Your ideology concerning race and gender

The general purpose of this paper is to describe your ideology concerning race and gender. In order to be successful in writing this paper, you must include information or insights from the readings posted on Moodle, Between the World and Me, and Women and Politics: The Pursuit of Equality. In the assignment instructions below, I have focused on African Americans for the race part of this paper, but you could also focus on other racial minority groups, as well. The framework of viewing an ideology as involving an explanation, evaluation, and program is from Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal by Terence Ball, Richard Dagger , and Daniel O’Neill (9th edition, 2014, Pearson). Chapter 1 of this book, which contains a fuller discussion of the framework used below, is our reading assignment for June 24, as noted above. 1. Explanation Ball, Dagger, and O’Neill write that: “An ideology offers an explanation of why social, political, and economic conditions are as they are…” (5) What is your explanation of the current disparities between whites and blacks and men and women? In other words, why are there differences in the political, economic, and social positions of African Americans compared to whites, and women compared to men? Are they due to past legal discrimination, economic power relationships, government policies, social customs, biology, human nature? 2. Evaluation From Ball, Dagger, and O’Neill: “The second function of an ideology is to supply standards for evaluating social conditions. There is a difference, after all, between explaining why certain things are happening and deciding whether those things are good or bad… it is clear that all ideologies provide standards or cues that help people assess, judge, and appraise social policies and conditions so that they can decide whether these policies and conditions are good, bad, or indifferent.” (5) What is your evaluation of the current situation? In other words, what is your appraisal of the current state of affairs concerning race and gender in the United States—are the current disparities a problem? Is there a need for any action concerning race and gender, or is the status quo satisfactory? What is your definition of satisfactory conditions—when legal barriers are removed, when race and gender are completely irrelevant, when income levels are identical, or something else? 3. Program Ball, Dagger, and O’Neill: “An ideology, finally, tells its followers what to do and how to do it. It performs a programmatic or prescriptive function by setting out a general program of social and political action.” (6) Given your explanation and evaluation of the current situation concerning race and gender in the United States, what course of action do your propose? What is your plan (your program) for dealing with issues of race and gender? (Make sure to explicitly connect your program to your explanation and evaluation.) What political barriers must you overcome in order for your plan to be implemented?