Social Class Reflection

Many individuals interpret diversity differently specifically in the United States because of its melting pot of distinct cultures and lifestyles. In his essay “People Like Us”, David Brooks’ argues that although the United States is a diverse nation as a whole, it is homogeneous in specific aspects like interactions between people. To some extent, his observation is true; people tend to stick to what or who they are comfortable with. There are also exceptions where the American people attempt to establish relationships with others because of their desire to expand out of their norm. For instance, Brooks excludes the

It appears to be that the discussion of race and class in America has become amplified, especially in the last couple of years. For many, it is a touchy subject that hits close to home. With the presence of social media and news that feeds off of racial tension in America, the issues are polarizing and difficult to productively discuss. America’s handling of race and class relations is generally not something to be proud of, and there exists a long history of issues with race. It is clear that there is a lack of understanding and empathy of what others experience toward those who are oppressed. So often it is too easy to dismiss another human’s experiences as reality if one has had no prior encounter with the same challenges. Race is easy to sweep under the rug, but we must address the problem, and it is not a one size fits all solution. It is a problem that has been years in the making and continues to have an enormous impact on our human capital from an economic standpoint. And most of the time, there is a correlation between race and class.

There was a time when America was segregated; Caucasians and African Americans were forced to attend different restrooms, restaurants, and water fountains. However, the era of segregation has been terminated; now America embraces and appreciates the various cultures and ethnicities that create this melting pot several people call home. Likewise, it is this melting pot, or mosaic, of races that multitudes of individuals have identified themselves with. Thus, race and ethnicity does matter for it portrays vital and crucial roles in the contemporary American society. Furthermore, ethnicity and race brings communities together in unity, determines which traditions and ideals individuals may choose to value, and imposes an impediment for it categorizes humans unjustly.

How in the world is the U.S. considered a melting pot if the slightest cultural differences place you under a spotlight? This “melting pot” has only ever caused a rift between me and my classmates who observed my lunch in a puzzled and disgusted manner. How could I accept who I was if I was ashamed of where I came from? I didn’t belong- I was an outsider and it was obvious. All I ever wanted was to be happy and so I constantly yearned for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to replace my ethnic

After this week’s reading and videos I learned many new intriguing perspectives about society.  Also, the video taught me a very important lesson about discrimination. I thought the lesson the teacher taught was unique and got her point across extremely well. She really put people in the shoes of the less fortunate that are being discriminated. The readings on the first day I found very interesting because people are the only ones that affect the rapid changes of society. The weeks readings and videos relate to each other because the way society changes now is how discrimination on skin colors started and affected millions of lives that could of even took lives away.

Many researchers have studied the immigrant assimilation in the recent years. America’s ethnic groups have been expected to come together as one and into the mainstream of american society for decades. Immigrant assimilation is a complex process in which immigrants should not only fully integrate themselves to a new country but also lose aspects perhaps all their heritage too if necessary. Social scientists rely on a primary benchmark to assess immigrant assimilation which is socioeconomic status. A melting pot can be described as a metaphor which indicates a society where many different types of people blend in as one.

In David Brooks’ “People Like Us” passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while “relatively homogeneous” (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist.

An inequality in society, economy, wealth distribution, and political corruption and the influence in cooperation of government led to

America was widely known as a “melting pot” of sorts for many generations. The country earned its title by accepting immigrants of various cultures and molding, or melting, them into the American lifestyle. However, the “melting pot” idea of America is starting to dissipate. According to a Newsweek Poll on the public, “only 20 percent still think America is a melting pot” (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.4). As more Americans push away immigrants and create stereotypes against said immigrants, America continues to lose its title as a “melting pot.” There is ethnic friction in America and people have begun to have a hard time assimilating (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.18). .America is beginning to place a negative outlook on its

The United States of America has been called a “mixing pot” since the birth of the nation. Everyone, especially politicians and educators, will proudly declare that the U.S. is a land of unmatched diversity. The U.S. seems to always be portrayed as a highly cultural territory, harboring a vast population of many races. Admittedly, the United States has come a long in terms of eliminating racial barriers and pursuing equality. All around the world, America is seen as a country of colors, yet mass media does not recognize that fact.

The United States has Changed from a Melting Pot to a Vast Culture with Varying Racial Backgrounds

There is no way to deny that a social class system exists that divides people by general popularity. Once children begin school, they begin to separate into these divisions. The top of the social ladder, often considered to be people who are cool, are stereotyped to be beautiful and happy. Although in some cases this may be true, it is not always that way. Misconceptions about popularity lead to a greater divide amongst the social classes, and cause those in the lower social levels to be considered as or to feel as if they are inferior. Articles like one written by Christian McBride, entitled Be Cool, published in This I Believe II, continue to develop the false ideology that one must be popular in order to live a full, happy life.

For example, power is seen with money.  However, some power with money has a negative impact to society.  Terrorist group control some intuitions with the power of money in society, which is a negative impact to the economy.  The intuitions controlled by the terrorist's money sales the terrorist group authority to governor and use privileges in the hierarchy of the social structure.  The knowledge of class can be obtain from internet searches, libraries, special databases search, and personal records.  Also, individual do have service to educate individual to opportunities of improving status, class, or level of achieve.  For example, school today hire a counselor to define one’s future by looking at different knowledge regarding social class

This semester has been filled with informative information when speaking about our own social skill, but also other people’s social psychology as well, thus is why it will be very useful in future. Throughout the semester we studied everything from the introduction of social psychology, social influences, aggression in psychology, and interpersonal attraction and close relationships. A lot of the knowledge that I gained was not only from the “Social Psychology” textbook, but also in the videos and the reactions that we needed to come up with on a weekly basis. I like the idea of being able to watch the video to see if the experiment was successful or unsuccessful and commenting on it by giving my opinion if I agreed or not. For me,

Society has a stigma of having to put things into categories in order to have a better understanding and approach to life. Due to this need to categorize, the concept of the“salad bowl” and the “melting pot” emerged. These theories are approaches of how cultures are represented within a nation. The United States is a nation made up of immigrants. Over generations these immigrants have decided to either abandon their culture and assimilate to the “American” society or wear their heritage with pride and embrace their values, therefore brings up the infamous debate whether the United States is a “salad bowl” or a “melting pot”