SOCI 3401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Extortion, The Roots

• School: University of Memphis
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI 3401
• Professor: Bamford

Document Summary

In chapter 1, schwalbe introduces inequality and goes beneath the surface of race, class and gender and discusses how inequality is rooted and reproduced in our society through relationships, practices and processes, more specifically through valued, unbalanced resources. Although class, race and gender are societal classifications that reflect inequality, these categories do not merely reach the surface of where inequality begins: resources. In discussing inequality, schwalbe focuses on access to resources which include money, knowledge, skill and skin color: resources are things that either can directly or indirectly satisfy an individual based on their needs and desires. (ex. Inequality closer to home: taking it all the way back to 1492, schwalbe discusses how theft of the native land and the genocide led to many of the benefits we have today. In the south, african americans were enslaved and exploited during the pre-civil war era. Inequality is an achievement and it is not something that just happens.