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my socia

Sofia Cassese

Prof. D’Sa

Multi. Cult. Edu.

Oct. 14, 2020

After reading the five vignettes from the PBS website, I now have a better understanding of the differences of class and how it can affect different people. The first one, “Stuck in the Middle” talks about Roberta, an African American woman, who spent most of her life in a stable household. She was able to go to private schools and she attended an ivy league college. Roberta said she never felt happy until she met a man named Ben from rural North Carolina. Neither of their families liked their child bringing the other home to meet them and often made comments about their backgrounds. So even though Roberta and Ben found comfort in one another and they were both African American, their families came from very different backgrounds and made assumptions about the other. “The Rollercoaster Status” is about Karen, a self proclaimed “army brat” who moved around a lot because of her Colonel dad. In Pennsylvania, her dad and family were a part of the social elite which made Karen feel much more comfortable with her friends that were also wealthy. But when her dad was moved to the Pentagon and they had to move to rental housing in Virginia, Karen began to resent her parents because they no longer were a part of the wealthy community. Ginny from “Trouble at Home”, who lives in a trailer with her four children, has always been a part of the lower, or working, class. Her son began to resent his mother’s “trashy” ways and wanted to become a doctor so he no longer had to be poor. In contrast to Ginny and her son, Charles Stoughton in “Downwardly Mobile” left his wealthy family and the path they set up for him to become a doctor. Charles chose to drop out of school and move to Louisiana. He now lives there and works as a house painter who makes no more than $25,000 a year. Finally, Val in “Be Careful What You Wish For” grew up in a working class immigrant family who always encouraged her to excel in whatever she chose to do. She ended up divorced young after dropping out of college, but her parents still supported her through everything in whatever way they could. Val ended up marrying a wealthy real estate broker who also came from a working class immigrant background. Val wanted to pay her family back for all they did for her, but they refused which caused some tension and strain among the family.

I come from a family of four that lives in Bergen County, New Jersey. My parents are both white, my dad is of Italian descent and my mom is Irish and Hungarian. We also live in a mostly white town and county, we have never been at a disadvantage because of our race. Now that I am older I am able to see that we have been at a disadvantage because of our financial status. I have personally never felt any discomfort because of my family’s status, but I am sure my parents have. My dad spent most of his childhood in a single parent household after his dad passed away when he was only 9 years old. His mother, who had no job and received a much smaller settlement than she should have, was left to care for their four sons by herself. My dad never went to college and has been working in HVAC for his entire career. My mom grew up in a family very similar to family now, both parents worked often so the kids were left to take care of each other. She ended up not going to college either and began working in the emergency room. I know that my parents went through a long period of serious financial strain when I was still in elementary school. We had been moving around and renting a lot because my dad’s identity was stolen and he lost a lot of money. It took a long time for them to rebuild their credit and earn back the money they lost, but it is very clear to me when it finally happened. My parents were finally able to buy their first home in 2011 after both of them began new jobs with better pay and consistent hours. My brother and I have never gone without anything we needed, and our family lives a very comfortable life after a few years of financial strain. We are by no means wealthy, we are very much a middle class family that lives comfortably.

As I said before, my race and ethnicity have had very little impact on my current social class status. There are no recent immigrants on either side of my family, so generations before me have set up a stable life that we have inherited. As a woman I am well aware that there is still a gap in equality among men and women of all races. Asian American women make .90 cents on the dollar for every dollar a white man earns for a full time, year round job. White women earn .79 cents and Black, Hispanic, and Native women earn even less on the dollar. The wage gap, if left untouched, will continue to be a problem for women of all races as they earn less money than men for no reason. Also, the fact that I am still young could impact my future finances. College is leaving students in more debt for much longer than it used to, it is nearly impossible to pay it back in a short amount of time. Overall, I know that my race and ethnicity will most likely not affect my socioeconomic status but my gender and age are more likely to affect it.