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.