Introduction

By: Carson Wendler

Racism, Sexism, and Classism are among some of the largest social problems human beings face in the world today. All are caused by various splits in classes and gender roles that are dependent on the abuse of a system in order to put the suppressed group in a state of submission to the older group. Depending on the individual culture, different anomalies within these systems can be identified as being caused for different reasons (i.e. Classism creating differences because, "economic ownership is a basic determinant of class relations") 1. The conflicts that result of these differences in Race, Sex and Class can be very costly and damaging to the stability of the system in which these problems are centered around.




*(1) "Reading Guide to: Poulantzas, N (1975) Classes in Contemporary Capitalism, London: New Left Books." Introduction. 20th Aug. 2005. 7 May 2009

Racism

Racism

Racism around the world differs in its' situational racism, but in nature produces the same issues. For example, five, white police officers were not convicted of a potentially racially motivated crime involving the beating of a black man in Los Angeles, California in May of 1992. "This caused an explosion of violence that developed into a riot in south and central Los Angeles. In three days 52 people were killed, 8,000 were wounded and 12,000 were arrested"2.

Obviously, racial tensions result in more than just small damages. If a single case is able to cause this much chaos, Racism has become a legitimate social problem in more than just one part of the world. In Great Britain, "90% of racist motivated act of violence are committed by white people against ethnic minorities. In 1993 it is estimated that there was 130.000 racist episodes"3. and in Germany, "In [the year of] 1993 at least 52 persons were killed in racist acts of violence"4, showing that though racial tensions may be diverse, but the way in which they are carried out is similar. As shown, these crimes are usually taken from the position of the oppressor on the position of the oppressed. This is carried out in several ways and sometimes organized into groups, or movements in some countries. For example, "KKK was founded in 1870 and has ever since fought for white supremacy"5 in the United States. All of these examples help define the social problem of racism. It is not one that is only located in one place, but rather one that persists in multiple countries and cultures.

Though there may not be a direct connection between certain races and how they are treated in similar countries, there is a trend among racially divided cultures. This occurs both judicially and culturally, leading to the collection of various problems as a result of this conflict.



*(2-5)Jæger, Mads. "Racism around the world." Racism around the world. 8th May 2009. 4 May 2009 .

Sexism

Sexism

Sexism is another social problem troubling human societies all over the world. Though the roots of sexism are a lot less broad when compared to racism (when taking into account there are only two flexible, recognizable human sexes), there is still a large amount of conflict surrounding the social problems between men and women. This conflict troubles societies around the world in several ways, and taking several forms. This may include judicial discrimination and as far politically right as corporate crimes. One example of this is in America, "the federal government has confirmed that the workplace earnings gap between men and women still persists today"6. The recognition of this kind of persistent problem has lead to situations where "Women in the workforce are also less likely to work a full-time schedule and are more likely to leave the labor force for longer periods of time than men, further suppressing women's wages"7.

This kind of discrimination occurs around the world in different forms and different places to produce social problems as well. For example, “Only 0.8% of Japanese chief executives are women, compared with 10% in Britain"8. More specifically, the more popular train of thought it terms of women's roles in Japan are, "A woman's place has traditionally been in the home in Japan"9 indicates that sexism takes place not only in western societies, but in Eastern societies as well, thus defining it as a global social problem. This makes sexism an issue of Dominance of Men over Women around the world. This is an unfortunate phenomenon that has occurred out of the desire to oppress those who may be weaker in terms of gender status in many various societies that cover the Earth.

Other examples of sexual stereotypes and social problems that arise from it is the harassment and oppression of the homosexual community as well. "The weight of family obligations remains a more important fact for young homosexuals in countries such as Japan, Malaysia or the Philippines than for homosexuals in Western countries, who are far more likely to live openly with a partner of the same sex"10, indicating that Homosexuality and its discriminates are a world wide trend. This causes much turmoil between not only men and women, but those who carry the burden of facing homosexual and transgender abuse.



