ted States, the underclass is comprised primarily of blacks and Hispanics. In the past, Chinese, Irish, and Jewish people have been well represented in the underclass in the United States. In the future, other racial and ethnic groups will likely be found to be represented prominently in the underclass. In the absence of any meaningful effort to limit the growth of the black and Hispanic racial and ethnic groups, however, these groups, unlike the Chinese, Irish, and Jews, will likely continue to be represented prominently in the underclass.
Gans opposes the use of the term underclass. Gans appears to object to the term because it is value laden, to use his own description of the term. In one context, Gans is correct. The term lower class (in the context of the lower class/middle class/ upper class spectrum, and all of the sub groupings of these categories) became a value laden designation to be avoided in American society. As a consequence, cut off points used to
define the socioeconomic groupings were successively altered to
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