Martin Ruvalcaba Mrs. Hart AP English IV 3 March 2018 Social Rank As we all have our opinions on any given topic, there are only a few opinions that actually matter. It is interesting to see how people of power view the world differently than everybody else. It seems even race is thrown out the window when it comes to social class and people that have money. As one can see on every news outlet, any article, or even in literature, people’s thoughts and opinions depend on what benefits them the most and what rank they have in our current society. I am writing this paper in order to address the topic of social rank and how power affects ideas. Money, racism, and their contribution to people’s ideology are my main arguments to this topic. As …show more content…
Racism has been around since the beginning of time as the color of one’s skin has been the dividing factor between not only nationalities but even within people’s inner social community. Regardless of race it has always been certain that people with money have always had the same ideas that is until now. There was recently a published article online that involved basketball star and Cleveland Cavalier player Lebron James. In an interview James displayed his political views, which is something he tends to due regularly. James often uses his social platform to preach and express his beliefs, something that athletes, actors, and any celebrity do now. However, Laura Ingraham the Fox News host didn’t like the idea at all. She critiqued the basketball player stating “keep the political commentary to yourself, or as someone once said, shut up and dribble.” This sparked controversy all across America. The article written by Rebecca Joseph from Global News proceeded to discuss …show more content…
Perhaps the most influential platform to use is literature. Through books the level of intellect is perfect by using literary elements to manipulate what one wants to convey. This can be seen through any type of genre ranging from fiction to nonfiction. The Outsiders as well as Invisible Man express certain messages as well as many other books. In both of these books one can decipher the author’s views without actually reading it. A fourteen-year-old girl wrote the Outsiders as she lived through the horrors of violence and poverty. The story is about two gangs, the Greasers and the Socs as they battle for control of their town. Immediately the Socs are identified as the villains,” We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class…. get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next.” (Hinton) As suspected the author could relate to the Greasers as she is on the shorter end of the stick. As the story progresses both gangs make decisions that seem to always be either good or bad depending on what gang made it. Evidently Hinton agrees with the poor kids and disagrees with the rich. Ellison an African American man uses the same type of writing in Invisible Man. His book describes the harsh realities of black people’s lives before segregation was abolished, “The lobby was the meeting place for various groups still caught up in the illusions that had
The uniqueness of our minds and our cognition is irreplaceable. Beauty, and reverence of the voice lie in the opinions it resonates. We take aesthetic pleasure in the speech of those who motivate us and adopt from them a number of values and beliefs that we agree with. The likelihood of individuals basing their ideals and decision making process off of accessible and prolonged exposure to certain influences is great. These underlying unidimensional prejudices cause us to be biased in our opinions. Various forms of literature are able to help their readers to become more aware of their prejudices. Though the messages we adopt from these texts, we are able to realize the importance of basing our opinions from multiple sources and perspectives. Literature has traveled great lengths to help me become more cognitive of my prejudices, and encourages me to seek different perspectives before formulating an opinion.
"We are presently confronted by fundamental questions concerning the nature of order and authority in a traditional society, and these questions have been given added point by researches into the ideological transformations wrought by adaptation to growth and ex...
Overall, race, class and culture impacts one’s place in society. I have Four hundred years of history cannot be wiped away so easily. I realized that society has a long way to go and the importance of fighting all injustices. Martin Luther King captured it best by saying “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
For millennia, there have been constant conflicts between the upper class and the lower class, characterized by the upper class’s sense of superiority towards those less economically prosperous. Mansfield, Gordimer, and Orwell describe these conflicts between the upper and lower classes to propose that completely transcending class prejudices is impossible and suggest that societal values have greater impact than individual values as they degrade both a person’s behavior and morality.
The realtion of social class to power, is a belief about equality of opportunity that seems to be ignore by former upper social mobility. According to Domhoff's statement about the relation of social class to power, "No group or class had power in America, but only influence". In other words, the upper class are more noticeable and accesible because they share a commmon viewpoint on issues on important new foreign and domestic policies. This leads to the corporate rich who developed to institute the policies they favor like, the Collective power that pursue common goals in community or nation and Distributive power that is the ability of a group or social class within a community or nation to be successful in conflict on issues of concern to it. Social class is mainly based on income, occupation, and education. For example,the educational system of the upper class is different from the majority of public schools the population attend to, because the upper class "receives a distinctive education to prepare them for future leaders of America" (pg 46). This shows how the upper class have more advantage over any other class because they have more opportunities to study in these schools to become part of governmental leaders. Members of the upper class have power based on their wealth.
