The Ghetto Of A Caste System

Throughout our experience, we have encountered so many challenges when it comes to gender in the society. Gender is being used as a basis for stratifying people in the society. In this article, the racial caste system that used to exist in the United State is depicted. In that the black women were denied the access to justice because of their status. They were perceived to be people who do not have any right within the society and no one could believed them when they were raped by the white men because all the court judges were white men according to this article. The women were classified to be from poor background and they should remain at a low class in the society.

Supposedly, both the individuals with ascribed statuses with hereditary wealth and the poor and homeless have equal chances to become successful although, Orestes Bronwnson in The Laboring Classes, pointed out that this is not true. “Do the young man inheriting ten thousand pounds and the one whose inheritance is merely the gutter, start even?” (219). As a result, the harsh separation of the rich and the poor, where capitalism thrives and,” the division of the community into two classes, one which owns the funds…the other provides the labor” (216). The inhumane apprehension of a capitalist society that keeps its workers “in a permanent system, [has] given preference to the slave system” (214) says a lot about the evils of capitalism corresponding with the false American Dream. An outcome of capitalism is the frustrating rivalry between the poor. “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining the country. The competition is maddening”

In Tressie McMillan’s “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, it changed people’s views on the threat of keeping up with society, and the status symbol people think they must maintain. Society classifies it as Middle class, suburbs, or simply rich and poor. People feel threatened when someone looks better than them, or has something that they do not have. This story killed all reasons to even feel this way. McMillan also linked this story back to her own personal childhood. Their family was a classic black American migration family, with rural Southern roots. During this time most African Americans were considered as poor. Her family

The readings examined how classism has negatively affected economics in the United States, how oppression manifests in taking financial advantage of groups of people who cannot advance financially, and systemic issues contributing to low wage and inability to move out of one’s social class. I was struck by the idea that most people in the United States are disadvantaged financially based on the way the country has set up its economic policies. From the beginning, black people have been oppressed by the inability to attain wealth, which continued through the end of WWII. I unnecessarily read a chapter speaking about financial companies targeting poor people, particularly people of color, with money schemes so they are losing their hard-earned money to fees and interest rates. This scheme continues to keep people in debt and living paycheck to paycheck. I related to the reading about college loans creating a paradox that students with degrees enter the workforce unable to find a job in their their field of study. Then the added paradox of not being able to find work making

As a minority gets older they realize the hard truths of society. These truths involve many different types of stereotypes that contribute to racism and overall surround the idea of inequality and framing in social economics. In Diana Kendall’s piece “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” social inequality is viewed as a heavy topic, that the media abuses. In fact, Kendall uses the Census Bureau to point out that “the net worth of the average white household in 2000 was more than ten times that of the average African American household and more than eight times the average Latino/Latina household” (338). Based on the facts from this source minorities are financially at a disadvantage and are presumed to be unhappy due to lack of wealth. However, money does not control or even affect happiness rather Kendall makes a point that framing does, which can be seen through James McBride life story “The Boy in the Mirror”, where the world McBride’s mother framed for him, one without inequality, begins to crumble . McBride paints a picture of the dramatic change that happened when arriving at adulthood when he writes, “We did not consider ourselves poor or deprived, or depressed, for the rules of the outside world seemed meaningless to us as children. But as we grew up and fanned out into the world as teenagers and college students we brought the outside home with us, and the world that Mommy had so painstakingly created began to fall apart” (415). The simple

The equitable wealth disproportion between African Americans and Whites is still on the rise. Researchers have identified systematic barriers affecting the ability for African Americans to accumulate wealth. In addition, researchers indicate several possible factors such as, less intergenerational inheritance, higher unemployment and lower incomes (Desilver, D, 2013). Impoverished generations have been unable to escape their restricted economic condition. Whites have gained an economic opportunity for every unfavorable condition that has impeded African Americans economic opportunity over time forging grounds for economic disparity. Because of unfavorable conditions due to the effects of slavery, generations of African Americans have had to bear racism and inequality. According to Pew Research the median household income of a family of three in 2011 was $39, 760 for African Americans in whereas White American Family median household income is $67, 175 a household income difference of $27, 000 (Morin, R

Income inequality has a direct relationship with middle class Americans’ destructive and poor lifestyle. In the poor areas of South Chicago, the black communities suffer “higher crime rates, poor performance in school, and family management,” said Robert Sampson, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago. Similarly, Harvard University sociologist William Julius Wilson found “patterns of racial exclusion” and “concentrated poverty” among the middle-class Americans in South Chicago “are much more likely to be exposed to crime and other manifestations of social dislocation and social problems…” Poor minority groups are not only affected by destructive and poor lifestyle due to income inequality but also, poor whites are affected. Poor

With this intention, banks and real-estate agents will no longer be readily available in urban communities, but in suburban regions. The reasoning for this stem back to the overall goal of keeping African-Americans separate from whites. Now, however, without banks and real-estate agents, urban communities do not have the same privilege as someone from a suburban household. This is viewed through the concepts of social inequality and Eurocentrism because of the unwillingness of whites; there is an unequal distribution of prestige regarding African-American rights.

