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Race Theory The Issues Of Race And Term Paper

¶ … Race Theory The issues of race and its ramifications are some of the most pressing issues facing American society today, and will continue to challenge us in the decades to come. Of course, issues of race and socio-economic stratification have always been of vast importance, but in America the problems are magnified since the country and its people pride themselves on being a true melting pot, and the reality does not always match the ideals.

One way of examining race is the functionalist theory or perspective. The functionalist theory of social inequality contends that stratification exists because it is beneficial for society. Society must focus on and with human motivation because the duties associated with the various statuses are not all equally pleasant to the human species, important to social survival,...

An interesting parallel is the concept of perfect employment. Economic theory actually states that the perfect level of unemployment is not zero; the perfect level is some positive percentage of people without jobs, and if the unemployment rate were truly zero, we would have vast inefficiencies.
The idea that different people fulfill different roles, of course, is abhorrent in some ways, but the functionalist theory does not concern itself with the palatable; it is simply a very pragmatic statement on the fact that certain jobs and roles in life must be filled and are less desirable, so that is the…

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