10.30.07
What a drag
I’m too busy and too unfocused to sit down and write anything, but I’m scheduled to post something anyway. In the future, I’ll probably ask one of my friends to contribute something, but for today’s post, I’ll put up the essay I had to write on Sunday night. Admittedly, the essay sucks. It has no flow, no cohesion, and I had no fun writing it. But whatever, I post it because it is convenient to do so at this time. The only part that was remotely interesting was near the end when I talked about how Asian parents of the my generation have doomed their kids to an upper-middle class existence, but even that part was mostly BS on my part. It might be worth revisiting in a future article, but for now I gotta split. Find the essay after the break.
Social classes are a very important part of American society. Every individual exists within a social context that is shaped by his or her class, race, and gender. The lines of demarcation are not set in stone, and as a result, most Americans classify themselves as members of the middle class. Even so, it is apparent that the so-called middle class is not as homogenous as some would imagine. The truth is that even though many Americans do not want to consider how class and status can ultimately determine whether a person is mired in the middle class or elevated into the society’s power elite. While the American dream has long been to achieve financial success, it would be overly simplistic to only take into account the financial holdings of a family or individual when determining social class position. Complex factors of socialization, race, and gender have proven to be just as important, and must be factored in as well. Taking all of these things into consideration, I will provide an analysis of my own class position in American society.
There is probably no better way to describe my class position in this society than to say that I am from the upper middle class. This is a term taken from the “U.S. social class ladder” developed by Gilbert and Kahl that takes income, education, and education level into account when determining social class (Henslin 203). While I don’t technically qualify because I am still a student, it is clear that my parents meet the criteria that they propose for this classification. This is pertinent to the discussion because many of the determinants of a person’s social class come from a person’s family. Parental education level, income, and status all contribute to an individual’s class position. For example, having two parents who have post-graduate degrees (in two different countries, no less) puts me at an advantage in many ways compared to someone who has a single parent who dropped out of high school. Being raised in a deprived environment with limited educational opportunities leaves a person with few career choices and few chances to move up in social class. Because I was raised in a household where my parents put a large emphasis on education, had the time and expertise to help me with my work, and signed me up for all sorts of supplemental learning, I am now in college and on my way to graduate school to get a degree in either clinical or child psychology. These kinds of opportunities are not available to people who do not go to college, many of whom come from families where neither parent has a college education. In addition to education level, the class position of my family takes into account our financial situation. My parents each earn around $100,000 a year, and we are able to live in a good neighborhood where crime is not much of an issue and where the public schools are of high quality. Living in a safe environment away from gangs and violence provides security and nurturing surroundings that lessened the risks of getting involved in criminal activity at a young age. Whereas children from the ghetto are at risk of being assimilated into gang culture, children like me who grow up in the upper middle class neighborhoods have little association with gangs. Also, because my parents did not have to take multiple jobs to provide basic needs, they were around to monitor and help me. Compared to families where the parents are too busy to get involved with their children’s lives, I had the advantage of receiving guidance and support from my parents. Ultimately, it helped me develop a similar work ethic and influenced my decision to go to school and concentrate on my work. Decisions like what kind of careers to pursue, what to do with spare time, and what kind of people to associate with are all influenced by your family and the way they raised you.
Sadly, there are also some limiting aspects of my family background. The incomes of my parents are nowhere close to the incomes of the wealthiest 1% of Americans, and it is just about impossible for me to ever achieve that level of success. There are a number of reasons for this, actually. First of all, like many working class families, my family has always been very conservative with its money. My parents never invested a lot of money on the stock market or anything like that, and they never encouraged me to do so. Since I have the kind of conservative mentality that my parents were raised with, it is unlikely that I will ever take the risks that are necessary to earn a lot of money or gain a lot of prestige. Not only that, I have not been taught how to properly manage money or invest. The old money families in America often send their children to law school to learn how to take care of the family money while others like me lack the capital and the expertise to really make significant gains (Henslin 203). Another obstacle that will keep me from reaching the next level is the fact that my parents came from a foreign country and did not form the same kind of social networks that the old money American families have. They didn’t have the connections to get me into top private schools or universities, and as a result, I have never associated with people who are members of the elite class of society. All told, I will likely be held to a position nearly identical to my parents because there are limited options for me to move up. While I may be able to find a job that pays marginally more than the jobs of my parents, I lack the knowledge, socialization, and networking to take myself into the next level.
In terms of individual characteristics that contribute to social class position, some of the important things to consider are race and gender. The numbers that are often brought up in the discussion of these traits are staggering. 22% of Latinos and 24% of African Americans live in poverty compared only 10% of Asian Americans and White Americans (Henslin 213). Additionally, studies have shown that women who head households earn only 70% as much as do men in similar situations (Henslin 214). At the other end of the spectrum, the Fortune 500 reveals a large disparity in the number of women in top paying jobs compared to men. Of the Fortune 500 companies, only 12 (~.2%) are run by women (Mero). Clearly, the playing field is not an even one. I suppose that I am fortunate because, being an Asian American and a male, I have not encountered the same kinds of discrimination that other minorities and women often have to face in the workforce and otherwise. In fact, it would seem that I am expected to succeed by a lot of people simply because of my race. All through primary and secondary school, people expected me to work hard and get good grades because there was a stereotype that Asians are hard workers. While I did ultimately live up to all the expectations placed upon me by parents and teachers, I attribute some of the success to the fact that they pushed me harder than perhaps they might have had they not expected me to have the “potential” to succeed.
One of the things that I’ve noticed as a psychology major is that the number of Asian people in the field is rather small. At the same time, I have at least half a dozen Asian friends who are currently going to medical school. It has been an interesting situation for me because most parents of Asian Americans push for their children to be engineers, doctors, or lawyers. They often have little understanding of what career choices there are in America, and they want their children to choose jobs that they are familiar with. The problem is that it puts pressure on many Asian Americans to take jobs that are firmly entrenched in the upper middle class. These parents have no idea what it takes for their children to move up in social position, so they teach their children the value of hard work rather than the value of creativity and innovation. This is changing, of course, but for many of my friends and for me, there’s no chance that we’ll ever be able to be more than working professionals.
Like most Americans, I am a member of the middle class. I enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and have more than enough money for basic needs, but my position on the social ladder is nowhere near the top. My abilities to move up and down this ladder are determined factors such as race, family, and gender. These same factors apply to all Americans, and, even though we as a society want to believe that anyone can go from rags to riches if he or she plays his cards right, it is more likely that people will be held back or pushed forward based on matters that that they have no control over.