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The Underclass

Wilson defines membership in the underclass as including those innercity individuals and families who are outside of the mainstream of the American occupational system. Wilson includes among this group people who lack training and skills, and who, as a result, have experienced longterm unemployment or have dropped out of the labor force; people who are longterm public assistance recipients; and persons who are engaged in criminal street activity and other forms of aberrant behavior.

While Wilson acknowledges that most people included in his definition of the underclass are also members of racial and ethnic minorities, he also contends that, by placing the emphasis on racial and ethnic background, both analysts and politicians blur the problem represented by the underclass development, thereby making it more difficult to develop and implement effective solutions to the problem.

Wilson's contentions with respect to an emphasis on racism diverts attention from an emphasis on the underclass, and, thus, causes problems in the development of effective corrective actions are complex. First, he states that, by emphasizing racism, analysts and politicians are able to close their eyes to the facts that crime, drug addiction, teenage pregnancies, femaleheaded families, and welfare dependency are not only more prevalent among racial and ethnic minorities, but are, in fact, linked in causal ways with racial and ethnic background. In fact, Wilson contends that both white apologist analysts and politicians and racial and ethnic minority group leaders attempt to use such relationships between undesirable behavior and

social outcomes, on the one hand, and racial and ethnic background, on the other hand, to derive positive images of the individuals involved in such behavior and social outcomes, by claiming that such individuals have learned to adapt to an oppressive society. With such characterizations of these undesirable behaviors a...

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The Underclass. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:18, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1684696.html