Women Of Brewster Place Sociology

There are many social issues that need to be dealt with, yet have not even been thought of as important enough to deal with. One social issue that seems to be bigger than expected is the roles of socioeconomic classes and the discrimination that occurs between these classes. The socioeconomic classes that I speak of are individuals/families that are categorized as upper-class individuals/families, middle-class individuals/families, and lower-class individuals/families. The upper-class is defined as the social group that has the highest status in society. It is made up of the wealthiest members in society. It is known for the wealth to be passed on from generation to generation. The middle-class is defined as the social group between the upper-class

All of these women come from very different neighborhoods, background, and even socioeconomic classes, but since they now live in Brewster Place they are categorized as all the same, lower-class women. In the novel it reads,” The neighborhood was now filled with people who were dark haired and mellow-skinned...so the wall came up and Brewster Place became a dead-end street” (Naylor 2). The author chose to begin with the event of the wall being put up by the government to infiltrate that there was discrimination towards, not only the black community, but also towards the lower class society. They lost their privilege to be apart of the rest of society because they were seen as good enough to the others that lived in upper class households or even middle class households. Being separated from people you feel are no different from you can cause anger to grow inside of someone and cause a lot of tension. Spivak did a study on a similar topic, the results that were found were that, “Even as greater income allows some members of a group to translate their class gains into residential mobility, biases associated with race continue to stratify African Americans into neighborhoods that are far more segregated than those of their white class counterparts”

India is a very known country to be divided by, not socioeconomic classes, but castes. A caste is any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided , each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next. In recent studies it says that “The caste system is a social division in India that stratifies various social groups, with a set of upper castes, “backward” castes, and the most oppressed group, Dalits” (Mahalingam 738). Members in the upper caste, which is the highest caste, are called “Brahmans”. They are responsible for teaching and maintaining sacred knowledge. Kshatriyas are next in line after the Brahmans. They are responsible for protecting the society and doing so by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime. Vaishyas are next. They consist of merchants and farmers. Dalits, also known as “the untouchables”, get very little to no privileges. They are the lowest caste in India. Sweas mentions, “A family’s caste still largely determines one’s social standing and opportunities, and Dalits fall at the bottom” (23). As said earlier, the status of a caste is transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next. If a woman is considered to be a member in the lowest caste, when she has a child, her child will also be considered to be a member of the lowest caste. It is not allowed there, and very rare, for someone