Citizens of a nation become paramount to founding the categorical class system, where discrimination based on race, colour or wealth is normalised. It becomes crucial to highlight this in today’s progressive world, where political, social, and economical equality is a hypothetical right. America, a country with a lasting history of racial conflict and differences, has transformed since the civil war, yet struggles with incidents where people still put class above the nation.
Northern America after the onset of war in 1861, led many movements to abolish slavery and work towards creating a more racially equal society where people of different races, classes, and cultures shared equal rights and living spaces. The northern economy focused on industry advantaged by the outburst of immigrants assigned to jobs in factories and plantations, with decent wages. On the contrary, the southern economy depended on agriculture, an ode to its fertile soil. Therefore, African-Americans were enslaved to work for long enervating hours in fields and households socially reputed, receiving negligible wages, additionally, unpredictable, wrongful termination. The economic disparity branched because of the inequalities which existed socially and politically between the two hemispheres.
Racism in America continues to be a pertinent pressing issue as systematic oppression ripples its way into social interactions between people of different social classes and backgrounds, creating division and conflicts. Racism has its wings spread apart in various institutions in America, ranging from workplaces and education to demography. Well-educated, black graduates are not offered ‘white collar’ jobs, and the lack of income forces 72.4% of the black community to send their children to high-poverty schools. This educational prejudice never allows the black community to rise in society to be deemed knowledgeable, skilled, and efficient. Whites enjoy luxurious lifestyles as they have jobs mostly in the secondary and tertiary sectors which ensures a stable flow of income. They send their children to high-paid private schools to ensure they get better-paid jobs and stabilise their future, with whites holding 10 times the wealth of what African Americans have. Demographic imbalance surpasses the cruelty of mankind as 11 in every 1000 black babies die even though the national average is 5.8.
The latest incidents revolving around the deaths of George Floyd and Andrew Brown Jr are enough to contradict the shocking, appalling, and startling comments made by Joe Biden where he stated “ America is not a racist country “. Justice was not served to these innocents. The African-Americans are 28% of those killed by the police force. This was followed by a movement known as ‘Black Lives Matter’ to create awareness and fight white supremacy, violence, and crimes against coloured people. This brought light to not only the black race, but also Latinx, Asians, and other immigrants being treated as a lower class, despite their talent, education, and financial stability.
Recently, the gap between equality and discrimination seems to be widening. Americans have witnessed the lightening of ‘dark unknown spaces’ which had been claimed to be buried back in history, the infusion of exotic ideas into the society which provokes a new species of humans to enforce spurring of themselves into physical and verbal action giving rise to ‘cancel culture’. This culture has churned into the timeless broth of evolution in America and it’s just boiling at this point in time. Resulting in, social classes receiving more attention and importance, where each category is just trying to defend itself by engaging in violence and riots: some silently while others aggressively. In this domino effect, the American Dream of championed freedom and opportunity for all lays hidden and pressed underneath the ground. It is the rich, white Americans who are stomping all over the poor and marginalised communities, making them appear insignificant and invisible and in effect, destroying the aspiration of a synthesised nation.
American unison is not based on the will and commitment of the people to respect each other’s class and race – it is only a situational synergy: in times of extreme injustice, or international war.
Black Progress: How far we’ve come, and how far we have to go
