A vicious cycle of inequality
The question remains: Is the root of problems in America based on race or class? During the civil rights movement, the huge issue was race. Blacks had little to no rights compared to whites in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then there was such a division between races. The whites despised the blacks because they didn’t look like them and the blacks despised the whites because of the way they treated them. They had separate drinking fountains, separate bathrooms, and even separate restaurants. Social class wasn’t the biggest issue because whites were wealthier than blacks anyways because of how unequal it was. After the civil rights movement and years later, blacks and whites now have the same rights. Blacks now have the right to vote, the right to go and live anywhere they want, the right to have whatever job they want, and even the right to be a President as Barack Obama did.
Nowadays we don’t see as much of a divide in race but rather in social class. Social class is a separation in a society based on economic and social standing. We usually separate people into the upper class, middle class, and lower class meaning the upper class is wealthier and the lower class is poorer. There tends to be unfairness seen in society nowadays based on social class. One example being education. People who are wealthier tend to have higher education than people who are poorer. The New York Time reported “In 1970, the race gap in achievement was more than one and a half times higher than the class gap. Since then, says Stanford University’s Sean Reardon, the class gap has grown by 30 to 40 percent, and become the most potent predictor of school success”. With that being said, today in the 21st century I believe that class has been more of a problem in America than race. We were able to fix the race problem and I sure hope we can fix the class problem.
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/28/racial-reparations-and-the-limits-of-economic-policy/class-is-now-a-stronger-predictor-of-well-being-than-race#:~:text=That’s%20a%20big%20change%20from,potent%20predictor%20of%20school%20success.
When it comes to the difference of race and social class, I can agree with the writer that over time race has become less of an issue. However, I can see many ways racism still stays consistent throughout our time in present day 2022. Throughout time racism has always been an issue amongst individuals, during the civil rights movement of course it was at its worst. Through the course of time, it has died down thankfully but certainly has not changed. In the past recent years we have had various African Americans killed over racism or in racist acts done by Caucasians, although the George Floyd incident a few years ago is said to be an accident, many individuals believe it was an act of racist fueled hatred towards the man. That is just broadly known as one example of such an act happening, various shootings and other incidents have been happening all over as well. Now when the idea of social class comes to mind, I do think of how the wealthier people always get treated better than those of which did not have as much money. In lower grade school, the kids with the “off-brand” clothes always got made fun of or the kids whose parents had to rely on monthly government checks were always the ones to get made fun of. As we have gotten older as maturing into adults I feel the idea of social class is not looked at as much as when we were all young. When I talk to someone I do not pay attention to the clothes on their body or what their house may look like, I think of the type of person I am speaking to and how they carry themselves. An individual who has not a penny to their name can be a completely different person compared to those with millions who are greedy and choose to treat the poor unfairly. Yes, social class can be looked at when it comes to educational status, but even though it cost a fortune in our century to get an education, more and more people are doing it every year. The cost of living and even just simple supplies to make a meal are getting more expensive as the days carry on, everyone who is on a middle class scale has to put themselves in a short term of debt to be able to make a living. Life is not easy but for anyone who wants to do as they wish while they live it, still do as they wish no matter the overall cost, because we have near no choice. In conclusion, I feel even though the time has changed and the way we go about things has changed as well I feel, not every concept has entirely changed. I feel no matter when or what world we live in racism and social view will never change and they may get better and worse at times but we will always have them.
I think in today’s world it is; not as for lack of a better term as black and white as it used to be, the world has changed allowing more black people to close the gap from the previous generations, the amount of inequality said people face is less but still prevalent in today’s society status and class are everything even if someone does not think that somebody may belong it’s their money that is buying the slot not their skin, their are very few people who are openly hateful anymore for fear of losing what they have. Social and economic class I would argue are the two most important factors in this day and age. No one gets anywhere with no money unless they have social influence that allows them to get the start they need to be more successful.
Also I will say that no one is as held back as they used to be solely by the color of their
skin but that does not change that the fact that though people of color as a whole can become successful unlike their past ancestors who were forced to labor and be uneducated they still on a broad majority face discrimination regardless of how they look, talk, act and even sometimes regardless of how educated they are.
POC as a whole still have it harder to reach the same goal as a white person then
comes into play gender, and to make matters worse the fact of the shade a person of color presents can make their life a whole lot easier or harder. I think a great example of just how many people still judge based on the color of people’s skin is the statistic that black women present as todays the most educated demographic but also the most most single demographic while i could argue that any other race would not face such an issue there is also the idea that our demographic is smaller it does not excuse the fact that we face discrimination for being a women and black we are still able to perservere.
Reading your post, I couldn’t help but relate myself to the approach of today’s society being a cycle of inequality. The problem of social class serving as a separation in today’s society perfectly describes what would be a “cycle of vicious inequality”. As our society progresses, is the idea of a prolonged solution to society’s social class ladder has never seemed both so close and so far at the same time. However, would a solution be what society needs?
