Erving Goffman Norm Analysis

Erving Goffman provides a distinct lens to view society, as having heavily enforced social rules and regulations that create expectations of involvement for individuals. Goffman illustrates that individuals are solely responding to the regulations and rules given by society; society is built from structures of rules and regulations. In Goffman’s research, he contemplated about those who were sanctioned by mental hospitals whenever they broke societal rules. Goffman concludes, "Just as we fill our jails with those who transgress the legal order, so we partly fill our asylums with those who act unsuitably – the first kind of institution being used to protect our lives and property; the second, to protect our gatherings and occasions.” (Goffman 248). However, Goffman’s approach failed to acknowledge and analyze the significance of race and the niceties as to what group creates the “norm” that regulates all of society. In the United States today, White middle class culture produces the “norm” for our society, which disregards institutions being used as a sense protection for our lives and property, but instead institutions that are used to unjustly sanction those who break the rules.
Goffman analyzes society as if it were a stage in which everyone performs on. My
The article “Understanding Whiteness,” conveys the understanding of white privilege and advantages that are commonly experienced. American culture allows those who are white the privilege of not thinking about race in most situations or gatherings they encounter, as they are the majority. It is much easier to see the advantages of being White, when you are the minority or a person of color consistently regulated by white middle class