Beyond Money: Cultural and Social Capitals' Role in Equal Opportunity

Often, when we consider equal opportunity we tend to focus on the economic aspect of the problem. We gravitate towards the argument that an equal playing field simply means giving everyone a fair chance at the same things. Lost in this conversation, though, is the fact that most of these back and forths involve some type of allocation of money between the oppressed and the privilege that would seem to lessen the gap between socioeconomic groups. In many cases, an influx of capital can solve as a quick fix to the problem at hand, but many times this fails to account for the real roots of the issues with which we find ourselves face to face with. Pierre Bourdieu proposes that there are actually 3 types of capital that all people are endowed with: economic, cultural, and social. Although they are not as easily recognizable, (or maybe don’t receive the attention that they deserve) cultural and social capitals play major roles in

And as crucial defining factors of who we are, they shape how we see the world and how we interact with it. It may even be the case that the most crucial fabric of our being is manufactured by our lived experiences and the situation in which we grow up, that is to say that our cultural and social lived experiences are more important than any amount of money we may have been endowed with.

In To Kill a Mockingbird it is very apparent that the cultural and social aspects of Jem and Scout’s life have a far more profound effect on their worldviews because of the situation they grow up in, both at home and in their community. Scout and Jem’s most obvious advantage over the rest of the characters is that they have a loving, functional relationship with their father unlike other characters. Even as a young girl, Scout recalls that, “Jem and I