Not All Humans Are Created Equal In Society In Mike Rose's Class In America

In Class Matters, Bill Keller examines the meaning of the word class and how it plays on the life of the US citizens.According to Class Matters, a class is represented as four cards, one from each suit: education, income, occupation, and wealth. Based on your cards you are put into a class. Most people end up with the same cards as their parents. Keller explains how a class can be predetermined by a person’s upbringing or how they were raised. In this book, Bill Keller suggests that it is quite difficult to move into other social classes than the one we were born in, or a class we have been associated with for a long time. Based on the reading of this book along with other resources, moving into other social classes is exceptionally

Social inequality is a situation where some members of the society enjoy different amounts of wealth prestige and power. The society has placed its members in rankings through unequal economics rewards and power. American society like all other nations has had its systems of socially stratifying its inhabitants. This began from the era of slavery where there was legalized inequality and human ownership among other forms. Zinn portrays this inequality even up to the present where racism acts continue to occur as indicated by the various killings carried out by the police to the black young men with an excuse that they were caught in an act of crime. In the present society, the social class system has dominated the American society. The upper class includes those who are extremely wealthy and they are few, the upper-middle class includes those who have affluent professions like the doctors and lawyers. The other group is the lower-middle class which includes the nurses and small business owners among others with less affluent professions. The others are the working class where most people lie and finally the lower class who are mostly dependants. According to Zinn, American children become conscious of their social class through

In the article, “The Shadowy Lines that Still Divides,” by Scott and Leonhardt, the author is arguing that 30 years ago the class system was more clear, but in today’s society, the class system is not so obvious and got complicated. Therefore, there are a lot of individuals who think American society became classless. I think even though people do not consider income as a factor of class and think American society is no longer divided, but the division still exists in the form of opportunities, education, race, religion, occupation, lifestyle, residence areas, and political opinions. Additionally, with the passage of time, the mobility should have been rising as a result of improved educational opportunities and programs such as affirmative

In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios (Myths and Realities 2000) shows us how what class a person is in affects his or hers life more than they think. This article is written sufficiently well however, it does have some weak spots. I will prove my thesis by examining his use of examples and showing factual data and statistics, but also show how this article could have been better.

Last class we watched an informative documentary named “People like Us, Social Class in America”. America is known to be a country defined by class. Throughout the movie it showed different opinions on what class was based on by different people and the answers varied from looks, house size, career choice, race, manners, upbringing, and education. As we move through life, most times we remove ourselves from different people not in our class to then live amongst those who share similar backgrounds and who we are most comfortable with. As stated, “if there is class, there is an inequality one cannot explain and it perpetuates itself”. Revealing class can expose hope, fears, prejudice and a myriad of different emotions that we may not all be comfortable speaking about. I feel as if part two and part three were most applicable to myself because they are something that I have experienced both directly and indirectly.

In the first article titled “Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios the discussion on class affecting the United States negatively is brought up. Gregory talks about the fact that people do not choose to be poor but they are put into situations where they cannot move up in class. Due to the fact that class creates an immense gap in communities, there are many issues linked to being categorized as the lower class. In the article Gregory states that “class affects more than lifestyle and material well being. It has a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being as well.” CITE) The author connects the idea that if you are in the lower class than you will also deal with other issues include your mental and physical health declining. Alongside this idea, the author also states “All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed, and class mobility in the United States is lower than that of the rest of the industrialized world. (CITE) This goes along with the idea that once your born into a class, breaking out of it is virtually impossible. The author is also making the point that in the United States class is more problematic than other developed nations and because of this not everyone is given the chance to break free from a poor lifestyle.

Today, our society is a very judgemental and economic status based society. I will be looking throughout 3 stories using the Marxist lens. We tend to think that we are all split up into different class mainly based on wealthiness, race, gender and ethnicity. People tend to think that the more money you have the more economic status and power you should have over lower class people. Marxists believe that a human’s ability to produce goods and services means people can move past the conflicts of a society that is divided into classes. “First class and coach land at the same runway at the same time.” The person who said this quote was steve jobs and I really loved it because it showed how the classes arent that different. People should not be treated any differently based on economic status and wealth.

