preview

Class Vs Race Essay

Best Essays

When asking the question, “Race versus Social class: Which really matters?” there are several important concepts that must first be addressed in order to approach this very complex query sufficiently. First, what do the terms “social class” and “race” signify? Also, in determining which really matters, the context of this question is crucial, in other words, to WHO or to WHAT or WHEN or WHERE or HOW each of these terms matters. All of these more specific questions are directly relevant to the answer and each may produce a contextually different explanation. So let’s define the terms we are evaluating and comparing and at the same time attempt to identify which really matters and in what context.
What is social class? Generally, …show more content…

An example of this is the period in United States history known as the Great Depression. Mass dire economic circumstances proved to be a class equalizer when the wealthiest of families who were considered to be in the upper tiers of the class hierarchy experienced dramatic changes to their lifestyle which necessitated struggling alongside those “lower class” groups who had previously and would otherwise have been beneath them.
Another fundamental aspect of “class” is that it is a universal phenomenon and thereby manifests itself all over the world. As such, the tendency to subject members of society to a certain class status or label within a social system is not a concept that is specific to the United States. An illustration of this is Great Britain’s famous class system which has traditionally been divided into three classes. These are: the upper class/ruling elite who are aligned to the monarchy; the middle class who are people born into wealth but not on the same class level as those with “good breeding;” and, the working class who provide labor but did not own any many of production. These divisions show that in the United Kingdom, class is only partially related to money and greatly owing to family ancestry (Liddell, 2013).
Even more perplexing than the initial concept of class are the complexities by which class is determined. Class can be measured both subjectively an objectively.

Get Access