Social Class in Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost
Socioeconomic indicators such as education, income, and occupation are measures of social class (Social World). The novels Baby of the Family (Ansa, 1989), and Black Girl Lost (Goines, 1973) are examined to determine the intricate role one's environment plays in dictating the type of life one leads. "The class you are born into and raised in, class is your understanding of the world and where you fit in. It's composed of ideas, behavior, attitudes, values, and language . . ." (Social World). The contrast will analyze the affect assimilation, resistance, and the environment has on social ranking.
"Ratios of people of color, as well as women, are often much lower in socioeconomic status" (Social World. In Black Girl Lost, Goines' Sandra is born to a dysfunctional family in dismal surroundings. She is a product of a single parent home of which is headed by her mother, Sandie. According to research, women who are heads of single parent homes tend to incur increased stress, lack of social support, and financial strain (Social World). These factors could be arguably what drove Sandie to retreat into alcoholism. It is the common belief that the environmental situation one is born into is replicated. Sandy desperately avoided any comparison to her mother to dispel the cycle. "I just don't like for anyone to call me Sandie. That's my mother's name, and I don't want to use her name no way" (Lost 31).
In Baby of the Family, Ansa's Lena, the youngest child of a middle class family, is born into a life of privilege with all the advantages of wealth. The novels contrast by giving an account from either side of the spectrum; growing up privileged verses gr...
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... that one is born into greatly affects social class in society. The strong contrasts between Lena and Sandra's situation show how assimilation calls for the abandonment of old lifestyles and conformity to the mainstream ideals. Environmental surroundings, ethnicity, birth, and the degree of assimilation all affect where one will end up in regards to socioeconomic ranking.
Works Cited
Goines, Donald. Black Girl Lost. Los Angeles, California: Holloway House Publishing Company, 1973.
Ansa, Tina McElroy. Baby of the Family. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1989.
Graham, Laurence Otis. Our Kind of People. New York: First Harper Perennial, 2000.
Salins, Peter D. Reason Magazine On Line 1997. http://www.reason.com/9702/fe.salins.html
Brown Nathan, et al., Living in a Social World 1998.
http://www.muohio.edu/~psybersite/stereo/
The evidence presented to myself and the other juror’s proves that Tyrone Washburn is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the murder of his wife, Elena Washburn. On March 12, 1979 Elena Washburn was strangled in the living room of her family’s home. Her body was then dragged to the garage, leaving a trail of blood from the living room to the place it was found. Her husband, Tyrone Washburn, found her in the family’s garage on March 13, 1979 at 1:45 A.M. When officer Dale Chambers arrived at the scene he found her lying face down in a pool of blood. The solid evidence in this case proves only one person, Tyrone Washburn, is guilty of murder.
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“President Obama’s FY2014 base budget request of $552.0 billion in discretionary budget Authority for the Department of Defense (DOD) and defense-related programs of other agencies (excluding war costs), exceeded by $53.9 billion the legally binding cap on defense funding for FY2014 that was enacted in 2011 as part of the BCA.” Similarly, in their initial actions on the annual defense funding bills for FY2014, the House and the Armed Servi...
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Upon first screening Secret Daughter, I couldn’t help but consider the ways in which our society, in all of its affluence has changed very little since the 1960’s with its civil rights movement. Yes, people of color can vote, eat in whatever establishment they choose, and use public transportation without fear of being thrown off; however, there is still a deep seated mistrust between those of color and those who are white. Even as our nation has grown more affluent, we still find ourselves embroiled in race wars. How can this be? Will we ever be able to move past the color of a person’s skin in order to see the beauty of humanity that lies within each of us? When we first meet June, she has traveled
The cost of the personnel has increased to nearly an unsustainable rate since 2000. Wartime funding was increased over inflation but the personnel has dropped. That being said, the defense spending in 2015 will be about $600 billion or 3.24 of the GDP. The defense budget pays into not only base defense, but also to veterans, civilian and foreign military aid. Each of these expenditures go into the percentage that the government is allocating to defense. Contrary to popular opinion, the money does not strictly go to weapons and military personnel. Health and care for military and veterans alike is on the rise. Retiree pay and benefits comprise the DOD spending for veterans. As discussed, funding for defense is important when it comes to sustaining our country and being a competitor for war
Lines of Fire. Women Writers of World War I, edited by Margaret Higonnet (New York, 1999): Gadarinee Dadourian, ‘A Mother’s Deportation’, pp.280-1.
Zandy, J. (1996). Decloaking class: Why class identity and consciousness count. Race, Gender & Class 5 (1), 7-23.
The intersection of dominant ideologies of race, class, and gender are important in shaping my social location and experiences. By exercising my sociological imagination (Mills, 1959), I will argue how my social location as an Asian American woman with a working class background has worked separately and together to influence how I behave, how others treat and view me, and how I understand the world. The sociological imagination has allowed me to understand my own “biography”, or life experiences by understanding the “history”, or larger social structures in which I grew up in (Mills, 1959). First, I will describe my family’s demographic characteristics in relation to California and the United States to put my analysis into context. I will then talk about how my perceptions of life opportunities have been shaped by the Asian-American model minority myth. Then, I will argue how my working class location has impacted my interactions in institutional settings and my middle/upper class peers. Third, I will discuss how gender inequalities in the workplace and the ideological intersection of my race and gender as an Asian-American woman have shaped my experiences with men. I will use Takaki’s (1999) concepts of model minority myth and American identity, Race; The Power of an Illusion (2003), Espiritu’s (2001) ideological racism, People Like Us: Social Class in America (1999) and Langston’s (2001) definition of class to support my argument.
Lareau, Annette. "1." Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: U of California, 2003. Print.
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of those under U.S. control. Under this promise on November 24. 2003 the president signed an authorization bill to set aside 401.3 billion dollars for the Department of Defense. This p...
Are you not satisfied with your jobs pay or your career choice? Chances are, you may not have gone to college. Not everyone is able to go to college and some that were lucky enough to go to college are probably satisfied with their life. People may go back and forth on the topic “Is college education valuable?” College gives us choices about our career and lets us explore new waters, ensures a better future, and lastly college teaches us lessons ordinary books cant in the practical field. College is valuable and there is no doubt about it. A college education is your crowning glory.