In the United States, perhaps no ethnicity has dealt with more racial discrimination than African Americans. In the past laws were constructed that made social mobility for African Americans close to impossible and kept them as second class citizens. The system of slavery, forced Blacks to be exploited for the economic gain of white plantation owners, and after slavery, Jim Crow Laws discriminated against Blacks and solidified their economic racial inferiority. In the 1970’s this was a huge topic of debate. William Julius Wilson argues in his publication, “The Declining Significance of Race” that African American’s socioeconomic status has a lot more to do with class rather than race. Charles Vert Willie opposes Wilson’s assertion and argues …show more content…
Educated African Americans tend to be better off economically than uneducated African Americans. African Americans that are educated are getting well-paying middle class jobs while African Americans with no education are sticking with low wage jobs and poverty. Middle class Americans that have a high level of education are eligible for higher paying jobs in the private and government job market while poor African Americans with little education are stuck with labor jobs that pay low wages, keeping them on government assistance, and keeping them in a cycle of poverty. William Julius Wilson pointed out this occurrence when he published a book called “The Declining Significance of Race” that asserted the shift in the economy and the law had led to a change in the importance of race and class in society. In his publication one of his arguments is that the success of Middle-class African Americans was clear evidence of the declining relevance of race in this country, “talented and educated blacks are experiencing unprecedented job opportunities in the growing government and corporate sectors” (753). If being educated and being middle class can lead to a high socio-economic status, clearly class is a much more important determinant of success in this country than race. In Willie’s publication he counters Wilson’s argument by …show more content…
African Americans that are college educated are not only eligible for the same jobs as college educated White Americans, but are earning similar wages, and in some cases higher. In fact, in Wilson’s publican he cites statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to prove this point, “Data from the 1970 Census of Population show that in 1969 black male graduates age 22 to 24 received a slightly higher average income than comparable to whites”. This statistic debunks any theory that race is a primary determinant of success in this country, since in some cases educated black people are better off economically than privileged educated white people. If educated African Americans are able the same or higher wages in professional jobs as their white counterparts than it is clear that the main determinant of socio-economic status is class rather than race. Wilson noted the change in this occurrence between the current times and in the past. He states that in the discriminatory tendencies of the past black college graduates would receive significantly lower wages than white graduates (764). The statistics that he cites clearly show that times have changed and that ethnicity is less and less holding African American back, which proves that socio-economic status is determined by class. Willie does acknowledge that overall college educated whites have significantly higher incomes than
We, as a society, feel the need to draw imaginary lines to separate ourselves whether it’s the line between color of our skin, our religion differences, our political beliefs, or the status of our class. As much as I wish there wasn’t a defining line between high class and the educated vs. low class and uneducated, there is. In Mike Rose’s narrative essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” he describes his mother’s lack of education and her hard labor work which is the quote on quote the blue collar working class.
Wilson created the atmosphere of not only binding black race with economical and social issues when there are other contributing factors as well. The plight of low-skilled inner city black males explains the other variables. He argues “Americans may not fully understand the dreadful social and economic circumstances that have moved these bla...
Racial inequality is a disparity in opportunity and treatment that occurs as a result of someone 's race. Racial inequality has been affecting our country since it was founded. This research paper, however, will be limited to the racial injustice and inequality of African-Americans. Since the start of slavery, African Americans have been racially unequal to the power majority race. It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when African Americans received racial equality under the laws of the United States. Many authors write about racial injustice before and after the Civil Rights Act. In “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin tells a fictional story of an African American who struggles to achieve racial equality and prosper
Alexander Crummell, an Episcopalian priest, professor, and lecturer, set out to analyze and discuss “The Race Problem in America.” This piece was written in 1888, following the Reconstruction period after he had traveled to Europe and Africa, lecturing on American Slavery and African-American and African issues. Crummell, when not working outside of the country, resided in the North at various places in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, where many of the countries African-American intellectuals lived at the time. As a professor, lecturer, and priest, the intended audience were members of the society who were literate, Christian, and for the time period, more radically thinking. Due to his relationship with Christianity and the relationship
Though slavery was arguably abolished, “for thousands of blacks, the badge of slavery [lives] on” (Alexander 141). Many young black men today face similar discrimination as a black man in the Jim Crow era - in housing, employment, public benefits, and so-called constitutional rights. This discrimination characterizes itself on a basis of a person’s criminal record, making it perfectly legal. As Alexander suggests, “This is the new normal, the new racial equilibrium” (Alexander, 181).
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
In her book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Annette Lareau argues out that the influences of social class, as well as, race result in unequal childhoods (Lareau 1). However, one could query the inequality of childhood. To understand this, it is necessary to infer from the book and assess the manner in which race and social class tend to shape the life of a family. As the scholar demonstrates, each race and social class usually has its own unique way of child upbringing based on circumstances. To affirm this, the different examples that the scholar presents in the book could be used. Foremost, citing the case of both the White and the African American families, the scholar advances that the broader economics of racial inequality has continued to hamper the educational advancement and blocks access to high-paying jobs with regard to the Blacks as opposed to the Whites. Other researchers have affirmed this where they indicate that the rate of unemployment among the African Americans is twice that of the White Americans. Research further advances that, in contrast to the Whites, for those African Americans who are employed, there is usually a greater chance that they have been underemployed, receive lower wages, as well as, inconsistent employment. This is how the case of unequal childhood based on race comes about; children from the Black families will continue residing in poverty as opposed to those from the white families.
