Race or class, which one divides the world more?
A look on both sides of the debate.
By Aaron Zhao
Sure, race is inescapable. But, so is class.
It’s not surprising that people will instantly choose race as the answer. Racism, discrimination, colorism have recently been brought into attention after #BlackLivesMatter. Additionally, people see class as something that actually has mobility (the ability to move up and down the social classes) unlike race, which you cannot change. So, naturally, one might feel more inclined to choose race as the cause of social division.
The truth is, class is equally as hard to escape as race, if not harder. The caste system in India is the perfect example. Essentially, children of the poor are born poor, live poor, and die poor. In North America, the rich only become richer (thanks to the government’s aid), and the poor only become poorer. But don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that no one moves up or down the social structure.
The mobility between classes is very insignificant most of the time. The vast majority will always remain in the class they were born in, despite their efforts. How? It all comes down to money, which is explained in the next FOR CLASS argument.
On a more global point of view, the majority of countries aren’t as multicultural as Canada and USA. How can race be a greater dividing factor when there isn’t any race to divide? Europe, the Old World, is the perfect example.
Race divides not just a country, but the globe.
First, let’s talk about racial division in a country.
Racism and prejudice exist will always exist within a country. Especially in countries open to immigration (like Canada), race is very, very diverse. In immigration countries, you have people coming from all over the globe, making it perfect territory for racists, nationalists, and fascists to wreak havoc.
Ghettos. Chinatowns. These are all products of racism, places for mistreated minority groups to come together to avoid further attack. Just from the drastic difference in unemployment and employment, income, and education between certain ethnicities shows how segmented a country can be. In broken judicial systems, people of color are usually at a disadvantage, only because of their skin color.
Now, let’s look at the bigger picture. How does race divide the globe?
Asian. Caucasian. Black.
Your brain just formed three very distinct images. But how did you know those images are good representations of those three races? Why did you picture that and not something else? A similar thought experiment that was used in this article: “The origin of racism, a timeline of events” by Nicole Tolmachev.
Humans are judgmental creatures, and we subconsciously assign certain characteristics or behavior to certain groups. This is called stereotyping, the foundations of racism. When this happens on a global scale, it divides countries, rather than people. One population from a Western country might condescend upon certain “Asian things”, while generalizing the truth. The same happens vice versa. This happens between all communities.
In other words: on a national level, race divides people. On a global level, race divides countries.
If we can’t solve wealth inequality (wealth gap), the world will always be divided by class.
The world is all about social class now. Everyone wants to make it to the level above them, but not everyone makes it because of one reason: MONEY. In today’s world, you need money to make money.
Like I wrote earlier, the poor will always remain poor. The middle will always stay in the middle. The rich will always remain rich and become richer. Evidence?
Now, America’s top 10% earners make almost 9 times as much as the bottom 90% make. It all began in the 1970s, when the wealth gap started to pull apart as a result of a slow economy. The wealth gap is only increasing.
From the data you see above, the upper income is rising. In 2016, America’s top 1 earners owned more wealth than the entire middle class, surpassing with an extra 7 trillion. And what’s even more unfair is that the government cuts taxes for large company owners, allowing them to hold onto more cash and make more investments to ultimately grow richer.
Many conservative governments blame the poor’s poverty on their own behavior; that they didn’t work hard enough, that they didn’t educate themselves enough to go to college. What can the poor do when the government is literally preventing them from escaping poverty? Not very much.
The government not fixing up racism in society makes poor life even worse.
We just talked about how racism divides a globe and a nation. Now, we’re diving deeper into society. Like I wrote in the earlier FOR RACE argument, people of color are a disadvantageous group due to discrimination, but where does this specifically exist?
Racism exists in courtrooms and the criminal justice system. This may explain why Black people are incarcerated at such high rates when compared to their white counterparts. Also, they are more likely to be given longer sentences in jail.
According to the TheSentencingProject:
“African-American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites and Hispanics are 3.1 times as likely.”
“As of 2001, one of every three black boys born in that year could expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as could one of every six Latinos—compared to one of every seventeen white boys.”
In Canada, the Department of Justice admits that Natives are “overrepresented … as both victims and offenders”. They are also 6 to 7 times more likely to be incarcerated (compared to provincial average). Read more here.
In schools, suspicion of guilt leads to black students being suspended more often than white students. When both groups commit the same infraction, the former is 3x more likely to be suspended. Dropout rates are also higher amongst black students.
Also, in poorer locations where POC (people of color) reside in, education is often limited and schools are underfunded. This results in an inadequate K-12 learning experience. In other words, poorer communities have to go to “half of a public school system”. Yet, this problem is commonly neglected and forgotten.
Once we see these things in countries across the globe, we really start to see the extent of racism and it’s impact on POC and the world. Even in closed/non-immigration countries, we still see similar events happen between ethnic groups, refugees, and Natives.
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Discussion questions:
Which side did you feel was more convincing?
What are your own opinions and thoughts?
What are some ways to solve the problems addressed in the article?