How Does Race And Class Affect Life Chances

Earning an education could cost you for your entire life, especially if you do not apply for the various types of financial aid. After earning their degree, several students do not earn enough money with the field they have chosen to pay off their debt, making the degree seem pointless. Families that pay for their children’s tuition often wonder, like Linda Lee, if their child is getting what they pay for. Parents pay for the tuition because they do not want their children to miss out on the “college experience.” However, when their child fails to make the right decisions or simply acts their age, it leaves the family wondering if they have made a

Unequal Childhoods is a book based on the study of a variety of families ranging in class, race and family life. The author Annette Lareau objective was to analyze and understand how and if social life impacts the children pertaining to these different classes. Lareau also examines the affect social class has on those interviewed by following up years later in their transitions to adulthood. Regardless of ones race social economic status plays a role in how a child develops and learns the skills they will eventually grow up to use.

Jay MacLeod in his ethnographic study “Ain’t No Makin’ It” indicates how education can play a pivotal role in reproducing class inequality over generations. He does so through analysis and observation of two groups of young men. The first group self-titled the “Hallway Hangers” are mostly made up of white youth, while the second group labeled the “Brothers” are chiefly comprised of young black men. The Hallway Hangers defy American Achievement Ideology, which suggests that success can be achieved through hard work, and do not believe that their schools could provide opportunities for success. In contrast, the Brothers seemed to really care about the education they receive.

America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic

The theme in “Why Race Class and Gender Still Matter” is that race, class, and gender still affects society today. The authors stress how race, class and gender creates the inequality in America where some lives are valued more than others. Nevertheless, they encourage the readers to make a change after they have grasped the full understanding of how these factors work in society.

Students from all over the United States are told all through their life that they need to attend college if they ever want to be successful, however, this is far from the truth. Often schools are culprits for driving students to attend money driven colleges, in other cases it is family. While schools all too often make the push on students to continue their schooling, parents can cause the same situation, as they may not have a degree and be working a low-paying factory job. Now kids already don’t want to be like their parents when they get older, so seeing them suffer in poverty or barely above the poverty line can cause some dissatisfaction, further seeking a degree to live a life that they never got. What many

Class and race work to give some an unearned advantage over others based on their race, nationality, educational status, and social class (McIntosh, 1988). McIntosh argues that whites enjoy a

Families are now aiming low when it comes to college- or are simply not going at all. Money could play a huge part in this decision- after all, the cost of college has skyrocketed over the years, and so has the amount of student loan debt. This is something even Leonhardt admits, stating that, because of this, only about 33 percent of young adults get a four-year college degree today, while another 10 percent receive a two-year degree (Leonhardt). And even though many colleges offer financial aid packages, that money may soon be cut and the cost of college will continue to grow. It is true that, in my personal experience, just because a student is awarded financial aid does not mean they have a golden ticket to University. This leaves many desperate students the only option of taking out as many loans as they think they can handle- often more than they should. Debt is not a new issue for America, but it is still a problem. Although David Autor, an M.I.T. economist, laments: “not sending [young adults] to college would be a disaster”, no one can ignore the rising rates of loan defaults, and some think it

In an effort to discover how one thing affects another, I decided to study how race affects different aspects of life; those aspects being income, social class (or class) and education. How do we ascertain what effects what when preparing a study; does race effect how much we make or how far we go in our education or where we might live? There are many studies researching the variables mentioned, race, income, class and education. Perhaps education effects race, class and income. I am attempting to analyze the first combination. I want to determine to what extent income and class and education are affected by race.

Race and class are increasingly important in the world today; yet, few sources focus on the similarities of these issues at a regional or global level. Ideologies of race were used to justify colonialism, conquest and annihilation of non-European peoples, slavery, indentured labor, fascism and Nazism. Yet, a common impression among men and women of color is that race and class issues are unique to their own particular community. Still, it is only through awareness of how these issues affect different communities that a common bond and understanding can be developed across racial, ethnic, cultural and class barriers. Both governments and media present the image of an integrated, egalitarian society, which in

Race and class can play powerful roles in people’s family experiences. Race is defined as a socially constructed category of individuals who share common inborn biological traits (Newman 2009). Class is defined as groups of people who share a similar position in society based on their wealth and income (Newman 2009). Social class and race shape family lives in many ways, which in return reproduces class and race inequalities. In Annette Lareau’s study of families, she uses real stories of real families to show important social patterns.

If someone hands another a one-hundred-dollar bill and tells them do with it what they will, there exist the small minority that will use it responsibly. The rest of the population will spend that money on something they don’t need or something they wanted but couldn’t afford on their own. When a college student’s parents hand them several thousand dollars to spend on their education, there is little doubt at least a portion of that money will be used irresponsibly. The article “Want your kids to succeed? Don’t pay for their college education.” Written by Susan Adams discusses the outcome of parents simply relinquishing large sums of money into their children’s hands and the effect it has on their education. For the most part, Susan’s argument that parents paying for their kids’ education harms their success is correct, but she does not offer a proper solution to the problem presented.

Talking of race or rather ethnicity in line with its effects in today’s attainment of life chances and opportunities by individuals for social mobility, we are prompted to conceptualize on matters appertaining to civil rights of individuals in various fields ranging from job allocations, medical attention, education, and distribution of resources. Social mobility refers to a tier in an open system of social strata that involves movement of various categories of people in a societal set up and majorly highlights issues to do with these people’s status characteristics. The most pernicious racial divide in the current world is in social mobility. This is in reference to the gap that coexists between a child born white, and a child born black. Racial gaps today are rampant in various sectors and thus pose a reflection of disproportionate representation of black families at the lower scale of income appendage (de Souza Briggs, 37-42). The chances of moving up or down the family income ladder by race and parent’s quintile is unequal based on the skewed income distribution by race. A society can be in a position of high absolute mobility and also low relative mobility. The availability of at least some social mobility is key in providing conduits to greater equality in societies with high social inequality.

Social class stratification continues to have a very important role in the life of people living in the U.S. and all around the world. The different class of people in the U.S. is based on several reasons. For this essay, we are going to examine the socio-economic background, level of education of the youth and the life style of an individual. A good question is how does the social class stratification originates?, why do middle class youths turn to be more successful than working class youths? Children get their first exposure of what society is all about from their parents who is the primary group. The school, teachers, and community serves as the secondary group and has an impact on the development of the child. It is during the up bringing of a child that the mores of the society should be assimilated. Failure to do so, the child becomes unproductive and feels rejected by the society and unfortunately, this child might end up with a deviant character.

In the current state of our society, the most financially satisfying jobs typically require a college degree. This becomes a problem to an individual if they choose not to attend college and try to enter the workforce right out of high school, or attend college only to later decide it is not working for them and, consequently, end up dropping out of college, possibly accumulating thousands of dollars in student loan debts but no degree. Rewind back one generation, to the parents faced with the choice of whether or not to attend college, and it is very unlikely that they are planning their future family at this point, let alone how their level of education will affect their children – the children of this generation who are now being