What is the connection between class and race/ethnicity. Do you believe that its intersection has had negative impacts on minorities in this country?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Americans are often averse to recognizing the existence of a class system in the United States. In part, this dislike of class labels springs from our history of revolution, which was spurred in part by a desire to separate ourselves from the rigidity of the class system in England and Europe. Also, our economic, political, and social systems have allowed people in lower classes to advance through ingenuity, education, or drive, or some mix of those, to the middle or upper classes. However, this upward mobility is hampered in any number of ways by poverty and related ills such as poor nutrition and schools, limited access to health care, and parents who are absent or neglectful. When poverty is combined with long-term and systematic discrimination against a people, such that their families are destroyed, as occurred with the social institution of slavery and the continued discrimination against African Americans, recovery of communities can take generations. Not surprisingly, illegal drug use catches on in such poor communities, as does other forms of involvement in street criminality.
Certain racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be poor and thus caught up in the criminal justice system and overrepresented in correctional institutions and programs. Race and traditions of discrimination regarding African Americans has stymied their ability to assimilate. Language barriers and discrimination regarding race have also prevented some Hispanics, American Indians, and Asians from moving to the middle and upper classes. Cultural differences have created a similar barrier for these groups. The drug war has tended to target illegal drugs and their use and has had a disparate impact on minority groups such as Hispanics and African Americans. The drug war has led to the phenomenon of disproportionate representation by these minority groups in correctional organizations.