race and social class

In American society, issues of race and social class are intertwined like a chain of DNA. No honest discussion of race can be had without considering the equally important question of class, since the two are closely linked. Although discussions of race and class are often avoided because these kinds of topics make people uncomfortable, Hurricane Katrina and the various television news that followed brought back the curtain on America’s dirty little secret: There are plenty of people in American society who have not been able to escape. the double risk of being born African-American and poor.

The four readings of Sklar, et. al., Oliver & Shapiro, Mantsios, and Bartlett & Steele in the text (Ore, pp. 69-99) illustrate how race and class were socially constructed for the advancement of whites and the formation of a social class of the poor. African Americans who could be blamed for everything bad in society. Furthermore, the four articles reflect how these two systems of oppression are intertwined in an endless structure of domination (dominance matrix), as indicated in the text.

In the article titled “Race, Wealth, and Equality,” Oliver and Shapiro discuss how three historical events in American society: Reconstruction, the suburbanization of America, and contemporary institutional racism have led to vast income inequality between blacks and whites. Although American society had several opportunities to make amends to African Americans by giving them the same economic advantages that whites took for granted, it never happened because blacks would be on the same economic playing field as whites.That’s why there is such a gap. large — in wealth between blacks and whites in American society.

Mantsio’s article takes this discussion of the large black-white wealth gap further by examining how the ruling class-owned media has played a major role in distorting views of the economy by claiming that the ruling class does not exist and poor black people are the dregs of society. The media with its ‘magic’ can make the sins and harshness towards African-Americans disappear by pretending that they are to blame for being poor.

By doing this, middle and upper class Americans learn to fear and hate poor black people and refuse to make the connection between systemic racism and high levels of poverty among African Americans.

In a similar vein, “The Growing Wealth Gap” depicts how crooked but legal deals between corporations and politicians have led to job wages stagnating for decades and millionaires becoming billionaires. This article also referenced Oliver and Shapiro’s article, which illustrates how African Americans have little or no net worth and even if differences in income, occupation, and education were eliminated, white incomes would still be higher than those of whites. blacks due to racial discrimination. barriers that have kept them stagnant for centuries. Bartlett and Steele argue that although the US government has cut welfare benefits for the needy, it subsidizes large corporations at taxpayer expense on a regular basis. It’s fine for US corporations to benefit from welfare, but welfare for corporations is called “incentives.” Corporate America can do this because they have good public relations, which means the media helps sell economic dreams to the unsuspecting American public, going back to Mantsios’ article. The four articles are connected because they reflect that, although the economic system of the United States was built on the backs of African Americans, they cannot share its wealth.

After reading this material, one cannot stop thinking about the victims of Hurricane Katrina, who are mostly African-American and affected by poverty, and how much blame American society has for their economic situation. They were not just victims of a horrible natural disaster, but victims of a system that has historically kept them on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. The victims of this tragedy for the first time had my face and my economic background. I am a single African American mother who was receiving welfare benefits at the time of Hurricane Katrina who could not and still can drive and my family would have been one of many labeled “refugees” if I lived in New Orleans. Although I was actively involved in creating my past situation, when a TANF caseworker told me I couldn’t go to a four-year college because it would take too long, it tells me how much the system is against people like me, even when you are trying to do the right thing.

Watching a white supervisor stir up competition between African Americans and Hispanics in the workplace showed me how much corporate America is against the advancement of minorities. Living in a neighborhood that is forty minutes from downtown Chicago but is surrounded by vacant lots littered with trash tells me that America has forgotten about a certain segment of people based on their skin color and economic background. Unless there is a fundamental change in wealth redistribution and racist attitudes in American society, the wealth gap between blacks and whites will only widen.