*(6-7)Longley, Robert. "Why Women Still Make Less than Men." About.com US Government Info. 8 Apr. 2009. 3 May 2009 .

*(8-9)Kitanaka, Anna. ""Sexism is global - not just in Japan" | Japan -- Business People Technology | www.japaninc.com." J@pan Inc | Japan -- Business People Technology | www.japaninc.com. 08 May 2009. 3rd May 2009 .

*(10)Altman, Dennis. "On Global Queering." Australian Humanities Review: Contents Issue 45, November 2008. July 2006. 4th May 2009 .

Classism

Classism is one of the largest social problems plaguing the world today. Varying from the type of economic society and government regulation, classes are formed accordingly to how the rules of these institutions are set. The scale of economic status ranges from the liberal socialists to the conservative capitalist. While socialism promotes equal distribution of wealth among all citizens, capitalism promotes the separation of peoples based on a system of unequal exchanges of good. Capitalism stresses the separation of people via class, because of a lack of regulation by the government, while socialism relies on full government support to run an entire industry, thus deciding the way in which goods are distributed and consumed.
Beginning with Socialism, what will be primarily discussed is how it is organized and what social problems may arise as a result of using a communist system. “Marx saw the development of class conflict, the struggle between classes was initially confined to individual factories. Eventually, given the maturing of capitalism, the growing disparity between life conditions of bourgeoisie and proletariat, and the increasing homogenization within each class, individual struggles become generalized to coalitions across factories. Increasingly class conflict is manifested at the societal level”11, so while capitalism takes on this form of existence, problems are created between classes. This includes, and is not limited too, social riots, social conflict, social ignorance and class riots.
Capitalism ultimately converses that of the socialist perspective in the world’s economic positions. Karl Marx was a developer of socialism, providing its political partner, communism, with the explanation of what the difference of between a capitalist society and that of a socialist society. He claims that, “In relation to property there are three great classes of society: the bourgeoisie (who own the means of production such as machinery and factory buildings, and whose source of income is profit), landowners (whose income is rent), and the proletariat (who own their labor and sell it for a wage)”12. This results in a “system creates an incentive for citizens to stay out of trouble, get an education, develop desirable skills, and work hard. That incentive is money. Money can be traded for all sorts of things so we all toil away trying to gain additional money”13.
So why do these conflicts in class cause problems? Primarily, the conflicts between those who make a certain amount of wealth a year have a higher status and ‘better’ things than those who do not. This leads some to steal and rob those who have the things that the lower class desires. Also, the lack of economic regulation in capitalist societies allows judiciary systems to take advantage of those in a lower class, simply because they may not have the funds to produce an adequate lawyer and the rehabilitation fees that might follow. This raises questions relevant to that of problems with socialism, where government intervention and regulation are frequently present.
Socialism primarily fails because it cannot compete with the consumer output that most capitalist economies produce. Often time’s communist and socialist countries must rely heavily on labor and resources in order to survive. This creates issues of power and maintaining a constantly equal populous while the only other classes are the bureaucrats organizing the communist system. Ultimately, this may lead to the conclusions that capitalism within itself is an unfair distribution of wealth to the nation’s populous, while socialism simply cannot exist in a world where they must compete with the consumer based economies of the capitalism, unless it’s without great labor and motivation of the citizens occupying the socialist system. Incidentally, a communist society that maintains a consistent socialist society as well “must be stable in its basic directions and relatively flexible when it is necessary to react quickly to changes in various relatively local circumstances”14.Because of this, unions must be well organized for a socialist system to remain stable. Otherwise, consequences of inadequacy can be incredibly costly.




*(11-12)Rummel, R.J. "MARXISM AND CLASS CONFLICT." University of Hawaii System. 08 May 2009 .

*(13)Brian. "Socialism: Public housing is killing motivation to achieve | flashpoint." Flashpoint | Politics. Alabama Style. 4th May 2009 .

*(14)Khomra. "Inmagic CS/WebPublisher PRO found 1 records." The INFO Project. 08 May 2009 .