly relate to sociological theories. Therefore, these problems directly conform to society’s interactional, conflict, and functional, socialization and social exchange, perspectives, thus providing an ideal explanation to their root cause. To explain the extent of these social problems, Lamb’s article When a Black boxing champion beat the ‘Great White Hope,’ all hell broke loose, and COVID-19-related discrimination and stigma: a global phenomenon by UNESCO provide suitable scenarios.

Lamb’s article highlights racism and its extent within a sporting field in American society. The sporting activity was between a black champion and a white boxer held at Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910 (Lamb, 2021).  Chiefly, the sporting activity was perceived to be a referendum between the black and the whites. As a result, the interactional perspective of sociology played a significant role in contributing to the great differences between the two competing champions. The social institutions were much involved in making both the blacks and whites think that they were competing with each other. The whites’ belief that they were the supreme race made them violent over the blacks once Jack Johnson (black) defeated James Jeffries (white).

Similarly, this sporting scenario fits within the conflict perspective, giving consequential outcomes to special groups in society. The special groups within this scenario are two races in the United States who have distinct views about each other. For instance, the whites view themselves as the dominating race while the blacks view themselves as discriminated. As a result, these groups are influenced to have two unique interests while participating in the sporting activity.  Precisely, the whites were on a drive to defend their dominance while the blacks were willing to manifest themselves as people of equal capacity to the white. Therefore, these differences between these groups resulted in conflicts where some people lost their lives.  Notably, this scenario relates to societal groups such as social classes, LGTBQ+, and families that give rise to people’s different interests. Likewise, these special groups are contributing to conflicts among the people based on ideology and economic interests.

Under the functionalist perspective, a society is supposed to be in a balance where there are interconnected relationships between various systems in society. However, with the sporting activity as detailed in the article, racism is one of the factors interfering with the stability of this society. Remarkably, families, education, knowledge, and culture are meant to uphold the stability of a society, but in our scenario, they have failed and instead are promoting instability. Nonetheless, the rephrasing of the sporting activity to be a racial competition could positively and negatively impact society as outlined in the functional perspective. For example, a black defeating a white could have contributed to racial equality and conflict among the Americans.  

The UNESCO’s article provides views from ten of its chairs from different countries on the extent of discrimination amid Covid-19. Notably, this discrimination has affected special groups globally, varying from the time of the outbreak and the spread of Covid-19 (UNESCO, 2020). According to the interactional perspective, social institutions influence a social problem to determine how people behave. Therefore, in the UNESCO article, the origin of Covid-19 was a major social problem that contributed to Asians being discriminated against on a claim that Covid-19 emerged from their region. Dishearteningly, the discrimination of Asians became a world problem behavior learned under socialization theory. Social learning theory still contributed to the spread of this behavior among countries. For instance, many African countries were unwilling to welcome Asians into their countries after the United States did the same.  

Similarly, the Covid-19 outbreak conforms as a social problem that aligns with conflict theory. In particular, the outbreak and spread of this pandemic resulted in blame amongst nationals on who should be held responsible for the disease. Therefore, the impact of this problem is the creation of groups with different interests that have contributed to conflicts among the nations.  For example, one of these interests has been economic interests where the power elites have been blamed for causing the pandemic. Moreover, discrimination was observed between the infected and non-infected, where the non-infected blamed the rest for having exposed them to the virus.

Social exchange theory explains the increase in discrimination during the Covid-19 pandemic. Primarily, the outbreak of Covid-19 resulted in great fear among people who were forced to prioritize their lives based on the costs and rewards over their current relationships. As a result, people had to choose for their lives over their infected and affected members. The observed outcomes were the rampant increase in discrimination cases where the infected and affected were sidelined and unattended despite being in despair. Besides, people adopted discrimination as a new behavior through socialization, where people developed norms, cultures, and attitudes of running away from the affected ones.

Outline

Title: Racism and Discrimination

Thesis: To explain the extent of these social problems, Lamb’s article When a Black boxing champion beat the ‘Great White Hope,’ all hell broke loose, and COVID-19-related discrimination and stigma: a global phenomenon by UNESCO provide suitable scenarios.

1. Introduction

1. Thesis
2. Argument.

2. Lamb’s article

1. Racism
2. Interactionist and conflict theories

3. UNESCO article

1. Relation to our today’s society
2. Discrimination
3. Interactionist and conflict theories
4. Social exchange and socialization theories