Reaction Paper 2 Posted in The New York Times the article “Angela Whitiker’s Climb” tells a tale of an American woman in the middle class. However Angela was not born into the middle class and like many Americans today worked her way up. At the age of 15 Angela was pregnant with her first son and by the age of 23 she was already a mother of five. At her lowest point, she found herself raising her five kids in an extremely bad neighborhood and on the lowest rung of the poverty class in America. Angela understood what it was like living in poverty, so much so that she chose to no longer tolerate this lifestyle. Looking down upon other women who have grown accustomed to their life in poverty Angela took a stand and vowed to get herself out. Her actions proved successful as she is now a registered nurse, but this is more than just a story of living the “American dream.” This is a story that gives us insight to the process legitimation of poverty in America. The process of legitimation is the way in which the system of social stratification, the level of inequality, and the power of the elites in society are made acceptable to the general population. (Kerbo 2011) The process of legitimation can be explained by two processes, the micro and the macro. One of the main factors in the macroprocess of legitimation is the mass media. Most of the major mass media organizations in the United States are in the hands of the upper class and major corporations. The Disney Corporation for example owns ABC, ESPN, A&E and Lifetime. General Electric on the other hand owns NBC, 26 television stations in the U.S. and much more. (Kerbo 2011) These conglomerates control most of the prime-time viewing in the U.S. today. This is a problem due to the fact that most of the news that we receive is “filtered,” meaning that the news being presented to the public favors the elites and their