As we analyze modern-day society and culture, we must first look to the past using the social imagination. To do this we must ask the questions: what has made our society the way it is, why people act in certain ways, and, most importantly, how did these differences and categories of race, class and gender arise and maintain them so important in the society? Today? The similarity between these categories was created by society and allows for consistent division and segregation between individuals in each. Individuals who are oppressed or empowered based on where they stand in each category they intersect. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Science seems to play a strong and important role in the past and present. Discovery, biology and facts. As human beings we want facts. We want to know the truth and we believe the truth based on facts and physical evidence. This may have influenced the desire and obsession with distinction and separation between groups of people. Biological and scientific differences that initially lead us to the idea of ​​a superior and inferior group of people based on these unnecessary facts. Race: “social definition based on a common lineage and on physical, biological, real or presumed characteristics” (Note Lect). Race, just like gender and sex, is a socially constructed idea. An idea that separates and distinguishes one individual from another, forming different groups based on appearance. One's "race", obviously, derives from one's ancestors. If your ancestors came from Africa, Europe, etc. We previously looked at Zinn's A People's History of the United States and interestingly saw the actual circumstances in which Columbus used and enslaved supposedly "inferior" races. All this for the benefit of themselves and the “dominant” European Western culture, in hopes of maintaining their new properties and lands, which will soon become the United States. History has allowed these more powerful and wealthy individuals to take advantage of others, others they considered “animals” (Zinn). This demonstrates and allows us to understand, through the social imagination, how exactly racism and definitive division were born, as well as the maintenance of power by the white man, and which still seems to be evident today in our "free" society. As much as we would all like to think, there is still a strong divide between races. Because of history, black people have always been backward, as that is how they came to America, at a disadvantage. The freedom they received was not complete freedom due to the previous history they encountered. This kept them in the lower class, making them a minority, among other poorer non-“white” individuals. With almost no opportunity or ability to rise through the ranks due to the circumstances the white Europeans put them in, as I'm sure that although they were considered "free", the whites saw them as even less powerful than them, ultimately leading to a equal antipathy between both. The past circumstances and inevitable oppression that Black people face in our society today are still clear. We see it every day on the news, a white officer shoots a black man. They are still seen as inferior and these stereotypes allow for endless division. It's difficult to break a stereotype that history has constantly reinforced. No change can be made this way, especially while American society does not allow minorities to rise up easily, relying primarily on continued white power in the government that rules everything. In a society built onwealth, money and power, class plays a role in every individual's life. Class system: “An economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive and oppositional groups and free social mobility” (Lect Notes). As a 22-year-old white woman, I was automatically born with expectations. My parents always expected me to go to private school, then university, without worries about money. I didn't have to fight to get into college, I was accepted with the benefit of attending a prestigious private school. It wasn't until college, when I branched out and learned different things, that I realized what I had. This was white privilege. Even though my parents had expectations about my life, I never questioned it, not even how easy it was for me. Using Social Imagination, I could see that if my circumstances had been different, it would have been harder for me to live up to my parents' expectations. If I had grown up in a different area where I couldn't even go to a private school and gone to a public school with less willingness to meet the needs of students. If I were a different race, if I lived in a lower class neighborhood, I wouldn't be strong enough to fight for those opportunities myself. My parents gave them to me. Furthermore, it was given to me by my white ancestors who came to America. Even though those black ancestors worked for more powerful white people, they didn't get an education, they didn't get opportunities. Even today we face this disadvantage, this oppression. Because minorities are seen as a lower class, living in poorer neighborhoods with less prestigious schools, they continue to lack these opportunities. They lack the easily maintained education that an upper-class white would automatically receive. Further impacting their future and their chances in college, along with their future career. What we like to think of as a free country, as a land of opportunity and equality was built on an unequal and unjust culture of white Europeans whose primary concern was money and power. Equality should be clearer now than it was before, as today we see a never-ending position for minorities. Not only do white Americans allow an unequal and unjust society, but individual minorities do not seek escape. It's a different lifestyle and experience to be a young black man in America. Imagine growing up in an environment of violence towards your own kind. Not being able to see your dad because he works all day for minimum wage. Being raised by older kids in your neighborhood who were taught that only violence and theft are the way to live. Being forced to steal food in order to feed your family. Growing up in this society already gives children no hope for their future. It makes young black kids think that this is the only option for them, that theirs is nothing more. Finally, an intersectional division that separates male from female and is also socially constructed based on biological factors, gender. Gender: “based on a set of social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female” (Note Lect). Just like race, gender divides people based on biological factors. You are born with sexual organs, which automatically determine your socially constructed “gender.” So you are already set up for a lifetime of expectations to be met based on your gender. Assumptions are made about how one should act, who one should like, who one should marry, what one should do and wear. All based on biological factors, without even perceiving what the individual may want within himself. The.