Classified Class Cliques Of The American Dream

“Classified” Class Cliques Jocks, preps, nerds, geeks, loners, skaters, thespians, goths… starting at a young age children begin to categorize themselves and others, developing cliques both consciously and unconsciously, based on popularity, common interests, socioeconomic background, appearance and social class. Americans often deny the presence of social class as its counterpart: “social inequality” belittles the values of the American Dream concurrently emphasizing the American reality, that cultural capital, prestige and income associated with starting social class influence the acquirement of life chances and often leads to minuscule social mobility and permanent cliques. American society is stratified into five main social classes or “cliques” including upper, upper-middle, middle, working and under class on the basis of wealth, income, educational credentials and occupational …show more content…
While individuals often classify others by income or by questionnaire characteristics such as race, ethnicity, zipcode, educational attainment, investments, etcetera, the first dimension of social class involves snap judgments and superficial stereotypes that recognizes class in appearance, clothing, electronic gadgets, accessories and overall presentation of one’s public self. For instance, individuals in jeans, a t-shirt and billed cap with a logo can be identified as “blue collar” workers similar to individuals dressed in a suit or as a “suit” which is generally associated with “white collar” professions specifically lawyers, wall street executives and high salary analysts. Juxtaposing the appearances of groups of individuals wearing everything from Goodwill hand-me-downs, Gap, H&M, Wrangler to Coach,