Social Class From The Perspectives Of People Of Color, Women, And Gender Orientation

The purpose of this paper is to assess two research based articles from a psychology journal from two different time periods. The assessment was to compare the way gender, ethnicity, and class was represented in each of the articles and how they differ from each time period. The articles were chosen from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The first article was from 1976 titled, “Impact of fear of success and sex-role attitudes on women’s competitive achievement” (Peplau, 1976). The second article of interest was titled, “Psychological well-being and job stress predict marital support interactions: A naturalistic observational study of dual earner couples in their homes” (Wang & Repetti, 2014).

Intersectionality is the concept that is used when examining the interconnections between a group or a an individual dealing with race, class, culture, and gender. Since these groups intersect with one another, they cannot be examined separately. The term intersectionality was first coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, being a woman of color she argued that black women have to deal with two types of discrimination, racism and sexism. A combination of two types of discrimination, when studying an individual it hard not to intersect them with different types of discrimination. Crenshaw and other women of color would not have to deal with double discrimination if white women were not discriminated and if black people were not discriminated as well. Privilege then comes into play here, more importantly white privilege, having social advantages just by being born white. Having white privilege only goes so far, if you are a woman one still has the social advantages of being white, but then comes in sexism and male privilege. Where privilege and oppression intersect on not only an individual, but a type of group, being the white female. By being a white woman one can be privileged and oppressed at the same time. While if you are a woman of color you are discriminated more upon and more oppressed since you are not only dealing with one discrimination, but two.

In the All-New Volvo XC90 commercial the first words to appear on the screen is “What is Luxury?” In this commercial it appears that luxury can only be afforded by primarily white, rich males. The media in the United States has made a lot of progress towards showing gender and racial equality on TV but America still has a long way to go. As of 2015 white men still have a patriarchal ranking in media compared to women and minorities. This essay will be discussing how intersectionality, such as gender, race, and class, play a key part in gender roles in TV media today.

People in America hate to talk about social class, and part of the reason for this is that they rarely even interact with people who belong to other social classes. One recent study found that “…the growth in income inequality from 1970 to 2000 affected patterns of income segregation along three dimensions: the spatial segregation of poverty and affluence, race- specific patterns of income segregation, and the geographic scale of income segregation” (Reardon & Bischoff, 2011, p. 1092). This means that the more incomes stratify, the less people

Many African nations have fallen victim to colonisation and in South Africa, Apartheid, characterised by the separating of people according to their race, left an imprint on people’s lives, which has ultimately affected the ways in which races now associate with each other (Gqola, 2010). Cape town, which is the focus of this assignment was not exempt from this and just by leaving one’s home comfort zone and going to an unfamiliar area in order to observe the daily interactions allows one to gain insight into the intersections of race class and gender from a new, yet somewhat similar environment. In order to get a first-hand experience in Cape Town in an unfamiliar space I visited the Table view area and spent time both engaging with and observing the interactions that took place. Table view is located on the western side of cape town and during my visit I went to a public space know as Bayside Mall, which is frequented by many black, white and some coloured people residing in that area and possibly from outside such as myself. In conjunction with this visit, I also received personal experiences and opinions from black, white and coloured people currently residing in suburbs such as Flamingo Vlei and Parklands who have lived there for a considerable amount of time.

By living class status that implies that people often reaction and behave in coordination to what society stereotypes about a certain race, ethnicity, wealth, occupations, and even gender. The most common class status, in fact the most common for people to classify without knowing is the income of an individual or of a family. Although, it is applicable to be say that not everything or everyone is living by class status, but I do believe that class status no matter who you are, will always be a factor that someone thinks about. For instance, when purchasing a home, often people explore into the neighborhood looking for the ‘broken window’ effect because people with higher wealth are more likely to move away from a home of that caliber or even searching for a

A characteristic of the Caribbean is its level of versatility, attributing it as a cultural mosaic. One may consider how the islands came to be highly diversified, to which immigration would not be the most correct answer, but rather, the interplay of other factors, events, and circumstances. Like most other lands, the Caribbean too was ‘discovered’ by European explorers, accidently by Christopher Columbus on his way to Asia. Nonetheless, the Caribbean was already inhabited by indigenous peoples. However this was not a plausible reason for the European empires to refrain from considering the land theirs. This paper will prove that the concepts of class, color, and culture in the Caribbean are interconnected with European colonialism. Additionally,

     Families in the upper class, 5 percent of the U.S. population, earn more than $100,000 annually and may even earn ten times that much. Many members of the upper class work as top corporate executives or senior government officials. Typically, upper class people attend the most expensive and highly regarded schools and colleges. Historically, though less so today, the upper class has been composted of white Anglo-Saxton Protestants (WASP). The upper class often describes as “society” or “blue bloods”, included less than 1 percent o the U.S. Population. Members of the upper class are set apart by their wealth and live in a world of exclusives neighborhoods. Women of the upper-upper class often maintain a full schedule of volunteer work for chartable organizations. Most upper class people actually fall into the lower-upper class.

