Race and Inequality in the U.S.

One of the fundamental problems facing researchers today is the term "underclass" itself. To acknowledge that America has a class system to begin with is disconcerting to those dedicated to American principles of egalitarianism. The fact that a class system has existed in the U.S. since its inception should not be a revelation to either serious academic researchers or non-academics, yet to acknowledge class warfare in this country is comparable to declaring that one is a socialist.

For the above reason, among others, liberal academics have tended to shy away from even using the term, "underclass." Amidst a sweeping tide of conservatism, liberal academics have perhaps seen the liberal label as compromising their careers--that is to say, tenure. Another reason that liberal researchers have avoided discussions of America's underclass, particu

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ken new ground because researchers are focusing more on the social and economic forces which contribute to the ghettoization of the urban poor, and less on racism. For example, although racism does continue to exist, could it be that there are not enough jobs for all the nation's citizens regardless of any other social factors one could cite? Could it be that minority joblessness is governed by the same social forces which govern non-minority joblessness? If such is the case, perhaps government should create jobs in the inner-city--jobs with the capacity to rejuvenate blighted areas. Examples of such jobs (usually called pilot programs) can be seen in some urban areas, where instead of a vacant lot, a community garden exists. As Katz (1993) notes, "Wilson located the origins of the underclass in African-American male joblessness" (p. 17) Current debate centers on two schools of thought--those who believe that people will work if given the opportunity (liberals) and those who see instead a "bleak new culture of dependence, impervious to the market, responsive only to coercion by government" (conservatives) (Katz, 1993, p. 19). Regardless of which side one occupies on the debate, the fact is that stakeholders are talking abo
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3425
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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