SOC-220
Social Inequality
Addiction can discriminate, it especially hits harder to those who are already down or who are
experiencing a downfall. Addiction can affect the poor in more disastrous ways than the rich.
With lack of money and health care, someone who is not wealthy may have a harder time
becoming rehabilitated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, crack cocaine became prevalent within
the black communities, was said to be a great threat to the white middle class, this wasn’t the
case (Szalacitz, nd). While white youth took plenty of cocaine, addictions rates did not skyrocket
because if they became hooked, they had a higher chance of recovering. Americas inner cities
are inundated with problems that are interrelated in complex ways. “These intersecting macro-
level social forces, such as poverty, race, family structure, and neighborhood characteristics,
ultimately constrain the life choices of those living in the inner city irrespective of personal traits,
individual motivations or private achievements”. (Dunlap, Johnson, Fackler, nd)Many inner-
cityhouseholds are distressed by unemployment, lack of education, family dissolution,
overcrowded housing, drug abuse and crime. On a micro-level inequality within drug abuse
stems from poverty, which is higher in American than in any other country. A high proportion of
workers are in poorly paid full-time jobs, with no way out of poverty. Most turn to drugs in order
to deal with the hardship that they face. “This causes that individual to lack work-readiness, this
includes being on time, coming in every day, and avoidance of problems, such as drug abuse and
crime.” (Dunlap, Johnson, Fackler, nd)This causes a cycle, where one loses their job, becomes
obedient to their drug of choice, and falls below the spectrum of a contributing factor to society.
Discrimination is a major cause of lack of diversity in higher education and the rest of
society. In the 1990s, race and gender discrimination still permeate the institutions and structure
Social Inequality
Addiction can discriminate, it especially hits harder to those who are already down or who are
experiencing a downfall. Addiction can affect the poor in more disastrous ways than the rich.
With lack of money and health care, someone who is not wealthy may have a harder time
becoming rehabilitated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, crack cocaine became prevalent within
the black communities, was said to be a great threat to the white middle class, this wasn’t the
case (Szalacitz, nd). While white youth took plenty of cocaine, addictions rates did not skyrocket
because if they became hooked, they had a higher chance of recovering. Americas inner cities
are inundated with problems that are interrelated in complex ways. “These intersecting macro-
level social forces, such as poverty, race, family structure, and neighborhood characteristics,
ultimately constrain the life choices of those living in the inner city irrespective of personal traits,
individual motivations or private achievements”. (Dunlap, Johnson, Fackler, nd)Many inner-
cityhouseholds are distressed by unemployment, lack of education, family dissolution,
overcrowded housing, drug abuse and crime. On a micro-level inequality within drug abuse
stems from poverty, which is higher in American than in any other country. A high proportion of
workers are in poorly paid full-time jobs, with no way out of poverty. Most turn to drugs in order
to deal with the hardship that they face. “This causes that individual to lack work-readiness, this
includes being on time, coming in every day, and avoidance of problems, such as drug abuse and
crime.” (Dunlap, Johnson, Fackler, nd)This causes a cycle, where one loses their job, becomes
obedient to their drug of choice, and falls below the spectrum of a contributing factor to society.
Discrimination is a major cause of lack of diversity in higher education and the rest of
society. In the 1990s, race and gender discrimination still permeate the institutions and structure
