Brittany Christian

Professor Williams

English 102

24 May 2007

How Race and Class Affect Individuals

In society today, Americans are getting hurt physically, emotionally, and

spiritually. We are not afraid to take action whenever these actions take place in different

communities. People also have their own feelings about particular subjects. Race and

class have a major impact in our lives because these are issues we face everyday. In

Chapter 6 of The Generation of Ideas: A Thematic Reader, three questions are asked

based on race and class: “Are race and class together just convenient ways for people to

classify their society so that they can better understand it? Is there anything dangerous in

doing so? Are there any other useful ways to classify society?” (Miller 576). Out of these

questions are four issues that are taking place today involving race and class: people are

judging only by race and class, letting materialism and consumerism rule their lives,

neglecting or making fun of those who are less fortunate, and not looking for other ways

to classify society. If we look past these issues, we can start making the world a better

place to live.

However, race and class are both in connection with each other, but also can be

totally opposite from each other. The first question that is asked ties in with the issue

that people are judging only by race and class. Sure, it is convenient to better understand

society by race and class because people can see how race and class is defined in society.

But we negatively judge by race and class only by people’s ethnic background and how

much they own. For example, in “On Being Black and Middle Class,” Shelby Steele

states that race and class “are two forms of collective identity with boundaries that

intersect. But whether they clash or