Great Thinkers on the Issue of Inequality

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, Color Consciousness: The Political Morality of Race by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Amy Gutmann, Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison System by Michel Foucault, and “Supersize Your Child?” by Richard Hayes all provide interesting and valuable insights into the creation of inequality in our social and political systems. The readings discuss the role of race, socioeconomic status, and class on the development of a stratified society and address powerful and important issues concerning the genesis of discrimination and disparity in contemporary society. A deep and complex understanding of these issues is essential for informed members of the global community and these various authors, from their often widely disparate viewpoints and focuses, provide a fascinating portrait of the roots of injustice in the world. These authors deserve to be read and considered with great attention to detail, given the potential of their work to influence the way we view the social and economic conditions that shape society.

Freire’s book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is one of the most brilliant studies of the forces that create class struggle and how subjugated citizens disregarded by the elites who shape the socioeconomic class system can break free of the bonds that shackle them. As Richard Shaull states in the introduction, Freire’s “early sharing of the life of the poor also led him to the discovery of what he describes as ‘the culture of silence’ of the dispossessed. He came to realize that their ignorance and lethargy were the direct product of the whole situation of economic, social and political domination—and of the paternalism—of which they were victims” (31). The fact that poverty and alienation create a vicious cycle where the disenfranchised lose hope in their ability to change the system is an essential element of Freire’s work. Freire recognizes the destructive effects of inequality on the poor and marginalized and develops an ingenious system to aid the political and social empowerment of these members of society. This method of helping the oppressed gain a voice in society hinges of Freire’s unique ideas regarding education.

Freire recognizes that the dominant manner in which education is presented is woefully incapable of inspiring the oppressed to break free of the sociopolitical system that marginalizes them. Freire refers to the classical methodology of education as the “banking concept” and states that “in the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider knowing nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry” (72). Freire clearly believes that the most common educational methods used throughout the world fail to provide students of oppressed backgrounds with the tools necessary to escape marginalization, and in fact that such tactics implicitly contribute to the plight of the marginalized. While Freire may be correct that the current educational paradigm in many ways fails to fully engage students of disadvantaged backgrounds, his criticisms of mainstream educational techniques are in some ways heavy-handed. Educators do not always project “absolute ignorance” onto their students, and in many cases, particularly as one advance in the world of academia, a great deal of foundational knowledge is expected of the student and the interactions between pupil and educator occur on much more egalitarian footing. Still, Freire is largely correct that the current educational system, particularly at the most basic level where many oppressed citizens encounter their only formal education, fails to properly engage the student body.

The role of race on the socioeconomic stratification that leads to oppression and marginalization is another incredibly important issue that we find addressed by Kwame Anthony Appiah in his book Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. As Michele M. Moody-Adams states, “Appiah’s essay...considers whether the demands for political recognition of racial identities are compatible with American requirements of political morality” (408). The answer to this question is essential to an informed discussion of the role of race in American social and political society, and Appiah’s answer is as close to a definitive resolution to the issue as will likely ever be seen. Appiah brilliantly addresses what elements inform our view of racial identity as a society and what the political implications of this viewpoint are. However, a more involved look at Appiah’s work is required to fully grasp the implications of his statements regarding this matter.

Appiah questions the very existence of race as concrete biological construction, stating that “I have already declared myself on the question of whether I think there are any races. I think there aren’t. So it is important that I am clear that I also believe that understanding how people think about race remains important…” (38). Appiah correctly asserts that there is no scientific definition or proof of race and that it remains solely a social construct, yet one with a demonstrably powerful impact on our society. The author’s emphasis on the artificial and nebulous nature of the race is an essential element of any discussion on racial issues, and one that is too often ignored. However, he correctly asserts that simply because race is a manufactured idea does not mean that racism is not a real issue. Appiah’s views on race and racism are valuable insights into the creation of racial justifications for social stratification and how we as a society can break such barriers down.

Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination is a further exploration of the impact of race on the oppression of certain members of society. Reamy Jansen refers to the book as containing “Eady’s most sustained and intense views to date on race and racism in America.” The poetry in the book creates a vivid image of the ease through which black Americans are marginalized by the white-dominated culture and the destructive effects this has on the psyche of many African Americans. The poems powerfully depict the tendency and ability of white Americans to discount the humanity of their African American peers in many ways more powerfully than could be expressed by more straightforward political language. Eady’s work provides some phenomenal insights into the mentality of the oppressed and subjugated.

One of the more fascinating outgrowths of the gap between the powerful and powerless in society has been the emergence of prisons as the most popular form of punishment for criminals, a development described in a great deal in Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison System. As Foucault states, prisons began to emerge after “a few decades saw the disappearance of the tortured, dismembered, amputated body, symbolically branded on face or shoulder, exposed alive or dead to public view. The body as the major target of penal repression disappeared” (8). The fact that the prison system largely replaced more gruesome historical methods of meting out justice is an important aspect of the historical development of power dynamics in society, but it does not mean that the oppressed have managed to escape the wrath of the powerful. In addition, other critics have taken issue with Foucault’s work.

Many believe that Foucault’s work fails to take into account some of the most important aspects of the prison environment and the development of the penal system. As C. Fred Alford states, “the empirical reality of prison (not the same thing as the discourses of penology) shows Foucault to be wrong” (125). Clearly, although Foucault’s ideas regarding the development of the penal system and power dynamics at play within such an environment are intriguing and worthy of further study, they are far from proven empirical facts and deserve to be treated with a healthy amount of skepticism as such. The social construction of power within the prison system is an important issue worthy of a great deal of study, and while Foucault’s viewpoint is well researched and groundbreaking further examination of the issue is required.

Another issue that will have a great deal of impact on the future of inequality within the human race is genetic engineering. As Richard Hayes states, “Will the use of genetic engineering to redesign our children exacerbate inequality? Amazingly, the neo-eugenic advocates don't deny that it will. As good libertarians, they celebrate free markets and social Darwinism, and counsel us to accept a rising tide of genetically enhanced inequality as the inevitable result of human ingenuity and desire.” The future ability of select wealthy members of society to genetically manipulate their offspring will give rise to a new and terrifying level of socioeconomic inequality, potentially creating barriers to class mobility that are literally physically impossible to transcend. This issue is one of the most important facing the future of humanity, and the decisions that we as a society make regarding this dilemma will likely shape our future discussions regarding the role of inequality in society for generations to come.

The previously referenced authors have all done amazing work illuminating the various social, economic, racial, educational, and technological causes of inequality in American and global society. Clearly, there are myriad intertwining factors that create the largely insurmountable divisions between social and economic classes and a multifaceted approach is needed to properly address these issues. The problem of inequality is one of the defining issues of our time and immediate action needs to be taken to eliminate this scourge. By examining the viewpoints and focuses of these authors we can begin to see the steps that need to be taken towards greater social justice and socioeconomic equality.

Works Cited

Appiah, K. A., & Gutman, A. (1996). Color Consciousness: The Political Morality of Race. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Alford, C. F. (2000). What would it matter if everything Foucault said about prison were wrong? Discipline and Punish after twenty years. Theory and Society, 29, 125-146.

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. New York: Pantheon Books.

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th-anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum.

Hayes, R. (2004, February 15). Supersize Your Child?. Alternet. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://www.alternet.org/story/17859/supersize_your_child

Jansen, R. (2002). Cornelius Eady Lyric & Dramatic Imagination. The Bloomsbury Review, 22(1). Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://www.bloomsburyreview.com/Archives/2002/Cornelius%20Eady.pdf

Moody-Adams, M. M. (1999). A Commentary on Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. Ethics, 109(2), 408-423.