Essay on Defining Snobism

Stated in “The Myth of Inferiority” by T. Allen Culpepper, students who have hard lives are justified to having late papers, excessive absences, rewrite opportunities, but never plagiarized work. Throughout the article many examples are stated to support why. Students deal with financial instability, cope with economic hardships, and are always competing with obligations between family, work and school.

In the beginning of the year I entered this class with a very sheltered and ignorant view of current and past events. Through time and sociological evolution I have begun to see things in a different light. The development of my ability, to look at something or some kind of situation, lets me use the sociological terms in such a manner to relate them to micro and macro problems in society. This started with the assigned readings of the class; the aim was to decipher the messages the authors were presenting. The goal was then to dig deeper and use my experiences to help myself understand the concepts throughout the course. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited." Plutarch (46-120 CE--common era) I was no longer

Social class has been always been in our society since its establishment. Back then, white,

completely dismiss the workings of lower class society. In fact he goes one step further and

I’ve never taken into consideration how all of my experiences growing up has really formed the person that I am today. I’ve never really taken the time to think about my story of intersectionality until I took this class. I never realized how my inner, outer, experiential, relational, and developing identities have really constructed the person that I have become today. Many of my identities have influenced and changed my life especially my identities in social class, race and ethnicity, religion, citizenship and immigration status, first language I learned, my gender, and my gender expressions.

Society has always needed to take a certain initiative; to put an halt or at least tone down a certain persisting enduring. An example of such is the imbalance in power. For long since, into the very depths of history, there has been a issue in power distribution. This is true for numerous civilizations that date back all the way to the B.C time period. A example, in specific, is the reformation. Classism was too, reflected during the Reformation. The reformation was an instance in time where a man by the name of Martin Luther, proceeded to put forth opposition toward the Catholic ideology. He wished to remove the catholic church, so he organized an organization to take down the church. Whilst the war waged on, it could be noted that some degree of classism was apparent. As said before, classism is a major, recurring issue.

“With eyes for the most part downcast and, if ever they lighted on a fellow creature, at once and furtively averted, Bernard hastened across the roof. He was like a man pursued, but pursued by enemies he does not wish to see, lest they should seem more hostile even than he had supposed, and he himself be made to feel guiltier and even more helplessly alone.” (63)

Many of us have seen the small suffix “ism” on the end of many nouns. Some of them denoting action or practice like – “baptism”; state or quality like – “criticism”. Other nouns representing a system or ideological movement like - “communism” or “capitalism.” Also, this suffix is indicating a pathological condition like – “alcoholism”. However, the important definition that will help us to better understand our topic is that suffix “ism” denoting a basis for prejudice or discrimination. For example, there are many nouns such as: sexism, ageism, chauvinism, ethnocentrism, and racism that demonstrate some level of prejudice or discrimination. Thus, the word “classism”

The myth of meritocracy has been proven true in multiply sources. Studies have hypothesized this before when relating to upward mobility. Upward mobility in the last forty years has been more and more unlikely for years and years now. Factors like race, socioeconomic status, household makeup, and economic conditions of this country play a big role. I will go more indepth about this study by showing more facts in the following paragraphs.

The racial income gap illustrates that the United States is not a meritocracy society. A meritocracy society would be an area where everyone no matter what color or background they are from have the chance to succeed based on their own ability. Although it is certainly appealing and a magnificent way of viewing our society, in reality no society can ever truly function as a meritocracy and therefore having no control at birth and the environment where we grow up, and who we get surrounded with puts major races, especially in the United States in disadvantage, a country that is far from meritocratic compared to other nation.

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).

The idea of social inequality dates back since the time of our founding fathers. The mistreatment and unlawful equality and opportunity that these foreigners received became embedded into our history—this endless list includes, just to name a few, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and most notably the African Americans (Blacks), who became slaves to the American people. Here in the United States, the current social class system is known as the class system, where families are distributed and placed into three different existing class—the upper class (wealthy), middle class (working), and lower class (poor). Since then, improvisations have been worked on into the class system, establishing now roughly six social classes: upper class, new money, middle class, working class, working poor, and poverty level. Social stratification is a widely common topic of debate because there have since been many arguments and debates on this controversial situation of social inequality and how it relates to social class and social mobility. According to Economist Robert Reich, he states that "The probability that a poor child in America will become a poor adult is higher now than it was 30 years ago..." (Reich, par. 5), meaning the given amount of equality, opportunity, and support that these struggle families obtain have gone mainly unnoticed by the government that it has gotten worst. The constant uproar of social inequality and injustice that these middle and lower working class families stem

Do Americans believe meritocracy exists in America? Do talented people who work hard earning the reward that they deserve? Do talented people have enough challenges for their promotion that they merit? Living in the United States, many people think meritocracy exists because people expect about the opportunities to learn, to work, to earn, and to deserve. People also think they may have chances to earn what they deserve because the trusting of meritocracy. However, talented people do not receive any adequate reward as they expect. Meritocracy does not exist in America and becomes a myth for many debates. Moreover, most talented people in America who work hard still have fewer resources, less promotion,

Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 and it depicts key themes in society and the impact these themes had on life for the characters in the novel. One of these themes is social class, which was a chief contributor to the characters problems in the story. Social class is an underlying issue in the lives of the characters and greatly affects the decisions they make during the novel. Every character is aware of the importance of social standing and it becomes a key factor in the development of each individual in Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Bennet is the mother of five daughters and she is desperate to have them married. Elizabeth wants to marry for love and not social gain. Charlotte is the example of what a woman was expected to

In the United states, social classes is a controversial issue in terms of defining the actual nature of the classes themselves. Many individuals have categorized the society into three elementary groups that is the “poor”, “middle class” and the “rich”. Additionally, a more complex system of social classes is derived from the three elementary classes. In this regard, a four-class system includes “the capitalist/upper class”, “the middle class”, “the working class” and “the lower class” (Thompson, 2005). Moreover, sociologists have expanded the for-class system into a six class system includes “the capitalist or upper class”, “the upper-middle class”, “the middle class”, “the working class”, “the lower-working class” and “the lower class”.