I Am Not From The Middle Class

“The percentage of Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower class has risen from a quarter of the adult population to about a third in the past four years, according to a national survey of 2,508 adults by the Pew Research Center” (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/10/a-third-of-americans-now-say-they-are-in-the-lower-classes/). Today’s adults stating that they are in the lower class are most likely to have had a rough life growing up, and can now not escape the lower class. Social class is the idea of “a division of a society based on social and economic status” (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/social-class). Social class has the greatest impact on who a person turns out to be and what decisions they make because those

These practices help maintain the status quo, helping low-income families remain poor. Moreover, it requires these low-income families to depend on government assistance, such as low-income housing and welfare. The reliance on assistance programs groups the poorest people in the same housing projects and communities, overwhelming schools with low-income students. Not only do these real estate practices concentrate the poorest in an area together, they also drive the often whiter, more affluent families out. The majority of poor feel they have no opportunity to transcend class restrictions, and the property taxes that fund our schools do not alleviate their stress. Further, homogeneous collections of poor means that school populations are rarely as diverse as we believe.

Writer Gregory Mantsios in his article “Class in America”, talks about these things, and how wide the gap is between the rich and the poor and also discusses how the rich continue to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Mantsios gives his readers the profiles and backgrounds of three hard-working Americans, two of them are white males, whose family background as well as education played a role in their success, while the other person is a black woman who is just above the poverty line despite her work as a nurse’s aide. Through these profiles, Mantsios article shows exactly how sex, race and shows how your parental and educational background of a person can play a role in the things that you achieve. Mantsios also talks about one’s performance in school and the level of school completed can suggest whether or not class that person may belong in.

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

One of the most important things affected by class is education. People who are part of the low-income class have to overcome obstacles that people in the high-income class don't have to worry about. High-income families have access to the best private schools and tutors money can buy. Low-income families have to either settle to send their children to the assigned neighborhood school of apply to have their children bussed to better school districts. In the novel The Color of Water by James Mcbride, we meet a child named James. James and his siblings are part of

The axis of inequality that will be focused throughout this paper is the social class. Social class is defined as a group of individuals who are categorized according to class (i.e. poor, middle, and upper) due to their income, wealth, power, and occupation. Social class is socially constructed by the way we view how much income and wealth a person possess (Ore, 20011a, 10). In reality it is much more than that. According to the text, poverty is not only the shortage of income, but it is the rejection of opportunities and choices that leads a person to a standard way of living (Ore, 2011a, 10). Stereotyping also contributes to it being socially constructed. These stereotypes influence us by defining who is who based on their principles in each class category. This can cause some to feel worthless.

Children just starting school experience different forms of hierarchy at early ages, primarily differences between social and economic classes, but easily can be labeled victims. There are numerous arguments that support the awareness between the upper, middle, and lower classes, and these arguments are often talked about. There are also specific theories and ideologies that follow the sociological and psychological actions of the victims. The poorer communities are less fortunate, following a cycle, representing the breaks of education and limited community support. With the American Democratic system, public issues are often ignored in the systematic association of poverty. Issues such as health, privacy, and protection are common, and education is pushed to the side. Plausibly, these issues represent a wider picture of the vast issues in America, and economic

Research shows that low income people fighting to move up in society are only trapped in the lower class due to the limitations given from state and federal aid programs. Most of the lower class would like to believe that they will get ahead, but the sad truth is most will stay trapped in the lower class. This is affecting not only the adults, but children as well. “More than one out in [of] eight” (VartaAnian, Houser and Harkness) people in the U.S. are receiving help from some of these types of federal aid program. There are a number of diverse and complex factors that contribute to these issues for the low income people in America. This is not something that has just recently became an issue, it has been around for many of years and also

As a nation, we currently provide foundational education (K-12) to any and all. Despite the fact that public schools have built the educational foundation within the United States, these schools can be riddled with inequalities that target marginalized identities. Due to the prevalence of inequality within public schools, many are fighting for the reformation of these schools. Many public schools do not obtain enough funding from the state or federal level, as a result, these schools rely on funding from the local level, which is detrimental to the development of schools in low-income communities. These classist boundaries create public schools that are overcrowded, underfunded, and required to follow an ineffective uniform model of teaching based on curriculum expectations. According to the United States Department of Education, failing to ensure that districts start with a ‘level playing field’ in terms of federal funding allocated to support student needs, both creates and exacerbates a system of ongoing inequity. According to American Progress, schools with 90 percent or more students of color spend a full $733 less per student per year than schools with 90 percent or more white students (Spatig-Amerikaner, 2012). The system does not distribute opportunity equitably, as much of the public education funding is derived from local property

Today in America, there is a specific class of people who are slowly dwindling away into nonexistence. These people had a dream, the American Dream, they dreamed of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For some people, this dream was broken down into having a white picket fence with 2.5 kids, a house, and a car. However, today these people are not dreaming they are hoping; hoping to get through another day by making ends meet. These people—which are the core pillar holding up the American Dream—are a part of the middle class Americans. The middle class in America has been on a quick decline in recent years; in order to restore the middle class America will have to reshape our economic structure by lowering the deficit on the middle

“Approximately 13 percent of the American population- that is, nearly, of every eight people in this country- live below the official poverty line,” (Mantsios 179). I define being wealthy as having an immense amount of money, enough to not be stressed about paying bills.

In “Is Class the New Race?” John Sutter explores the growing “income inequality” in the United States, which is “now on par with many sub-Saharan African countries” (Sutter). By utilizing the 50th anniversary of "The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" the author demonstrates how class has become the new race, marginalizing a large portion of citizens. These individuals are not only denied the American dream of "work hard and you'll get ahead,” but they are also deprived of an equal education, which compounds the issue (Sutter).

USA is a very big country with a lot of people and the social classes are very important. We can see that social class plays big part of people’s life. Everyday people are working, studying, trying to be better. Even though right now it’s time when everyone has many opportunities in his life, anyway there is a gap between classes and groups of people with same features. And your background probably will build your future. And we need to find what kind of class we have right now and look into these classes. The main idea is that Social Classes still exist and it’s most general part of U.S.A society. There are three reasons why gap between groups still exist.

Poverty within neighborhoods throughout the United States has increased immensely throughout the past 50 years. In 2011, nearly 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty compared to the 353,000 Americans who lived in poverty in 1959. (Dosomething 1) Poverty is hardly just defined as a lack of financial resources, it is defined as a condition that results in an absence of the freedom to choose arising from a lack of the capability to function effectively in society. (Poverty and Education 1)  For a person to be impoverished or to be living in a state of poverty is to live where they do not have the economic means to provide a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their family.  A majority of public school students across the country are considered “low-income”, according to a new study by the Southern Education Foundation.  Areas of concentrated impoverishment are often characterised by crime, unemployment, and lack of resources.  Children represent 24 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty.  The shift to a majority-poor student population implies that a growing range of students who attend public schools are less likely to possess support at home, are less often exposed to enriching activities outside of school, and are more likely to drop out and never attend higher education.  Children living in poverty have a higher number of absenteeism or leave school altogether because they are likely to have to work or care for family

Income inequality plays a major role in the education disparity present in communities such as West Chelsea. The economic hardship several families experience affects the way a child grows up and the certain education they receive. As seen in Class Divide, more privileged children can attend schools such as The Avenues where they are given opportunities to grow and learn, while less privileged students are