Social Inequality
Prompt: “Childhood poverty is the greatest threat to children’s physical and mental health and
a barrier to their development, achievement and future” (Dreyden 2010). Many people believe
that being born into a specific social class represent the type of future that they’re going to
have. Minority groups are the most socially grouped people that are presumably born poor and
will live their life poor. Analyze the effects of being born into a minority class and whether or
not they’ll be able to succeed their stereotype.
Armando Casillas
Ms. Garcia
October 27, 2014
The American dream was an idea that was made to make people believe they would be
able to start off in poverty with nothing to their name and end up a wealthy successful person.
The American dream is a theory that isn’t achievable because of the lack of equity there is in
the United States. The rate of child poverty in the States is tremendous. “Childhood poverty is
the greatest threat to children’s physical and mental health and a barrier to their development,
achievement and future” (Dreyden 2010). With a lack of resources children aren’t able to really
reach their full potential and achieve wealth by the time they reach adulthood.
Young adults and children are not able to surpass their stereotype and get out of
poverty because the resources that are presented to them are extremely limited compared to
the people who aren’t living in poverty. The chances of children living in poverty and then
growing up and becoming wealthy in their adulthood are very slim. The reasons are that young
adults aren’t exposed to the same resources that other non-minority groups are being exposed
to. “A 1979 Carnegie study (“Small Futures: Children, Inequality, and the Limits of Liberal
Reform”, Richard de Lone principal investigator) found that a child’s future to be largely
determined by social status, not brains” (Social Inequality). The financial part of a child’s life is
very important because even though that person may have inherited good genes that allow
them to be intelligent it wouldn’t reflect on their living status and their income. If a child has
the brain to succeed and do great things but doesn’t have the resources or opportunities to
they will not be able to. “These numbers underscore that millions of children are living in
families who are barely getting by economically, which can affect their well-being and their
ability to succeed as adults” (Laura Speer). With low education opportunities for children with a
minority background the chances of them going to a good college or even receiving a high
school diploma are very low. With low education these now adults will now be able to work
“blue collar” jobs which will make them very little money. This in turn will make it impossible to
improve their social class making the American Dream a false belief. . “between 2005 and 2012,
the national percentage of children living in poverty- or below 100 percent of the federal
poverty level (FPL)- rose from 19 to 23 percent. In 2013, the rate declined to 22 percent of
children representing 16.1 million children living in poverty, the rate of child poverty increased”
(Annie E. Casey foundation). The poverty rate for children is continuing to increase every year.
Not only does this bring lots of problems for the people living in poverty because it’s just a
reminder of what they aren’t going to be able to achieve because of lack of resources but it also
shows how the rich will stay rich and the poor will stay poor. With nothing being done about
this problem people will soon realize that the American Dream is nothing but a lie that forces
people to work their whole life and earn nearly nothing. This will only bring more segregation
because the minority groups will realize how unfair things are and will start to dislike other nonminority groups and cause even more problems. Things are more challenging for groups of
minority decent because of the lack of resources that are available for them.
For minority groups like African Americans and Mexican Americans the risks of living in
poverty are greater compared to other groups such as Whites and Asians. “Poverty rates for
whites are 9.8%, for blacks 27.6% and for Hispanics 25.3%” (USA today). Minority groups like
these are proven to live in poverty which ties into the opportunities available for them to get a
good educations and good jobs. If the living conditions are bad and they aren’t able to go to
school further than high school then it makes it impossible for them to get a “white collar” job
which will let them earn more money. This results in their family having very low income.
“Racial and ethnic disparities in income mirror higher poverty rates among blacks and
Hispanics. As shown below, Blacks ($33,321) and Hispanics ($39,005) had lower median annual
incomes than non-Hispanic whites ($57,009) or Asians ($68,636) in every year between 2002
and 2012” (social and economic inequality). It becomes a cycle between generations, if a child
grows up in poverty and aren’t given the resources needed to escape that then when they
enter adulthood and have children they will still be in poverty and the next generation children
will have no opportunities to escape that either. The poverty rate keeps increasing because
every year there is a demand for higher education in order to get accepted at an average job.
The competitiveness of the work life makes another obstacle for minority groups to overcome.
