In the essay of "Class in America-2003" by, Gregory Mantsios is basically about the rich and the poor of America. In Mantsios essay he talks about upper class, middle class, and lower class Americans. The most common clad the Gregory Mantsios talks about is the middle class. The reason middle class Americans are talked about so much in this essay is because; the majority of the American population is middle class people. Mantsios discuses a few points o how…
The author also makes his point by observing the differences between social classes that can widen the rift between said classes as well as families. Lubrano states that “middle-class…
In the three essays that we were assigned to read have connections. In “Serving in Florida” by Barbara Ehrenreich, she decided to work in low paying jobs that pay minimum wage. An example of this is when it states “the multinational mélange of cooks; the dishwashers, who are all Czechs here” (364). This example relates to Diana Kendall when it states, “The working class and the working poor do not fare much better than the poor and homeless in media representations” (428). These quotes express how the working class can be. An example from Gregory Mantsios that corresponds with these when it states “From cradle to grave, class position has a significant [...] economic success” (391).…
These actions argue that there needs to be a change in the societal perspectives of the “lower class” by emphasizing the conditions and…
In the passage, “What Ever Happened to Upward Mobility”, the author Rana Forhoohar talks about how America now is different from how America was back in the old days before the Great Reccession with its class differences, compared to now. The American Dream is ideal in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.”…
The introduction to The Dignity of Working Men outlines the research Michele Lamont undertakes about working class individuals in America. She asserts that they are the "backbone of American society", important to understand because of their social and political power. The first part of the book analyzes working class American men and how they think and act. Lamont first states that white, middle class workers place themselves above the upper middle class because they see them as lacking in morals and relationship skills. These white men also separate themselves even further from blacks and the poor, attaching socioeconomic status with moral worth as opposed to the detachment of the two in the previous example.…
“For the most part, class avoidance of class-laden vocabulary crosses class boundaries” (Mantsios 304). There are measurements in salary, physical appearance, and education to determine class. Mantsios studies showed that 34 percent of America’s wealth is held by the one percent, and almost one of every eight people are living below the poverty line ($19,307 dollars for a family of four in 2004). But it is not getting any better, since it has increased approximately $4,000 since then. One of the biggest reasons people are in poverty is because people cannot afford proper education to become well-sustained. It is all dependent on factors beyond our control. Mantsios compared class backgrounds of a life of a white male, whose father is a manufacturer and an industrialist who was enrolled in a prestigious preparatory school, and a black female, whose father a janitor and mother a waitress who lives in the ghetto. Who do you think has more of an advantage in life? The white male, as a result of opportunity handed to…
In the past, Chinese immigrants were needed for mining, railroad construction, and agriculture. In the early 20th century, these immigrants started to move away from the rural areas and moved to cities such as New York to find work in ethnic communities. The development of Chinese ethnic communities was a way of avoiding confrontation with white laborers who often made it difficult for the Chinese immigrants to find work. In the mid-20th century, the Nationality Act of 1965 made it possible for Chinese immigrants to reconnect with families, and through these family resources, many immigrants obtained jobs in the Chinese Ethnic Economy (Wong, 1997). Today in Flushing, Queens, many immigrants still depend on family connections already established here to find work. The purpose of the Ethnic Economy still hasn’t changed for many Chinese immigrants because these immigrants lack the communication skills required to obtain jobs in American societies. The Chinese Ethnic Economy was similar to the Underground Economy in Philippe Bourgois’, In Search of Respect, in terms of making more money than structure had…
You have represented a dividing line between the middle class, the working class and poor. In your eyes, these are the most important classes in the United States because they illustrate a real, and the most common family status. Your writings have given us individual accounts of the struggling classes and many of the challenges we may face from day to day, and how this matters more to us because we are not all a part of the upper class.…
There are over six million ex-convicts in the United States. Research proposes that the best way for ex-cons to avoid prison again is to reintroduce them into the working world and find them jobs. However, most employers are hesitant to give them a chance. With the unemployment rate approaching its highest it makes keeping a job is challenging. When a person has been to prison, their chances of getting hired decrease drastically. Chapter five of David K. Shipler's The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Shipler emphasizes attaining a job, maintaining a job, and living while employed to construct his arguments on the barriers and biases that the working poor have to overcome.…
Gentrification, a silent and gradual process that can change a neighborhood completely has displaced a vast amount of people within different areas. What is gentrification exactly? The classic scenario of gentrification is when low working class neighborhoods are transformed into a more attractable and expensive place more suitable for middle class families; a drastic change in standard living. Gentrification has been occurring all throughout the world and has been spreading rapidly, leaving many people without a home. Gentrification has happened since ancient times; in Britain in the third century large villas were being replaced by small shops. Gentry a word derived from genterise an old French word that means “gentle birth.” From Manhattan’s Lower East Side now to Harlem, many places have and are undergoing gentrification. Gentrification has its positives and its negatives which are beneficial to both sides, the old and the new residents. Do the pros outweigh the cons, are the old lower class residents being purposely moved out of an area in order to make a more prosperous? According to several articles and perspectives it all depends in which eyes we view gentrification from either the old residents who feel that the cons and greater than the pros or the view of the homeowner and the government whose intentions are to better the area and make living conditions better. In my opinion gentrification is beneficial in the greater sense that it is helping many people and the neighborhood grow by creating new and better opportunities that were not offered before.…
Classism, an issue of oppression which exposes the ever-increasing differences and inequality between social classes in our society, and primarily measured by the wealth possessed and the amount of income a family or an individual earn, is every day more evident. For the last, few years we have witnessed the financial gap between wealthier and middle-class Americans widen as the years go by, but never as rapidly than after experiencing the last financial crisis of 2008. The effects of that financial crisis were disastrous, especially in the middle class. Americans lost millions of jobs, and wealth evaporated by the loss in value of real estate properties…
In the last fifteen years, the income of the upper classes has risen gradually, while the income of the lower classes had risen slightly, further showing the inequality that exists in our nation. It is usually difficult for the lower classes to achieve financial success because a high-income job requires good education, which the lower classes lack, because they cannot afford…
The article displays the issues between the two types of individuals living in America as such individuals living in suburban areas and individuals stricken by poverty and residing in the inner city. William Julius Wilson is an American Sociologist who has taught and received education from prestigious universities. He wrote a research paper that is known and read called The Truly Disadvantaged in 1987, Wilson has a concept that discusses the term underclass to individuals living in socially secluded and low disadvantaged neighborhoods having become a “tangle of…
We know in the world of today, most households have two incomes to maintain the basic everyday needs. We all have worked jobs that paid bare minimum, gave crappy hours along with fatigue. Gilbert and Henslin divided the lower class into the Working Poor and the Underclass (Gilbert The American Class Structure 1998). The Working Poor’s employment is in the service and manual labor and the Underclass relies solely on government aid and has not participate in the workforce.…