One component of this idea is a social mobility. Social mobility is the movement of individuals or families within layers of social stratification. For example, if some family of first generation of immigrants (who are usually considered as low-income families) will work hard and get some college education, they probably can improve their social-economic status and move upward direction to the lower-middle class or even to the middle class level. However, to move from the low-income class status upward to the upper class status will be very difficult or even impossible for this family. As was written above, only 1-3% of American population is in the upper or upper-upper classes and this is like “private club” for the rest of population. The membership of this “club” is difficult to earn; many members of this upper class group received their statuses from their parents or grandparents and this looks like a “cast” of privileged people. This privilege gives many advantages and influence in political, educational, religious and other institutions. These advantages make upper class as a dominate group and underprivileged lower classes as subordinate group; and this stratification is describing classism. Carol Brantley and her colleagues (2003) state that “Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated groups (people without endowed or acquired economic power, social influence, and privilege) who work for wages for dominant group (those who have access to control of the necessary resources by which other people make their living).” Classism says that upper class members are more educated and smarter than low-income and working classes’ members because they and their children can afford very expensive or exclusive education worldwide. Whereas, oppressed groups are lacking this opportunity to get prestige

I think Montsios’ point that, “Class standing has a significant impact on the chance for educational achievement” (Monsios 193). I think this statement is very true, because it is very apparent that there is a huge education gap in the United States due to income. People of higher incomes can have the luxury of sending their kids to better schools, private or public, and have the ability to give them a college education without having to worry about the financial costs, while people of lower classes cannot have this luxury. This is absolutely ridiculous, because this country was founded on the idea of equality, and having an equal and free country to pursue opportunity. Just like the educational side of this, people also struggle with in the sense of survival and

Every person has a different idea of self worth. Worth has been linked to success and materials in this capitalistic and materialistic world. The United States wrote in its declaration of independence how each citizen has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and this saying has lasted throughout the generations. Class divisions have been set to distinguish between the lowest, the middle, and the ultra wealthy. These classes leave a lasting effect on the people and their idea of worth. To grow old in a nation where your life is deemed to be low class can negatively affect mental health and how people see themselves. Being born into a certain class will automatically place you beneath a percent and above others. What

Many believe that there is no more class separation. To many people it almost appears to be classless. In the article Shadowy Lines That still Divide it says “At a time when education matters more and more than ever, success in school remains linked tightly to class…. At a time of extraordinary advances in medicine, class difference in health and lifespan are wide and appear to be widening”. Even today education is more available for kids with money especially collage. Many colleges have very high cost and most good college is very costly. Like education, health care is also another factor that shows the division between the social classes. Many lower classes can not afford health care and can not pay for medicines. The lifespan of the lower class would be lower than that of a higher class due to the fact that higher class can afford better treatments. The American dream would be easier for the upper class to achieve because they can get a better education and better health care. In the Great Gatsby, the class separation is demonstrated through the two sides; West Egg and East Egg. Only wealthy people with a social class live in east Egg

This is a large issue in society and why people are not treated equal. In the reading “America’s On Sale” a valid point is written with the text, “AMERICA’S ON SALE! (restrictions may apply if you’re black, gay or female) which subsequently means those specific people are unlike the American dream, society doesn’t want the individuals to have the opportunity to achieve the dream because they are classified as different and not the ideal stereotypical white American. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” inequality of class is shown through two female characters, Jordan and Myrtle. Fitzgerald proposes that “She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.

Concept 1: I come to realize that classism is degree of difference based on social perceived class, which is all teetering on one paycheck. I also come to understand, from the movie American Winter, that middle class people are finding themselves, laid off, foreclosed, and unable to pay their utility bills causing so many people in our own community to be one paycheck from poverty, eviction and homelessness. The middle class is working hard one day and the next day going to homeless shelters, food banks and even selling their own plasma just to put food on the table (Gantz 2013). Homeless shelters are quickly

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

Class is the relative location of a person or group within a larger society based on wealth power, prestige, or other valued resources. In other words, class can be defined as a socioeconomic status in which one’s capital defines their class position thus giving us a ranking of financial status. This categorization of class position is based on economic status that can be determined through income, profession, or inherited wealth. Blue collar (working class), white collar, and upper class (professional services) are the three class categories based on economic status. This class structure is society’s way of determining between the haves and have-nots. One’s ability to be aware of the class system and one’s place within it is known as class consciousness or class standing.