Race And Social Class Essay

The connection between race and social class has a very long history in our country, and there is a lot of deep routed inequalities, and discriminations against people of color and lower class citizens. However, in recent years people say there is no longer a big racial divide, and it is all class based discrimination. People are believing this, because of the rise of a black middle class. However, there are some key factors of economics, government policy, and the rise of the black middle class that show racial discrimination should be discussed more than class discrimination. Though the two are connected racial discrimination should be looked at more than class based discrimination. Recently there has been more inequality among lower and upper class African Americans, and among white lower and upper classes. Race plays a larger role in economic success than class status does. Though class status and race are connected there seems to be a bigger difference along racial lines than simply saying it is class based. This however isn’t being as talked about in the public eye, …show more content…
In William Julius Wilson’s piece “The Declining Significance of race,” he tries to figure out if race still has a large effect on if a person achieves a successful life. He begins by saying there a new shift in the way America looks at race relations and they are in the third stage, progressive transition from racial inequalities. He discusses that since America follows a capitalist society that from an economist point of view “…racial conflict is merely a special manifestation of class conflict” (1978: 767). He argues that capitalist want cheaper labor, and that since blacks were willing to work for cheaper labor they were hired over white people. This then lead to a split class system between white and black, and economist will view this as a class struggle rather than racial