Social Inequality : Class, Status, And Class

Have you ever referred to someone as “high class,” “middle class,” or “low class?” The article “Class In America” is a very educated read and describes the way people are characterized by their “class.” I think that this article informs all types of readers and allows people to see how people are grouped based on themselves. “Class in America” is written to show and prove to society that people do not talk about “class” anymore, because of the way the world looks at it today. Gregory Mantosis is the author of the article, and he uses many facts and data to prove his points.

In reality class always matters and it shapes our interests in life. We all come from different background and ethnicity. I believe that class is shaped mainly by income and occupation. However, many people think if a person is wealthy, therefore, he belongs in the upper class. But there are other factors that define class and it is more than just how much money you have. It can be the network of people that surrounds, traditions, and academic status that can also define class. Many of it has to do in which family you have been born and network that creates it. All of my family members have been born and raised in Russia; they completed universities, got jobs, and had enough income to support a family. “Each of us is born into a family with a particular class identity and class history—sometimes it is a mixed or hybrid identity—but almost always it is part of a network of other relationships—to other families in a community, to work and jobs, and to institutions” (Zandy 112).

The concept of social class has been around for ages and is still a part of today’s society. Social class is not only based on the individual’s wealth but also on their social standing such as; monarchs, priests, nobles, merchants, and peasant class. The peasant class was practically ignored, which means that the higher classes would only pay attention to each other. This can be the case in society today, there are some people who feel that their career makes them higher than a janitor. Even though humans have been around for centuries, social class is still a big issue.

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.

If I were to ask you what class in the United States you were, would you want to, or be able to answer that? This is a very relevant topic put forth by Gregory Montsios in his work, Class in America. Montsios argues that the United States should either recognize class, or recognize that class is not relevant to the betterment of our great nation. He continues this argument by putting forth several myths and explanations for the way that class is seen in America. After this, he talks about different realities that are put before us, and how it affects our nation. I believe that in America today, class is not important, but can be skewed to make it to where some people have to follow different rules for different reasons, so I think class shouldn’t be recognized due to this.

Social inequality is the reality of unequal chances and rewards for diverse social positions or categories

Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status which can include levels of wealth, success, power of authority, and influence. Status is can be defined or grouped having common economic, cultural, or political interests.

Social inequality can practically be made apparent at any moment of someone’s life – whether at work or school amongst peers or simply watching the news in the morning. According to Dalton Conley, social inequality is narrowly defined as “a condition in which a difference in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist” (2017 p.241). Moreover, social inequality is a process whereby society can determine how a class of people is expected to coexist within predetermined social, political, and economic boundaries. The affected class will live within the predefined constraints, and the affected class will then pass the predefined constraints on to future generations. It is imperative to understand that social inequality is a result of social stratification, which according to

What class are you in? What is class anyway? What does class mean to you? When I was younger I always thought that when people talked about class it meant that they were talking about acting a certain way around certain people. Like, when your around someone important you act with a certain type of class that is not of yourself but of who u aspire to be like. As I grew older I really started to see what class really meant. It’s based on economics and the money that you have made/have that puts you in a certain class. When I started too learned about the time periods before now I saw that they also had different classes. I know now that class is just a way to put people in certain categories to separate them. As we see higher class people are usually the Lawyers, Doctors, Movie Stars, etc.….

Class as a noun could be defined as a system of ordering a society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status. Any person you look at could be found within a class, weather it’s because of economic, social, age, skin color, and gender. Every human is categorized. Social classes affect the way you live. This can include having everything done for you or having to do everything and anything for yourself, but how belonging to these classes affect the way you think and see the world? Two poems were presented to four individuals. The first individual is a male lower- middle class member. The second individual is a higher class male member, followed by one male and one female higher-middle class members. All were presented the two poems and asked to interpret them in their own words. The higher class male and the lower- middle class males will be our subject focus. The first poem is Masks by Shel Silverstein and the second poem is The Bridge also by Shel Silverstein.

There are more social inequities in modern day America than Americans can count, and that is truly unfortunate. Some major ones include racism, social

“1]. How does social inequality impact people of different nationalities [ethnicities & races], classes, and genders in society.”

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.

In briefly evaluating the classical and modern explanations of social inequality, it is essential that we step outside the realm of our own lives, class position, and discard any assumptions we might have about the nature of inequality. This process of critical pedagogy allows us to view our world, not from our perspective, but from a wider, more critical analysis of inequality's nature. Also, it should be considered within this wider perspective that all theories of inequality have a class perspective, where the theorist, based on the position their theory takes, is making claims from (or for) a particular class (whether they want to or not). With this in mind, it seems that most of these theories come

Society holds many structures that mould human performance and produce opportunities for some, but inequalities for others (Morrall, 2009). These structures in society are organized by the hierarchies of class, ethnicity and gender (Crossman, 2016). Due to having a society based on hierarchies, social inequalities are inevitable. Social inequality refers to the ways in which a group or individual of a certain social position may receive unequal opportunities or distribution of ‘goods’ such as education, income, living conditions and healthcare (Walker, 2009). These unequal opportunities may be given to someone because of their ethnicity, gender, income, religion or social class (Walker, 2009). For example, people in a high social class will be able to pay for their children to go to a good private school for a good education, whereas lower-class or working class people will struggle to afford the same education.