“Poor people of color are also increasingly more likely than whites to find themselves living in
high-poverty neighborhoods with limited resources and limited options” (Inequality, Race and
Remedy). There many troubles and problems that minority groups have to face compared to
other groups such as Whites. Even if a White person is poor they are less likely to live in an area
of poverty, which allows them to escape that state of being poor by being offered a better
educations and different resources and jobs necessary to escape poverty. Compared to
minority groups such as African Americans and Mexican Americans that do live in high poverty
neighborhoods they have a better chance of leaving that status of being poor. With the poverty
rates being so high and the amount of total income a family makes being so low the chances
are stacked against their odds. “these numbers are troubling not because living among poor
people is somehow harmful in itself, but because concentrated high-poverty communities are
far more likely to be cut off from quality schools, housing, health care, affordable consumer
credit, and other pathways out of poverty” (Inequality, Race and Remedy). Schooling is one
example of the lack of resources that are in high poverty neighborhoods. Schooling in a high
poverty neighborhood focuses on just graduating high school and getting a full time job that
will make you the minimum amount of money possible. Whereas schooling in a wealthy
neighborhood challenges its students and encourages them to be something in life. The
teachers prepare them for challenging interviews and also helps them build strong resumes in
order to get hired at a high paying job. The United States is set up to help people with a wealthy
background succeed and people living in poverty to remain in poverty.
The United States lacks a large amount of equity necessary for minority groups to improve
their social status. The problem with this is that the wealthy will continue being wealthy and
the poor will continue being poor. Even if minority groups achieve a higher education and get a
decent job non-minority groups such as Whites still make more money because of
discrimination and the lack of opportunity. “White college graduates have estimated lifetime
earnings of $2.2 million compared to $1.7 million for Black college, a difference of almost 30%”
(Racial inequalities). Discrimination can ruin the chances of a colored person to receive a certain
job. The color of their skin or their social status can determine whether they receive the job or
not because owner of big companies are looking for people with a certain background to
represent them. Even if there are two people with identical resumes mangers prefer people
with a White background to represent their company and work for them. “In one study,
researchers submitted identical résumés by mail for more than 1,300 job openings in Boston
and Chicago, giving each "applicant" either a distinctively "white-sounding" or "black-sounding"
name -- for instance, "Brendan Baker" versus "Jamal Jones." Résumés with white-sounding
names were 50 percent more likely than those with black-sounding names to receive callbacks
from employers” (Inequality, Race and Remedy). Unfortunately that is what it has come to
where a manager would rather hire a person of White decent than a colored person even if
they have very similar qualifications. There are even more extreme cases showing the
preference of color by the people doing the hiring. “In Milwaukee, whites reporting a criminal
record were more likely to receive a callback from employers than were blacks without a
criminal record”. In extreme cases like this where even if the colored person has no criminal
background and the White person does and they still choose to hire the White person. This
shows how unaccepting people are of minority groups working for them. This also shows that
people doing the hiring don’t look at the qualifications or their background they just look at
what decent they come from. This makes it impossible for minority groups to get hired at a
good workplace that hires well. Because of the racism occurring at many businesses it makes it
that much harder for these groups to overcome their stereotype and move out of poverty.
Racism has held back the potential of many minority groups in the United States for hundreds
of years. Getting out of poverty and out of a neighborhood that is highly living in poverty is
nearly impossible for all these reason. “Research by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) shows that people of color receive less information from real-estate
agents, are shown fewer units, and are frequently steered away from predominantly white
neighborhoods.” On top of that people are being lead out of good neighborhoods that will
allow future generations to live a comfortable lifestyle and escape poverty. This will just
continue to lead the way of the cycle of poverty. Racism is leading the way of keeping the
different minority groups in poverty. If a person doesn’t receive the same advantages that
Whites do or those advantages aren’t even being offered to them even if they have the money
or resources the minority groups will never leave poverty and the cycle will continue.
