Class is an essential aspect of any society. Social class refers to the category of individuals that belong to a similar status in society. Different people have a different definition of social class; for instance, Karl Marx emphasizes the aspect of economic dominance about social class. The lifestyle of an individual, the power, and property that they possess define the social class of such people in the society. The sense of an individual’s hierarchy in society can identify the social class in which such a person belongs. Objective social class refers to an individual’s class in a community based on the socioeconomic variable that includes but is not limited to wealth, income, occupation, and the level of education. Another aspect of social class refers to the way individuals group themselves in categories, and it is the perspective used by most people to define social class. In general, social class is a group of individuals who possess the same level of wealth, status, and influence.
There are four categories of social class; the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. The high class comprises the smallest percentage of individuals, usually 1-3% of the general population (Wright & Perrone, 1977, p.32) . This category is the class of individuals who are in charge of more than a quarter of the country’s wealth. The upper-class further gets divided into two groups, the lower-upper and the upper-upper. People who acquire wealth from new investments or business ventures tend to be categorized in the lower-upper class. The individuals who have had possession of wealth for generations and associate with high families in society belong to the upper-upper class. The lower-upper class is less magnificent than the upper-upper class.
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The middle class is in between the upper and the working class. This category of people includes white-collar jobs that earn more than the working class and less than the high class. The middle class further gets divided into two types depending on the levels of education, wealth, and prestige. The upper-middle-class comprises highly educated professional and business people that earn a high income, such as CEOs, doctors, and lawyers. The lower middle class are individuals who have moderate academic achievements and earn lower profits, such as small business owners, managers, and secretaries (Bourdieu, 1987, p.32) .
The third category of social class is the working class, which comprises individuals with minimum education levels who take part in manual labor that has little or no prestige at all. Most of these individuals are unskilled workers, such as cashiers, waitresses, and dishwashers. They usually get referred to as the “working poor.” The class comprises skilled workers who include electricians, plumbers, and carpenters, among others. The working-class categories that have some skills get referred to as blue-collar workers, and they earn higher wages than those in the working middle-class such as secretaries. The skilled workers are, however, exposed to more danger in their line of work than the working poor.
Individuals from the lower class become categorized by poverty. Such people live in deplorable conditions that are classified by unemployment and homelessness. Individuals in this group suffer from food and housing, the lack of medical care, decent clothing, and collage training as few of them are high school graduates, and the rest have not attained high school education levels. The society often categorizes the low-class people as the underclass as they get characterized as poor mothers who abuse the system by bearing many children that they fail to cater for. The men are known to have the ability to work, but they refuse to work, drug addicts, and criminals.
Race blends into the social construct of class in that people in modern society define race from their perspective. People classify other people according to skin color, because different people have different skin colors. Some other social classifications that depend on complexion categorize people according to the level of their skin color; for instance, some people get categorized as whiter than others, and they get to be classified as more intelligent by the ones behind the classification. Race, as an aspect of class identification, categorizes people of a certain race as more superior than others. The element of race classification began during the era of slavery, where the whites viewed blacks as inferior beings. This kind of rating enhances the promotion of social and economic policies based on race.
The current society views individuals with white skin as people who are more privileged than others. The whites get to be associated with competence, non-criminal records, and a healthful lifestyle. The social constraints of race vary from one place to another, and it is the reason behind racial discrimination. The identification of people’s class by race is an essential aspect that affects the decisions made to such people that concern their lives. For instance, race classification determines who gets employees, who gets promoted or who receives the manual job due to the concept that race defines the class of an individual. The social constraints of competition are the reason behind black people advocating for their rights because they get classified as less superior to the whites. This segregation indicates that the white people and those of other races still classify themselves as more dominant than other people due to the difference in skin color.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1987). What makes a social class? On the theoretical and practical existence of groups. Berkeley journal of sociology , 32 , 1-17.
Race as a Social Construct. (1998). Racial Theories, 196-235. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511583407.008
Wright, E. O., & Perrone, L. (1977). Marxist class categories and income inequality. American sociological review , 32-55.
