Abusing The Lower Class Essay

Violating a norm, in society today, can make some people look at you incredibly differently from what is normal. Depending on the norm that is disrupted, some people make react differently than perhaps someone with different views. I decided to experiment with breaking the norm of conversational distance. “Social Distance” has separate zones that are a general rule of a conversation based on how well a person knows the people they are talking to. While defying the norm of social distance, I received two different reactions due to the difference in people I attempted it with. Disturbing a social norm can either make people uncomfortable or act okay with it, depending on different variables.

In our society we have a number of society norms that we abide by. For example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator. For example, it is proper to face front, stand away from strangers, and not to look at others. When a social norm is broken people may respond with alarm, humor, fear, irritation, or an array of other emotions. When you think of a norm, you are probably thinking about being normal. But in psychology terms, norm means, a standard or representative value for a group. The norm that is more common to people is a social norm. Meaning expectations about what behavior, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within a given group within a given context.

There are scarcely any public to advocate for new laws to help the deprived and there are virtually none to compel the government along with the legislature to amend the laws to protect the weak and the poor. Even after so many years of independence, no sincere efforts have been made

We live in a world where every day we wake up trying to make a living and get onto the next day repeating the same thing over and over. Waking up each day and realizing that you are not able to survive in this world without any money can have a huge impact towards any goal you are trying to reach. In some cases we tend to set the bar high but there is only one problem, how are we going to get enough money to pay for our future goals? Growing up in the working class has been a ride to remember. Experiencing poverty can also have a great affect in your life. After reading three amazing articles one by Richard Rodriguez the second by Barbara Ehrenreich and the last one by Bell Hook, I have learned that there is so much more than to be classified into a class (working class, middle class, and poverty).

In many cases, there seems to be a biased when it comes to the rights of minorities when being accused of crimes. Some believe minorities or people of color are pulled over or suspected more often than whites, and others believe jurors can be biased when a minority person is being charged with a crime. Either way, minorities seem to not be given the same fair treatment and rights when accused as whites, or majorities, are given. For example, in Illinois v. Caballes 2005 the court ruled that the Constitution did not require police to have reasonable suspicion to use a drug-detection dog on a car during a legal traffic stop. This may leave room for preferential treatment towards whites (majority) who are seen making a traffic violation, and minorities who are seen making a traffic violation. A police officer may see two cars speeding, one car with a white male driving and another car with a Hispanic man driving, if he were to choose to pull over the Hispanic male and not pull over the while male, then this can be seen as protecting the rights of the majorities over the minorities. (Illinois v. Caballes

“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” Said Justice John Marshall Harlan in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. (“Oyez, Oyez, Oh Yay!”) In 1890 Louisiana surprisingly got the ability to pass a law called the Separate Car Act that said that all railroad companies that carried passengers must provide separate but equal services for both white and non-white passengers. (“Landmark Cases”) The penalty for sitting in a white-designated railroad car when you were not of that ethnicity was a fine of twenty-five dollars or twenty days in jail. (“Landmark Cases”) There was a doctrine passed that everything was “separate but equal.” This doctrine was false however because in almost all situations the

In 1958, a man named George Mowry explains s economic, social, and political divisions of the progressivism movement. The progressivism movement ties in a lot with our society today and shows how history does indeed repeat itself. Mowry describes the good, and bad of progressivism, but emphasizes the bad. Mowry is really trying to exhibit the differences between capitalism and socialism in his essay and explain why progressivism is not good for the well being and future of America, which can be proven today but our economic instability and division as a nation. More importantly however Mowry displays how progressives try to create, “heaven on earth” by their moral actions.

Literature on the effects of low socioeconomic status (SES) on one’s psychological well-being is well established. Prior studies show that low-SES not only impacts individuals’ mental well-being, but also affects their children’s developmental trajectories. This paper reviews one of these numerous studies and further discusses the influences of parental SES on one’s life outcomes, as well as intergenerational mobility and achievement gap through a developmental perspective.