In order to start decreasing the rate of poverty and end the never ending cycle of
children not being able to succeed their stereotype there are things that the nation must realize
and start taking steps to stop it. People all over the world but specifically citizens in the United
States need to realize that racism is extremely harmful and it can go a long way in affecting a
person’s life negatively. “This kind of discrimination is largely invisible to its victims, who do not
know that they have received inaccurate information or been steered away from desirable
neighborhoods and jobs. But its influence on the perpetuation of poverty is nonetheless
powerful” (Inequality, Race and Remedy). Small acts of racism such as steering colored people
away from dominantly White neighborhoods affect the colored people negatively in the long
run. It steers them away from potential necessities such as good schools, good jobs, and just a
good environment to live in and keep their kids away from trouble. Another way people living
in the United States can help stop this cycle is by simply helping one another out. Instead of
discriminating and bringing people down lend them a hand and try to make the country you’re
living in a better place. “In one study, more than twice the number of respondents supported
individual solutions (like the one that says poor people “should get a job”) over societal
solutions (such as increased education or social services) when the single mother was black”
(Inequality, Race and Remedy). Discrimination isn’t helping anyone it is just making the United
States a bad place to live in because of the racism. If people would just help one person and
that and the person helps the next person it would create a better cycle than the poverty cycle.
The United States needs to have more equity rather than equality. Some people need more
assistance than other people. Highly populated communities that live in poverty need more
help than communities that are well off because the people that live in communities that are
well off have resources that they can help each other with. “Finally, we must begin planning for
opportunity in the way we design metropolitan regions, transportation systems, housing,
hospitals, and schools. That means, for example, creating incentives for mixed-income
neighborhoods that are well-publicized and truly open to people of all races and backgrounds”
(Inequality, Race and Remedy). Mixing the incomes between communities would offer
everyone so much more than just having all income levels separated. If the communities were
mixed then that would stop discriminations to a certain extent. It would stop it because a
person with low income would be living next to a person with high income and there wouldn’t
be any physical difference between the houses and neighborhoods they live in. It would also
help the people with less income receive resources that people with higher incomes receive.
For example if the neighborhoods were mixed income neighborhoods then everyone would
receive good housing along with good education and a better chance of succeeding their
stereotype. “Lack of access to affordable, quality health care is a major stress on low-income
families, contributing to half of the nation’s personal bankruptcies. Guaranteed health care for
all is critical, and it must be combined with protections against poor quality and unequal access
that, research shows, affect people of color irrespective of their insurance status” (Inequality,
Race and Remedy). Resources should be available to everyone at a fair price. Equity if very
important for stopping the cycle of poverty. If there is more equality rather than equity then
the cycle is going to continue and nothing will change.
Even though people move to the United States because they have this belief that the
American Dream is something that can be achieved this is not true at all. The American Dream
is just a myth created that attracts different people around the world that wants to succeed
their social class and finally be living comfortably. People soon are going to realize that
succeeding your social class isn’t possible because although people work their whole lives they
are prevented by lack of resources and discrimination to move up their social bracket and
become wealthy. Lack of good schooling and high paying jobs being offered in high poverty
neighborhoods makes it impossible to escape their stereotype of remaining a blue collar worker
and be paid less than others. With no changes being made and the poverty level increasing the
United States will continue to struggle with racism and discrimination. Racism and
discrimination will just continue to hurt colored people and people living in poverty and
decrease their chances of obtaining the same advantages that wealthy people have.
Advantages as little as being shown different house based on the color of your skin will make it
nearly impossible for people to escape poverty. This affects everyone living in the United States
because if people are given the opportunity to receive higher paying jobs then crime rates such
as burglary and selling drugs will decrease because the people find no need to do that to make
extra money because they will already be satisfied with their high paying job. Being offered
better schooling and better jobs are the two main solutions to stop people from not being able
to succeed their social class. Once that is offered to the minority groups living in poverty then
everyone will be living with equity and everyone will be offered what they really need in order
to survive comfortably and reach the American Dream.
Works Cited
Budig, Gene A. "No Simple Answers to Racial Inequality: Column." USA Today. Gannett, 13
Feb. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
"CEELBAS." Social Inequality. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
"EXPLORATIONS IN SOCIAL INEQUALITY." An Overview of Social Inequality. Web. 30
Sept. 2014.
"Inequality, Race, and Remedy." The American Prospect. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
"Looking for More Statistics about Poverty? ..............................." Social and Economic
Inequality in the United States. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
"Racial Inequities." PsySR: Psychologists for Social Responsibliity. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
"Sociology of Social Inequality." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
"Thirty-five Largest U.S. Cities Saw Increase in Child Poverty Rate Between 2005 and 2013 The Annie E. Casey Foundation." The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Web. 30 Sept.
2014.