Persistent racial discrimination in the workplace
Functionalism is very critical as it addresses constituent elements of the society that includes the institutions, customs, norms, and relevant traditions. In the early 90s, functionalism was highly criticized due to the lack of its capacity to account for social change or conflict and the structural contradictions. It was also condemned for ignoring some systematic inequalities such as class, gender, and race, which are the leading cause of conflict and tension in society. According to sociologist Michael Omi, the structural-functionalist framework is generally supposed to take the unifying role of culture and precisely the white man’s values in resolving and regulating conflicts. From this viewpoint, members of the society are identified as bounded, coherent, and having fundamental relations constructs that operate as an organism with all their different parts working together to realize a social equilibrium.
Persistent racial discrimination in the workplace and other related social domains has resulted in an interest in the possible social conflict between different members of society. Unlike in the pre-colonial era, when discrimination and prejudice were widespread and overt, today’s social conflict that is brought about by discrimination in the workplace is less readily identifiable. This poses a very significant challenge for social scientific measurement and conceptualization. Racial discrimination generally refers to the irregular treatment of persons or groups of people based on either their ethnicity or race in the workplace. Despite having some remarkable advantages in the labor market of racial minorities, there still exist some significant disparities. Whites are more likely to get employed as it may be compared to the Africans Americans. There also exists a considerable wage difference between the two groups that increases the possible social conflict between the members of the society.
Symbolic interaction, ethnicity, and race provide important symbols as sources of identity. In some cases, the integrationist suggests that the signs or race other than the race itself is what causes racism. Sociologist believes that racial prejudice is usually realized as a result of interaction and association of two or more dominant groups. In a case where there is no form of communication, individuals that exist in these dominant groups would not at all hold the racist view. This form of interaction is fundamental as they contribute to an abstract image of the minor, thus allowing the leading group to give full support to the views of the subordinate that helps in maintaining the status quo. A different that can help us identify interactionist perspective is being considering how different human being defines their personnel races and other people races.