There has been a long struggle for the equality of races built from blatant racism and the belief that one race is superior over the other. In some events there has been concern over constitutional rights being ignored creating inequality favoring whites over blacks. The Supreme Court Case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 and Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 both dealt with black American citizens who felt discriminated against based on their race. Plessy v. Ferguson had determined that “separate but equal” was fair, but Brown v. Board challenged the previous ruling on racial equality and decided separate could never be equal.

Throughout our country’s history we have proclaimed a love for equality for all; however there have been times were this was not so. Someone could think of many examples of times where the equality of every individual was not upheld, but today, legislation is considered to be race neutral. Today, laws must be formally equal. We live in a time after slavery and after Jim Crow which deliberately placed African-Americans at a disadvantage. Because of this, laws are meant to be race neutral. One can then suspect that the effects of those laws, written in race neutral language will also be race neutral. However, this may not be the case. It could very well be that the effects of some laws disproportionately, and

A chiefly odious ruling was written in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Argued before the Court in 1896 and ultimately overruled by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Court, heard the case of a man named Plessy. One-eighths black, Plessy boarded a white-only car only which resulted in his arrest and jailing for violating of discriminatory segregationist statutes. The Court, under Justice Henry Billings Brown’s majority opinion, affirmed these segregationist policies establishing the infamous ‘separate but equal’ doctrine. As history would prove, the accommodations made for nonwhite Americans in many cases failed to even approach the threshold of equal. Plessy v. Ferguson stands in direct conflict with the promise of “equal justice under law”. With such a narrow interpretation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, which in part provided for equal protection under law, the Court yielded great deference to a harsh sociopolitical environment, ultimately sanctioning the segregation that would defile the American dream for many years, until Brown v. Board. The only dissenter in this case, Chief Justice John Harlan’s now-canonic phrase “our Constitution is color-blind,” (Hutchison, 427) reminds us that, contrary to the idea of the majority in this

Social class refers to the system of stratification of the different groups of people in a society. These different forms of classification are, in most instances, based on gender ethnicity and age. Social class makes everyone’s lives extremely different. For example: How long one can expect to live. In a wide range of ways, from success, to one’s health class, social class influences people’s lives (Grusky,2003).

One example of racial discrimination in the United States is in the period of Japanese Internment during WWII. To categorize instances of discrimination, one can say that a large portion of the issue was when the government decided to overlook some of its underlying principles. Another is when the United States court system and its jurors made decisions directly reflecting the fear and angry misconceptions set inside of each of them. However, all of these prejudices are driven by ignorance and confusion. Although the majority of the citizens of the United States believed that removing Japanese Americans from populated areas during WWII was a reasonable and necessary decision, there is evidence to counter this idea in arguments regarding Executive Ordinance 9066, the Korematsu trial, and prejudice within

Right on the first page in chapter six it discusses the privilege groups discomfort about discussing privilege. Yes, it is true for so many and for those who don’t feel discomfort, I call you brave and open minded. But, it is a hard thing to discuss especially with a non-privileged group of individuals. I, for one also feel discomfort and defensive sometimes in those situations, and that could be from a number of different reasons. Whether it is because I feel guilty, ashamed, judged, etc. For this I will talk about race, for those who are white, we are born this way, we didn’t choose to be white and there’s nothing you can do about it. You were born into the privileged group here in America. But, it is something that we need to accept and admit to, we are the privileged group but, we don’t because of this nasty stigma about race. Race has turned into this sharp word that scares people when it is mentioned. We, as educators need to change the stigma of that word. We need to make it so people of privilege and non privilege can discuss privilege and race with out discomfort or being offended. In this class, our race discussion had brought up white privilege and at first it was not comfortable but, as you admit to it, the easier it is to discuss.

1. How may a student's social class origin and related factors impact on her/his learning outcomes and how can teachers intervene to effectively address any resulting disadvantages and injustices for students?