Class and American Society
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In American society, there is a belief that class differences do not matter and that social mobility is such that the sort of social stratification that was and is prevalent in Europe has been eliminated in the egalitarian United States. However, it is clear that class differences do exist, with power unevenly distributed through the levels of society and with the institutions of government and society structured so as to respond differently to different segments of society. In America today, the distance between the very rich and the very poor is greater than ever. What needs to be considered, however, is whether class differences in American society are stronger than the racial and ethnic differences which seem to have an even more profound effect on social stratification and on a continuation of the poverty and social redlining that keeps entire groups out of the mainstream to this day. Is racism the primary component of class differences today, or is it strictly economic? The two are not really separable, since the primary effect of racism seems to be a form of economic discrimination perpetuating poverty for a racial or ethnic group, but there is a clear difference between economic discrimination as such and racial discrimination that produces an economic difference which then becomes an occasion for further discrimination. The problem of racism is not specifically an American problem, though Americans have made it into a
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keeping the races separate. This was replaced by the doctrine of separate but equal--blacks were still segregated, but they were supposed to be treated equally in their separation by government, as in the public schools. This was an attempt to alter class differences through institutional structures and fictions, as if such differences could be eliminated by legislated equal treatment alone. Integration was the method used by reformers to force the end of segregation. Discrimination continued, though, as individuals and groups would discriminate against people of other races in housing and jobs. Considerable changes occured as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. According to public opinion surveys, in 1964 one American in four was opposed to open housing, and by 1966 the idea had even lost ground. After that, though, support for open housing rose steadily so that by 1976 less than one in ten supported segregated housing and 85 percent thought blacks should be able to live wherever they could afford to live. A similar trend can be shown for support for the idea of integrated schools. In the mid-1950s, integration of the schools was supported by less than one-half of white Americans, but by the end of the 1960s it was ap
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Some common words found in the essay are:
CHANGE Education, Howitt Owusu-Bempah, Rights Movement, INTRODUCTION American, Montgomery Alabama, Civil War, Racism Southern, American Americans, Black Power, Feagin Feagin, american society, institutional racism, class differences, civil rights movement, rights movement, civil rights, educational system, black community, class difference, social inequality, racism past, failure educational system, american social policy, feagin feagin 1986, howitt owusu-bempah 1991,
Approximate Word count = 3157
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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