He describes the white flight from the inner cities to the suburbs, leaving neighborhoods with high concentrations of poor minorities behind. The Missing Class examines a similar theme of gentrification of neighborhoods, illuminated by the example of the Floyd family in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in north central Brooklyn. “Once in decline, the neighborhood is now on the upswing . . . various factories have shut their doors, the affordable housing has disappeared, and upscale apartments have sprouted.” (Newman & Chen, pg. 12). The Floyds lost their one financial asset, their home, when they were swindled by a contractor who promised to fix up the house, and allow them to pay their loan off over time. The Floyds lament about the influx of affluent white Yuppies in their neighborhood, a place where they know everyone and have lived for the past twenty years, wondering what it will mean for the neighborhood’s identity, wondering if it will still be a black neighborhood. According to another neighbor, despite the rising prices, most black residents won’t sell their homes. “Their family roots are in the South, where property carries with it both tradition and responsibility” (pg. 15). Clearly, the loss of a house or a neighborhood could deeply affect a person’s sense of self and a sense of pride, leaving someone grasping for their once stable identity.

One of the factors that contributed to this wealth gad was the federal housing policies. The policy permitted redlining and discrimination in finances, and homeowners insurance, and sales, this reflected the unequal rates of the house ownerships that we see today. During this period in the U.S. blacks, Mexicans, Chinese and Japanese immigrants were the most targeted when it came to employment and property ownership. Many African American lost their homes during the foreclosure during the 1930’s and 1940’s, they were victim of deception and fraud. In the south many African American were the victims of abusive agriculture which kept them always in

These financial assests include the values of homes, automobiles, businesses, savings and investments. The reason I have decided to investigate and address this issue is because it’s one that constantly flies under the radar. Not many people are aware of the gap bwtween the rich and the poor, and so by writing this, I hope to shopw that we are not as equal as we think. The main areas to be explored in my article are the gilded age, the continuingly large gap between the poor and

One legacy of discriminatory policies is that African American families today are more vulnerable to foreclosures, which destroys a large amount of their wealth. According to a study by Shapiro et al. of Brandeis University in February 2013, “Homes are the largest investment that most American families make and by far the biggest item in their wealth portfolio. Homeownership is an even greater part of wealth composition for black families, amounting to 53 percent of wealth for blacks and 39 percent for whites. Yet, for many years, redlining, discriminatory mortgage-lending practices, lack of access to credit, and lower incomes have blocked the homeownership path for African- Americans while creating and reinforcing communities segregated by race. African-Americans, therefore, are more recent homeowners and

There will always be negative stereotypes of low-income African Americans, but white police officers and officers of color tend to have slightly different views on the “ghetto.” Caucasian police officers often tend to think that black communities are entirely atrocious, but African American officers can see that there are both good and bad elements to this group of people. African American officers seem to moralize the class struggle between African American workers who are much like themselves, they do not let the negative views define them as a person. They have risen above their poor community and refuse to let it own them. Thus, African American officers often think that they are solely protecting the good people of the ghetto from the

However, Wacquant brings the term “inner city” to light, breaking down its meaning: “black and poor.” Living in Chicago gives one an exemplary example of the term “inner city” meaning “poor, black ghettos.” The references to “inner city” schools being synonymous with “poor quality” and “mostly African American” are damaging to urban terminology and creating a predetermined perspective of those who call the “inner city” home. The “hypersegregation” of the city of Chicago is a topic within itself, but the institution of segregation is, without question, existent here. In addition, “inner city” is becoming a label which implies unavoidable incarceration.

The theoretical conversation Ralph explores in the book is isolation. He draws ideas from Wacqaunt and Wilson’s The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City. In the article, the central argument is there is an interrelated set of characteristics that corresponds to social-structural problems in the inner city and the process has triggered “hyper-ghettoization.” The evidences Wacquant and Wilson present are mainly statistical and anthropology data. The article explains many of the residents are isolated due to the social-structural, economic, and political issues that surround them. The residents being moved by