Race and social class in the United States

Sociology

Race as it Relates to Class in the United States

Since the country's beginning, race, gender, and class have been very important factors in a person's experience in the United States of America. The meaning of race, gender differences, and the separation of class have changed over United States history. For many Americans, their perceptions of class and race and the degree to which gender affect people's lives, often depends on what their race, gender, and class are, too. There are differences between the reality of America, what is represented as American reality in media, and the perceived reality of America. Americans as well as those looking at America from an outside perspective may have questions and confusions regarding what the real connections are to race, class, and gender are in America. The paper tries to clarify and explore how these issues connect and play out in real life.

One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements are based in actual experience. There are a lot of mixed messages and confounding experiences in American life as it exists in reality and as it is represented in the media.

Americans are constantly bombarded by depictions of race relations in the media which suggest that discriminatory racial barriers have been dismantled. Social and cultural indicators suggest that America is on the verge, or has already become, a truly color-blind nation. National polling data indicate that a majority of whites now believe discrimination against racial minorities no longer exists…Not surprisingly, the view of society blind to color is not equally shared. Whites and blacks differ significantly, however, on their support for affirmative action, the perceived fairness of the criminal justice system, the ability to acquire the "American Dream," and the extent to which whites have benefitted from past discrimination. (Gallagher, 2003, 2 -- 3)

Certainly, this quotation was made before the election of President Barack Obama, the first non-white President of the United States in the history of the country. His election, in some ways, contributed to the distorted perceptions that at least the racial barriers within American society have been wholly and permanently removed. Whites, who have had the greatest privilege in America, have very different perceptions of how race, class, and gender affect their own culture as well as that of non-whites. There are white Americans in the upper, middle, and lower classes, but there are less white people below the poverty line than non-white Americans. From the racial perspective of white, and the class perspective of upper and middle class, white Americans have very different attitudes and perceptions about how much race, class, and gender affect the American experience. This is just one example of how a group of Americans, based on patterns in their culture, relate to perceptions of race, class and gender in America.

The connection among race, class, and gender in America is not a new subject of research. This subject has been studied for several decades, often coinciding with significant changes or events in American culture. Even with all the research, there is a lack of clarity and consensus as to the precise connection these factors play in perceptions in America and of America.

In their analyses, researchers often present an uncomplicated picture of how individuals perceive social opportunity and mobility. They have not adequately accounted for the fact that individuals simultaneously assume multiple positions in the stratification system and how these positions, sometimes referred to as social identities, may influence their perceptions. Consequently, sociologists have limited understanding of the extent to which individuals' multiple social identities may lead to differential assessments of life chances across these identities. (O'Connor, 1999, 137 -- 138)

The quotation implies that there has been a significant amount of research, but that the research performed has been inadequate in its approach and methodology. Sociologists and other related specialists are not studying these factors together, but rather, are studying them individually. There is a need for research that interconnects race, gender, and class. In American society, individuals do not occupy singular positions, which is the main point the author makes. An American, for example, is not just a male. A person would be male, heterosexual, poor, Christian, and much more. The argument, which exposes the lack of adequate sociological research connecting race, class, and gender, is that since people do not occupy socially stratified categories individually, those very factors should not be researched individually. There needs to be research that accounts for the simultaneous occupation of race, class, and gender, among other critical factors that contribute to the quality of a person's experience as an American. Thus, while there is research in this area, there is not enough, and what research is present is not understood or put to use as much as it could be.