Class or Race: What Matters Most in Society? - Research Paper

Introduction

Class refers to the ordering system where individuals are divided basing on economic and social status. On the other hand, the race is humankind division having distinct physical features. Although currently, most individuals believe that it is the ethnic background or even skin color that has a direct relationship with the standard of living or a society's success. However, the assumption is wrong. The reason is that it is a person's upbringing that has high impact instead of race. People are different; thus, there are some characteristics which might be attributed to different classes and races of individuals.

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Race and class have been an issue in the United States and almost all countries due to the impact it has on individuals. However, Gaddis (2012) argues that race has limited impacts, while the class difference among individuals does not have any significant effects. Previously, people believed that racial difference among individuals is a good thing. Unfortunately, people of some races believe that their race is better than the race of others. In most cases, people trust and are more open to the people whom they have the same race and class (Gaddis, 2012).

The topic of race interests me since in the society, class and race has an impact on individuals. The people who have a certain skin color and social class relate to the rest of the individuals in a different way. Or rather, some people from a certain race are usually associated with a specific class. Also, companies usually consider social class and race when they are making compensation decisions. Even though the government of the United States has tried its best in regulating employment decisions entailing race and social programs which reduces the impact of social prejudice and researchers have suggested racial inequalities solutions, there is still inequality in the country's workforce (Weeks, Weeks, & Frost, 2007).

In the wage gap, racial discrimination is the main issue, and it is normally confounded on economic status. The social class hierarchy of the United States do have different ethnicities, but the blacks fall on the low socioeconomic class as compared to the whites (Weeks, Weeks, & Frost, 2007). Through this, it is evident that there is a relationship between class and race. Furthermore, race and class influence school. For instance, the study conducted by Valente (2017), Brazil has a high degree of higher education inequal distribution and socio-economic inequality. The inequality is highly associated with class and race. However, some of the individuals argue that the inequality which is exhibited in higher education is due to the social class of the students and not a race (Valente, 2017).

The other reason the topic is interesting is that despite a country like Brazil being a multiracial nation, it still has a paradoxical position regarding race. The white elites in Brazil promoted the issue of racial democracy so that they can obscure discrimination and oppression of racial degree (Valente, 2017). Also, race and class usually have an impact on workplace performance and school performance. In the study conducted in Brazil, the students who were not whites scored 1.9 points less as compared to the white students (Valente, 2017). It is an indication that when people are discriminated based on their skin color and socio-economic class, their morale of working hard reduces. Therefore, this is an essential social problem that should be discussed in details.

References

Gaddis, S. M. (2012). What's in a relationship? An examination of social capital, race, and class in mentoring relationships. Social Forces, 90(4), 1237-1269. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sos003

Valente, R. R. (2017). The vicious circle: effects of race and class on university entrance in Brazil. Race-ethnicity and education, 20(6), 851-864. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1150824

Weeks, K., Weeks, M., & Frost, L. (2007). The role of race and social class in compensation decisions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(7), 701-718. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710820118