The American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.
Seeing and making culture: representing the poor by Bell Hooks, is a hard look at the way the higher class and lower class see the poor. The essay was written by the way Hooks seen how the higher class had prejudices towards the lower class. Gloria Watkins, or Bell Hook as she is known in her writings is a prominent colored scholar her topics range from race to gender and even some politics. Her child hood helped her to write the essay, seeing and making culture: representing the poor. As a child of disadvantaged background, her father worked for the local post office as a janitor in a small Kentucky town.
Poor people were treated very treated unequally in comparison to the rich. In the book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen writes about how poor people were offered education, but weren’t given an equal opportunity for higher education. Chapter 7 of Lies My Teacher Told Me notes that rich people were treated more fairly than the poor people, more specifically with more respect and honor especially in the classroom.
When students are unaware of the history of social class, they begin to believe false information, such as, poor people deserve to be poor. Loewen does a great job of pointing out student’s misunderstanding of social status and strongly believes that it is the high school text books to
In A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Ruby Payne try’s to explain the behaviors and barriers of three social classes: poverty, middle class, and wealth. Beyond the social class of poverty, it’s a breakdown of the elements of the classes and the ‘hidden rules’ each one has. She stresses that these hidden rules aren’t taught in businesses or schools, these of which function as the hidden rules of middle class. Payne states these hidden rules aren’t exactly natural, they’re learned, and as one grows up in a particular class those rules are set in place. She lists all the rules in each class, and the differences are striking.
1. “I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father said snobbishly, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.’ Ch.1 Analysis: nick is tying to say that Money isn’t always what people are born into; especially in this time people who are born into money are considered the upper class and above all. Some people are just a better person in general even without being born into a rich family he doesn’t know if a person has to be born into wealth to have natural class or just be classy on their own.
In “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class”, Bell Hooks describes her feeling that relate to race , class , and education . The article shows us that race and class are two of the leading factors to perdition between humans. Bell describes the hard times that she faced in her life . In the beginning of the article , Bell talks about the relationship between desire and shame . Because her parents could not afford her desires they told her that she did not need them and shamed her into not wanting them.
In the article “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” Barbara Ehrenreich gives her view in poverty and explains why she think Michael Harington’s book “The Other American” gives a wrong view on poverty. She explained that Harrington believes that the poor thought and felt differently and what divides the poor was their different “culture of poverty.” Ehrenreich goes on to explain on how the book that became a best seller caused so many bad stereotypes on the poor that by the Reagan era poverty was seen as “bad attitudes” and “faulty lifestyles” and not by the lack of jobs or low paying jobs. And they also viewed the poor as “Dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification,” or possibly even set an alarm clock.”
Approximately 48,472,800 Americans live in poverty: 15.2% of the population. Poverty is clearly an ongoing issue in today’s society. Many people today look down upon, and think badly of, those who are impoverished. Intolerance of poverty is an attitude held by most characters in “The Jacket”. These attitudes reflect the current intolerance towards poverty and persist throughout the story.
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For them money symbolizes a better life, even though it can come with problems as well. For instance Carl turns to selling drugs in order to make money, even though he does make a good amount of money it does not do anything to his social class rank, he is still considered to be a thug. Once a family is considered poor, it can be very hard to near impossible for them to change that. There seems to be an endless cycle of poor parents having kids and they never do anything with their life, so they end up being poor as well and this cycle continues. It is important to understand these social themes because they occur in every society and it is up to the society and the individual to try and make a change.
There is lower, middle, and upper class, but there are also subcategories that fill the gaps in between, like the impoverished and the top one percenters. “Class in America”, written by Gregory Mantsios, addresses the myths and realities about socioeconomic class in America and how they affect American lives. His article highlights the unequal divide that has persisted over the course of history and will continue to manifest in the future. To introduce the existence of this issue, Mantsios states that this country’s citizens “don’t like to talk about class...or class privileges, or class oppression, or the class nature of society” (Mantsios 378). This is the case in America today because people are neglecting to acknowledge the existence of these elusive
They are unwilling to follow standards set by society, and make damaging conscious decisions such as using drugs or committing crimes. Rutger Bregman of “The Correspondent” illustrates more valid examples about the lower class, stating how they are usually the last to sign up for money management training and “when responding to job ads, the poor often write the worst applications and show up at interviews in the least professional attire” (Bregman 1). Although this might be true, the impacting cognitive effects from an impoverished upbringing can explain these behaviors. For the lower class, resting is a luxury and they are often exhausted by how much they have to work in order to pay the bills. The Atlantic states how “poverty 's stress interferes with our ability to make good decisions... because the short-term needs are so great and the long-term gains so implausible” (Thompson 1).
In Bell Hooks’ essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks addresses and clarifies the misinterpretations that people have of the assumptions made of the poor, how poor individuals are viewed in human culture and how the poor are represented on television. She helps the audience understand how these assumptions are wrong. Hooks begins her first point by addressing the false assumptions that are made every day about poor people through expressing her own experiences.
The Truth About Poverty “Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit” this quote was said by Mahatma Gandhi and it relates so well with this article “It is Expensive To Be Poor”, answer the question yourself, Is it expensive to be poor? This article is titled like that to get the audience's attention early and have them thinking ahead of reading. The author Barbara Ehrenreich is building a pre thought when she does this which helps support her claim. “It is Expensive To Be Poor” by Barbara Ehrenreich is an article posted on “The atlantic” “which is where you can find your current news and analysis on politics, business, culture, and technology”. Knowing what “The Atlantic” offers for readers this gives Ehrenreich a detailed look at who she is writing to.
