American Underclass And The Underclass Essay - 837 Words

Americans used to teach their children that words can’t hurt you. This was a way for parents to comfort their children when they were faced with bullying. In society today, that thought process has changed. Words and labels can hurt people, just not physically. According to Herbert Gans, he believes that labeling a group of people can hinder their mobility in a society. Herbet Gans would not agree with the statement, â€Å"sticks and stones may break your bones but worlds will never hurt you.† He believes that labeling certain groups, particularly the group we label as â€Å"the underclass† harms that population. The reason is because other people associate negative characteristics along with the label the underclass. There is a long list of characteristics that are associated with the underclass population. Two main characteristics are the most important. Americans believe people who are in the underclass group are dangerous and undeserving. This makes the people who are labeled as underclass have a negative connotation about them and they have consequences they face just because of their label. When people put a label on a group of people in a society, the people in the labeled group become to attach themselves to that label and then play their role in that label. This can be positive for the upper classes, however, for the underclass it has devastating effects. Not only are the underclass labeled, there have no choice in the matter. If they have some of the characteristics, forShow MoreRelatedThe Underclass Is Not the Major Threat for American Ideals1893 Words   |  8 PagesThe Underclass Is Not the Major Threat for American Ideals There is no agreement or consensus reached on the proper definition of the term underclass. Furthermore, most researches have not determined the size of the underclass population, much less, on how the underclass population has changed over time. Most people assume that the term underclass implies a group of people who live in isolation, or are isolated from the rest of the society. Secondly, these kinds of persons (underclass) have low payingRead MoreThe American Underclass in In Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple1127 Words   |  5 Pagesnow the way to depict the lower class. Dalrymple also argues that in order to rise out of the underclass that family ties are needed and without it there is hardly any way to do so. Dalrymple says that many of the issues that plague the underclass comes from a bourgeoisie society, that this upper class of liberals are feeding and fueling all of the problems and mentality that are taken on by the underclass. Some of the points that where stated by Dalrymple can in fact be transitioned towards theRead MoreThe Underclass Of The United States1449 Words   |  6 PagesAn underclass does not exist in the United States. It is a function of conservative’s imaginations. The relevance of their creating of an underclass serves one large purpose and that is to be an emotional ploy to keep people politically occupied with small issues. This allows corporations to ensure that their competition will be busy fighting other battles while they continue to push policy and laws that will represent the interests of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful. A distraction isRead MoreThe Undeserving and Deserving Poor Structure1065 Words   |  5 Pagesthat of the underclass. Karl Marx tabled the idea of the lumpen proletariat, yet in the modern era, the concept did not take hold in Britain until 1989. Today, the debate focuses on whether frictional forces create a continuum of inequality, or whether a defined underclass does exist. The question asks if poor people belong in a separate underclass, which is a vague definition. There will always be poor people, but whether or not this automatically qualifies them as a separate underclass is tenuousRead MoreThe Inequality Of Social Classes982 Words   |  4 PagesMatt Wuerker a political cartoonist for Politico, published Kitchen Tables that highlighted the injustice in social classes. It is a cartoon that consist of three different drawings of kitchen tables that Americans sit around: a luxurious upper class, an average middle class, and a deprived underclass. Wuerker used unequal proportion between each of the drawings size to represent the iniquity within social classes. He not only gave the upper class half of the paper, but he also labeled it the â€Å"top 1%†Read MoreThe Poverty Of Americans Are Affected By Poverty1464 Words   |  6 PagesMillions of Americans are affected by poverty every day, it does not spare anyone of a certain race, age, or gender. As children go hungry and the homeless become invisible, the 85 percent of wealthy Americans go on believing poverty does not exist. We live in a â€Å"culture of poverty† where there are many Americans that deny the fact that the country is in a state of despair, the only likely way out is to change how the government assists the deprived and to educate the unknowing. Policy makers haveRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1667 Words   |  7 PagesMain Thesis Americans think they live in a colorblind society and do not discriminate based on race. The fact is Americans have Barack Obama as their president. Some might argue as long as there are exceptional blacks there are no excuses for all blacks to succeed. Although, Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, challenges American’s colorblindness by bringing to light the mass incarceration of African Americans. Jim Crow laws are no longerRead MoreAmerica, Like Ancient Rome, Depend On A Marginalized Underclass Of Maintain Its World Power Status?1330 Words   |  6 PagesStephanie Sierra Professor Stern History 219-01 Paper#1 Does America, like Ancient Rome, depend on a subjugated underclass to maintain its world power status? In Ancient Rome, The way society worked was much similar to America. The Roman social class is and has been very significant in the operational American social class. None of the Roman class’ was oppressed or enslaved rather they were split into two. Once the Romans defeated the Etruscans they went on to build an empire that would changeRead More The Two Major Causes of the Urban Underclass Essay1870 Words   |  8 Pagesof the Urban Underclass nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Today in the United States, as well as in many other affluent, industrialized nations, there exists an urban underclass, which is defined as a class of people that comprises members of low-income households who have little or no participation in the workforce (Gilbert 2003, p. 274). Currently there are predominantly two distinct, conflicting views of why the underclass exists. On one hand, there is the notion that the underclass is simply theRead MoreSocial Class Is An Integral Part Of Our Society Essay1609 Words   |  7 Pagesclass is a valuable subject to address since it’s difficult to really understand the differences between the classes as well as the fact that, at least in America, it is easy for people to turn a blind eye to the truly horrifying situations a lot of underclass families find themselves in. Class was defined in lecture as, â€Å"A set of people who share similar status with regard to factors such as wealth, income, education, an d occupation (Obernesser, L. 2016,)† and social class is, â€Å"a group of people in society