The Meritocracy Myth

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The economic class structure in American society is an issue that is commonly depicted in contemporary American film. In J. Emmett Winn’s anthology “Moralizing Upward Mobility: Investigating the Myth of Class Mobility in Working Girl, he describes success as “The result of hard work and moral uprightness: the hallmarks of good moral character and substance. Further, they refute ideas that structural limitations are placed on individuals, particularly along lines of race, class, and gender, that cannot be overcome by the correct motives.” Unfortunately, in American society, there are much less opportunities for the lower classes. The individuals in the wealthy class are the ones who are given the most opportunities. Furthermore, in America, …show more content…

In “The Meritocracy Myth,” Stephen J. McNamee and Robert K Miller Jr. said, “According to the ideology of the American dream, America is the land of limitless opportunity in which individuals can go as far as their own merit takes them.” Sadly, achieving the “American dream” is not accessable for everyone. Unless one was born into privilege, they cannot achieve many things with ease. What this means is that the wealthy and higher-class citizens are given many more chances and big breaks, even if they don’t work hard or necessarily deserve it. In modern day, wealth is unquestionably not based off of merit, as often as it should be. McNamee and Miller say, “When factors associated with individual ‘merit’ are related to income and wealth, it turns out that these factors are not as uniquely individual or as influential as many presume.” Intelligent and hard working people who have been raised in underprivileged areas most of the time do not get to show their true potential. As evident in The Blind Side, the director shows the two opposite sides of the city of Memphis, Tennessee. One part of town was where the Touhy family lived, which was an extremely wealthy, white suburban part of town. The other part of town was considered the projects, called “Hurt City.” That is where the main character, Michael, lived. There was an extreme difference between the people living in poverty and the people living in

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