Meritocracy In Canada

From a very young age majority of children in Canada are taught, one can grow up and be anything they want to be as long as they work hard. Therefore, they are socialized to believe if they have the combination of factors including unique abilities, a good work ethic, intelligence, and credentials they will be successful. This would be true if Canada were a meritocracy. Meritocracy is defined as when advancement in society is based on individual ability or achievement rather than ones class or status. (Naiman, 2012, p. 218) However, after investigating social inequality and how a person’s positioning in the social categories of class, race and gender impact their opportunities, I feel compelled to make the argument that Canada is not a meritocracy …show more content…
starts his act by apologizing for being so negative. He admits, his life is not that bad and says “I’m healthy, I’m relatively young, and I’m white, which, thank God for that”. (Louis C.K., 2010) He proceeds to explain how even though there is nothing about white people that makes them better, being white is clearly an advantage in society. He is referring to the issue of white privilege, this the argument that being perceived as White guarantees various social advantages that most people in this category take for granted. (Naiman, 2012, p. 243) He says “here’s how great it is to be white, I could get in a time machine and go to any time, and it would be awesome when I get there, that is exclusively a white privilege. Black people can’t mess with time machines! A black guy in a time machine is like, hey, if it’s before 1980, no thank you. I don’t wanna go.” (Louis C.K., 2010) This quote from the clip is a reflection of the sociological issue of racism and how racial inequality impacts ones life opportunities. Although Louis uses the specific example of illustrating racism towards African Americans, for the purpose of this paper, I will be referring to and using examples that include all radicalized groups. There are many theories to explain why racial inequality exists, but I argue the Marxist perspective is the most correct, as there is an ample amount of evidence to support it. The Marxist perspective focuses on structures of power and how the capitalist owning …show more content…
Even though in Canada, human rights legislation prohibits racial discrimination, people are still discriminated against due to their ethnicity because there is no specific reference to equal work or equal value issues. (Harish, Sloane, & Horwitz, 2003 p. 160) Specifically, aboriginal people in Canada are among the most severely disadvantaged. According to the textbook Sociology In our Times “The unemployment rate for Aboriginal persons in Canada ranges from 15 to 25 percent, while the national average is about 5 percent” (Murray, Linden, and Kendall, 2014, p. 231) If that statistic was not daunting enough, “almost 25 per cent of Aboriginal workers earn less than 30,000 per year.” (Ontario Common Front, 2012 p. 22) In comparison with the average Canadian’s salary in 2012, which according to Statistics Canada was just over $45,000 a year. (Statistics Canada, 2015) One could argue, there is a correlation between the low employment rate of aboriginal people and the low percentile that have obtained higher education because their lack of opportunity to do so because in 2001 “only 8% of the 25-34 age group of Aboriginal peoples had a completed university degree, while 28% of all Canadians did.” (Canadian Council

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