Social inequality is a broad and general issue, one that is present in all contemporary societies. In the past, societies have differed greatly in their attitudes to inequality, but in the modern world, it would be hard to find any society whose members are indifferent to the problem. The study of the relationship between racism, racial discrimination, and racial inequality is called the sociology of racism. Racial discrimination relates to the unequal treatment of races, while racial inequality relates to unequal consequences like income, education, health, and so on. The sociology of racial inequality is exemplified in The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. Around the 18th century, as Europeans came upon non-European civilizations, scientists and philosophers gave race a biological definition. They applied the word to animals, plants, and humans as a taxonomic subclassification within a species. Race became understood as a biological categorization system of the human species. As Western colonialism and slavery developed, the idea was used to rationalize and advise exploitation, domination, and violence against peoples racialized as non-white.
Social inequality has always been one of the prime concentrations of sociology. As we all know, the living conditions and personal hygiene of slaves during the early 19th century were extremely poor. One of the main characters in The Invention of Wings is a slave named Hetty. She describes her normal day in this quotation, “ The day life turned into nothing this world could fix, I was in the work yard boiling slave bedding, stroking fire under the wash pot, my eyes burning from specks of lye soap catching on the wind” (3, Kidd). Slaveholders wanted to make their slaves completely dependent on them, and a system of constraining codes controlled the lives of slaves. They were not allowed to learn how to read and write, and their behaviour and movement was confined. Treatment was predominantly characterized by cruelty, shame, and inhumanity. Executions, whippings, and sexual abuse were usual, and slaves were refused to have educational opportunities. Income inequality could be explained by workplace discrimination and policies excluding blacks from well-paid jobs. A couple of states even forbade slaves from holding religious meetings, due to the fear that it would facilitate communication and could lead to a revolt. Sociologically, we can study social inequality as a social problem that surrounds three elements, structural conditions, ideological supports, and social reforms. Structural conditions involve things that can be objectively measured and that contribute to social inequality like wealth, poverty, educational achievement, and occupations. Ideological supports include ideas and assumptions that support the social inequality present in a society.
Sociologists study how things such as formals laws, public policies, and dominant values both lead to social inequality, and help sustain it. Social reforms are things such as organized resistance, protest groups, and social movements. Sociologists study how these social reforms help shape or change social inequality that exists in a society, as well as their origins, influences, and effects. One of the main metaphors in The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd are the wings Hetty’s mother mentions throughout the novel. As stated by her mother, the Africans used to have wings and were able to fly when they lived back in their own land. When the white men came and took them away, they lost their wings. Hetty dreams of the day she will find her wings and in this context, the wings are used as a metaphor for freedom. The present world is suffering from many obstacles that can be solved through the scientific study of society. It is the responsibility of sociology to study social problems through the methods of scientific research and to find a solution to them.