The Untied States of America was built on the exploitation of others and the expansion of foreign lands. Anglo-Saxon superiority and their successive impact on governing policies and strong domination throughout every social institution in the nation allowed discrimination to prevail. Scientific Racism reached new heights of justification towards slavery, the massive eradication of the Native people, colonialism and daily occurrences of unequal behaviors and treatments towards colored people. The strong presence of polygenesis helped spur along and justify racism; the idea that all non whites were groups of individuals who ultimately came from another type of species supporting the idea that Blacks, Natives and other colored people were not ‘real’ human beings. Traditions, legislation, domination and acceptance of such social norms allow racism to be principal whether it was apparent through slavery or hidden in new laws and policies to come. Every aspect of a colored person’s life was affected upon, Education, economic status, environmental location and political rights. Those who had the power within the court system followed the Anglo-Saxon ways, making any change difficult and time consuming to come across.
Because workplace discrimination is closely tied with underemployment and unemployment, it’s important to know why blacks continue to obtain lower positions and promotions than their white co-workers. In The Social Psychological Costs of Racial Segmentation, Tyrone A. Forman discusses explanations of the separation of middle class African Americans in the workplace. The amount of blacks and whites co-working has grown, but blacks are often given the jobs with the lower prestige and rarely any chance of promotion. Despite increasing numbers of middle-class blacks working the same types of jobs, African Americans are primarily segmented...
As the United States developed and grew, upward mobility was central to the American dream. It was the unstated promise that no matter where you started, you had the chance to grow and proceed beyond your initial starting point. In the years following the Civil War, the promise began to fade. People of all races strived to gain the representation, acknowledgement and place in this society. To their great devastation, this hope quickly dwindled. Social rules were set out by the white folk, and nobody could rise above their social standing unless they were seen fit to be part of the white race. The social group to be impacted the most by this “social rule” was the African Americans. Black folk and those who were sympathetic to the idea of equal rights to blacks were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Burton, 1998) The turning point in North Carolina politics was the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898. It was a very bold and outrageous statement from the white supremacists to the black folk. The Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from the local government and destroyed the neighborhood by driving out the African Americans and turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. (Class Discussion 10/3/13) This event developed the idea that even though an African American could climb a ladder to becoming somebody in his or her city, he or she will never become completely autonomous in this nation. Charles W. Chesnutt discusses the issue of social mobility in his novel The Marrow of Tradition. Olivia Carteret, the wife of a white supremacist is also a half-sister to a Creole woman, Janet Miller. As the plot develops, we are able to see how the social standing of each woman impacts her everyday life, and how each woman is ...
Racial inequality is a disparity in opportunity and treatment that occurs as a result of someone 's race. Racial inequality has been effecting our country since it was founded. Although our country has been racially injustice toward many different race this research paper, however will be limited to the racial injustice and inequality of African-Americans. Since the start of slavery African Americans have been racially unequal to the majority race. It was not in tile the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when African Americans received racial equality under the law of the United States. Many authors write about racial injustice before the civil rights act and after the civil rights act. In “Sonny’s Blues” James Baldwin tells a fictional
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact. ”(Lyndon Johnson). For generations in the United States, ethnic minorities have been discriminated against and denied fair opportunity and equal rights. In the beginning there was slavery, and thereafter came an era of racism which directly impacted millions of minorities lives. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up until the mid 1960s.
Social Stratification in the African American community has changed over the years. Social stratification is defined as a rigid subdivision of a society into a hierarchy of layers, differentiated on the basis of power, prestige, and wealth according to Webster’s dictionary. David Newman in Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life describes stratification as a ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society. From slavery to the present, the African American community has been seen to have lower status compared to white people. Today, the stratification or hierarchy difference between whites and black are not really noticeable, but it is still present. However, during slavery, the difference in social stratification was noticeable. Whites dominated over the blacks and mulattoes (offspring of a white and black parent). The mulattoes were seen to have a higher stratification than an offspring of black ancestry. Because the mulattoes were related to the whites, they were able to obtain higher education and better occupations than blacks. For example, most slaves of a lighter skin tone worked in the houses and darker slaves worked in the fields. As the people of light skin tone had children, they were able to have advantages too. The advantages have led into the society of today. In this paper I will discuss how stratification has been affected in the African American community over time by skin tone to make mulattoes more privileged than dark skin blacks.
The message that many African American males receive throughout their lives is that they are unintelligible, uneducable, and dangerous (hooks 2004; Jackson and Moore 2008). With this message being delivered to them every day it is not hard to understand the disparity of those getting higher education and those who do not compared to their white counterparts. These messages can play a role in how their self-image is formed and defined. Other factors include poverty and incarceration. These are not the only factors that affect African American males but these are some of the common factors that affect the educational attainment of African American males. This is should be a concern because there may be something that can be done to prevent the disparity of educational attainment among African American males and white males.
Essentially, Americans would have equal opportunity to prosper through education and hard work. However, in a study published by the National Center for Education Statistics, Americans were shown to have less equal opportunity than any other country elsewhere in the West (Krugman 567). Ultimately, the results of the study revealed that, “it would be closer to the truth, though not the whole truth, to say that in modern America, class—inherited class—usually trumps talent” (Krugman 566). Consequently, the effects of low upward social mobility, or the ability for individuals to move upward in social status, can be detrimental. Specifically, American children born to low-income families are more likely to have health problems that derail their life chances due to lack of insurance (Krugman