What differs between the persistent problem of society’s social class and the brutal crimes committed blacks prior to the civil rights movement are the crimes committed against those who stand to not tolerate the hate. Society glances over today’s social class as a problem out of their control: something the government only has control of. The general idea is simple: It doesn’t affect us, so why care? To someone lower on the social class ladder, the idea of social class being a problem is nothing but crystal clear. Those higher up on the ladder genuinely come to the census that it doesn’t affect them, and that changing it is something that would only prevent the inevitable. After all, why change life’s course? Back then, not all whites were against the Civil Rights movement. Although, any who stood up to support it were met with hard, brutal punishments, or even death.
In today’s society, those placed above others look down on others as something that’s out of their control; something that they were blessed with, and simply “got lucky” with what life gave them. The problem isn’t apparent until you’re on the short end of the stick. A solution to the persistent problem of social class seems unachievable without other factors falling into play. However, I too hope to find a solution that gives everyone equal opportunity to chase their dreams.
I completely agree with you. Race was the main factor. During the Civil Right’s movement class wasn’t even an issue for the main fact that no one was equal. You would more than likely find an actual social class within the white community. There class probably revolved around if they had money or not or how literate one was. Meanwhile, within the black community there was no class just everyone trying to help progress a change. Most people within the community wanted a change and in order for there to be a change they all had to be on the same page. Whether someone was educated didn’t really matter. Was it preffered? Yes it was, but at the same time the end goal was equal education and equal rights for all, so as long as you had the drive and the spirit you were welcome to the movement.
I also agree with the fact that it is now in the 21st century where we don’t see race being the main factor for the division of a social class. It is now divided into upper, middle, and lower. Which is more of the ‘what is your economic stance in this world?’ Are you poor, stable, or rich? That is how we view it now, but sometimes you catch a glimpse of the division in race. For example, if you were to go into the poorer side of a town people would call it the ghettos or the hood and it is said that it is mainly black people live in those parts mainly because of poverty and the constant fluctuation of inflation. The government also taxing quite heavily is another reason for the constant depletion of money. They take the money with ease, but when asked for raises or more paid time leave they turn their heads. It’s infuriating how class, today, is divided by economic viewpoint and when you don’t have the desired amount you are automatically deemed as something lower than you are.
You’re so right. In the civil rights years, whites saw African Americans as a different race needing to make it their reason to discriminate. The discrimination of race impacted the discrimination within classes. Thinking back on applying to colleges, people with more money and in the upper class were able to go out of state and apply to more money bank schools without having to worry about student loans. I personally was allowed to go out of state within certain circumstances, but in doing so would have to deal with the out-of-state cost and loans. I simply do not have the money for that. I felt bad for my smart friends who got into extremely good schools out of state and couldn’t go simply because none of us were upper class and our parents didn’t have the flexibility to spend money for school. It’s key that we continue to fix our racial and class issues. Education is hugely impacted by class, which also means the job you land after attending school. Some jobs will take the candidate who came from a “name brand” school over another candidate that couldn’t afford said name brand school. It’s upsetting to realize that our class inequality issues stemmed from our race issues in the civil rights years. In the U.S., I believe we need to increase the minimum wage and build assets for working families. Increasing the minimum wage would have the potential to help millions of people in poorer classes and with poor economic status. increased minimum wage would also help economic growth and the rate of employment. We need to make more enticing policies that promote higher saving rates. In doing so, we could be providing more efficient and better economic security for struggling families in the lower middle and lower class.
I agree class is the cause of most issues in America today. You can see many people want to help the poor but there isn’t much legislation being made to help those in poverty. Part of this could be how the country is run and influenced by rich people. Another part is that class issues are harder to fix than racial and gender rights. This is because racial and gender rights need to be solved in 2 parts the first is legal, the law needs to be changed to give everyone equal rights it took a while but we finally got there. The second part was changing the social view of those different than us, this is so we can grow to accept and treat everyone equally. That’s the hardest part because there will always be people in every group that have a prejudice against other groups. With class issues, it’s much harder because without money it’s hard to get quality education, insurance, and many other things. That can lead to a cycle of being behind that can pass on through generations. Also, it’s not something you can legally change because there aren’t really laws that put people in poverty in a worse position. There is just nothing that can really help bring people out of poverty.
Will we fix the class issues? I don’t think they’ll be fixed anytime soon because of how hard it is to fix. Even if everyone sees people in poverty as equals that won’t fix a lack of money. If we were to fix it we would need to find a way to create a good opportunity for poor people. This won’t be accomplished soon because in the past when it’s been attempted it has just prevented people from being in a worse position and there’s a lack of initiative to find a solution to the problem. So once class issues become a priority and people make competent solutions I don’t think we will be able to fix this issue.