The NBA’s all time total point scorer turned out to be an advanced columnist. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's argument on political hate crimes is rich in evidence and support. In this article Kareem explains his side that politicians under the guise of patriotism publically commit hate crimes. Kareem explains the definition of a hate crime in being “the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability.” He then uses a prime example, current republican candidate Donald Trump. Throughout Trumps current run for presidency he has been getting known for his hate speech towards women and many different ethnicities.
This article was stimulating to me because it related with me on a personal level. I have been discriminated upon many times in my life and this article excellently explained how white privilege plays a role in determining which groups are in the high or low end of the hierarchy spectrum. In Sklar’s article, Imagine a Country, she explains the growing income inequality between individuals by using several statistics that show the rising wealth gap between the lower, middle, and upper class. Throughout her article, Sklar addresses the controversial topic of high government spending by pointing out that there is an unequal amount of resources that are distributed between large programs such as defense and social programs that help reduce poverty. Her critics have stated that because she is presenting statistical facts as it pertains to income inequality, that she is therefore obligated to include proposals that will address and solve this dilemma. The purpose of this article, contrary to what her critics have criticized her for, is not to present a solution to this
Stratification systems, categorized people by class, gender, ethnicity, wealth/income. When people are categorized, start looking at different systems within the social system or social mobility. “The four main systems of stratification have been slavery, caste, estate, and class. Each of these systems allows greater or less flexibility in terms of social mobility. Social mobility is the ability to move up or down within a social stratification hierarchy” (Larkin, 2015). Slavery is a social status began with social norms allowing people to own others. The slaves had no wealth or power while under this social status. Caste systems are all aspects of social status are assigned at births and held forever,
Echoing Karl Marx, Bourdieu (1986) posits that economic-capital has formed the foundation of social life and dictates people’s position within the social order (p.46-47). has the more powerful
As defined by Merriam Webster, the term ideology refers to “a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture” (Ideology, definition 2a). In the socio-political realm, the term often refers to the reasoning or concepts supporting a political or cultural system that is beneficial to a ruling or powerful class. As a result of the more powerful class or race wanting to maintain the status quo and grasp on their power, this often leads to the oppression of their subordinate class or racial group. In a collection of texts previously analyzed for this class, Havel, Bonilla-Silva, and Stoltenberg all make pointed arguments concerning contemporary ideologies that are present in society. In each essay, the authors argue that these
In broad spectrum, racism refers to a belief that a particular race is superior to another because of their skin color, place of origin or religion. It may also be termed as discrimination against a particular group on grounds of color, cultural believes and religion. People tend to believe that a particular race is more important and superior than others both biologically and intellectually and therefore should never be treated as same (Berg 12). Racism is a vice that has existed since time immemorial and practiced widely in many nations. It is ugly, unwelcome and unacceptable vice that divides a nation in two or more groups, by treating some people as more important a that other thus creating hatred and enmity on racial backgrounds. This paper will strive to explain the causes of racism in societies and its impacts on people’s lives. The paper will further attempt to presents areas where racism is highly evident in sports and other
People in America often suffer from poverty and the treatment that comes with it, throughout their everyday lives. The question raised is why are poor individuals dehumanized by high structures of power? Some people with a higher income feel like they have a choice and a real recourse to justice rather than a lower class individual. They also believe that they are entitled to the world and their opinion matters because of their financial status versus someone who doesn’t have material things. Lessin’s and Deal’s film , Natasha Trethewey’s Memoir, and Bell Hooks’ excerpts, depicts that the poor are often dehumanized and neglected by structures of power, such as the government and media, because of their lack of money and education, however some of structures of power are ignorant to how the lives of poor people really are.
Social inequality refers to inter-relational processes in our society that has an adverse effect on limiting or harming a specific group’s social status, social class, and social circle. The way in which people behave, socially, through racist or sexist practices and other forms of discrimination, at the grass roots, gets down to affect the opportunities of the minorities, that the wealthy individuals can generate for on their own. This can be seen in almost all the levels of economy, ranging from state to the global economy.
From the moment I was born I was given a status, I had no say in whether I wanted it or not and along the way; growing up I was given the option to become others. There are two types of statuses that I am currently have an ascribed and achieved status. Growing as a Hmong daughter and a student is hard. Having the title Hmong daughter was ascribed to me and the title student was achieved by me. Living with these two statuses, sometimes they are difficult, but someday I hope together they will take me to a much better place, a higher social class than where I am currently.
Race and prejudice toward the culture of poverty was manifest during the civil rights movement and even in the American society today.. This paper will rely on examples, borrowing from past examples in trying to explain the culture of poverty, and how it can create prejudice among citizens in society due to their level of income or low-caste groups, which are considered poor within our societies. This paper will highlight a couple of examples to support its arguments.