There are many different types of social classes not just rich, middle or poor class. What makes up a social class is all the people have the same resources. Blue collar workers or people with a lot of power or people higher education than others. Even with all these different classes, no matter what the class is it comes down to wealth and power. In society white collar workers are looked at being more smart and useful. Of this they get more money and more power, and this leads to them joining a certain type of social group that are just like them. It’s the same with blue collar workers, society sees them as being less smart and so they get payed less and have less power. So they are put into a social class with the same people like them. This goes on with the other types of social classes and it always comes back to power and wealth.

Social class has a large effect on the lifestyles of all Americans. But what does it really mean to be a part of the lower, middle or upper class? These divisions of social class are defined by aspects such as family income and lifestyle; however, education plays a large role in determining ones social class. That does not mean that it will determine success in ones life but to interpret, many people with a further education usually have a higher income as well. Those of the upper class have higher standards for education and career aspirations in contrast to those of the lower and middle class. Besides the differentiation of aspirations of the individuals of each social class, it is also used to determine who will go to college, depending

The authors of Race, Gender, Sexuality & Social Class emphasize the fact that the four systems of social inequality- race, gender, class and sexuality- are all socially constructed. Society has created social norms, and anything that goes against the perceived norms are frowned upon. The authors acknowledge that social expectations and arrangements have led the subordinate groups to lack access to information and resources that dominant groups control. (Ferguson 8). Specifically, members of oppressed groups lack access to medical care and education and experience high unemployment and poverty rates. As Ferguson points out, society has distorted or excluded the

Many people in recent years have made the argument that social class in the United States has disappeared. Key characteristics that defined different social classes in the past can no longer be applied to citizens of the United States today. While it may be true that it is harder to identify someone’s social class today, social class has not disappeared. Social class continues to be a factor in the daily lives of individuals and the decisions they make. Stephen Sweet and Peter Meiksins discuss how lower class individuals have limited opportunities for social mobility due to the high costs of college in the chapter “Economic Inequality, Social Mobility, and the New Economy” from their book Changing Contours of Work. Heather Boushey and Shawn Fremstad evaluate the resources, like retirement and healthcare, the people of lower classes do not have access to. As a small business owner that comes from a lower middle class background, my mother has felt the effects of social class divisions in the United States. Social class was a large factor in her pursuit of education, and social class affects her political values as well.

Despite what people may want to believe, we live in a stratified society. Inequality exists everywhere in nearly every society in some way. The United States is country built on the idea of being a meritocracy, where the hardest working and talented people succeed. However, inequality also exits in this country. Race, gender, sexuality, class, and other aspects of identity all work together to give privileges or hindrances to people in certain groups. The purpose of this anthropological study is to see how race, gender, class, and other factors interact with one another to shape a person or group of people’s life quality and social standing. (Guest 2014, 406) Today I went into a local target, bought myself a coffee, and sat down to watch the various workers and customers interact with one another.

The quest to understand Society is urgent for our well being and important for if we cannot understand the social world, we are more likely to be overwhelmed by it. In America society is stratified into social classes by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy, upper, middle and lower class. Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences but achievement based. For that matter, social class is a controversial issue due to the perceptions of people in each class and many argue that social inequality and racism play a vital role in the operation of society. Among the issues, one’s position in the social class hierarchy may impact their health, family life, education, political

Social classes are categories individuals are put into based on income, lifestyles, opportunities, job occupations, behaviors, and attitudes. Virtually all societies have a class system, and America is no exception. To prevent mixing of class systems “Class boundaries are maintained by limiting social interaction, intermarriage, and mobility into another class” (Tischler, 2014, P.181). How many social classes exist in American society is debatable, however many believe that there is only five. The five American social classes are upper class, upper-middle class, middle-middle class, lower-middle class, and lower class.