Greene 1

Russell K. Greene

Prof. Flanigan

ENGL 2010

8 March 2017

Infographic Research Paper

My goal with this paper and research is to assist in educating everyone that there is a

direct correlation between classism and racism and how that correlation effects children and

adults in the lower class areas and really how we can make a difference, its important to

understand and be able to see past all of our privileges- whether its the color of our skin, the

places we live, our financial status- and see that our specific privilege may blind us from seeing

something that weve missed and potentially something we could learn from and assist others

with in the future. Something like education that affects each and every one of us, and not only

the city or county we live in but also the entire state. Please take this seriously and see if its

relatable. The divide in the level of proper education given is attributed to Classism in education,

this means that in better more affluent cities or areas, the schools are given more funding and

better tools for the proper education, in a lot of cases this can take place in the same city and

especially the same county. There are parts of Chicago, Illinois that have schools that of the

students are living in poverty, and squalor, these students and their families dont have the money

to eat 3 meals a day, let alone invest their own money into their schools. These schools cannot

afford breakfast for their less fortunate students let alone any arts programs that allow the

students any sort of outlet of creativity; right around the corner in the much more affluent area of

Naperville, Chicago there are public schools that are funded at a much higher rate and provide

not only breakfast for their students every morning and during the summer, but provides summer
 Greene 2

camps, after school programs/tutoring, arts programs as well as other programs that come with

the higher funding. Classism is defined as: prejudice against or in favor of people belonging to a

particular social class. In this case, an unfortunate part of classism is that it is directly related to

racial prejudice and racism with separation of races. In the more affluent parts of Chicago the

cities or areas are usually white communities and the lower income communities are mostly

black or Latino communities with the students in school being the first in their family to attend

and hopefully graduate high school, let alone have the hopes of getting into college, for most of

these students in the lower income communities this is not even an option for these families and

kids, thats why its imperative to apply this funding to the schools in these areas. To gentrify

the areas and bring them up to a proper standard of living and education, the excess funds that

could be applied by the cities or school districts would be applied where the funding is needed

instead of to the schools in the better areas where the parents/families can afford outside tutoring,

meals, and higher education.

Black males have the lowest rate of attaining an Associates Degree at 33%, whereas 40%

of white males attain their Associates Degrees, furthering that only 35% of those black men go

on to get a Bachelors Degree. I know 33-40% doesnt seem like a huge jump, but when youre

thinking about the percentage of these men that go to prison, it will startle you. 58.7% of all

black males will go to jail at least whereas only 37.8% of white males will go to jail at some

point, this clearly is not an accurate comparison to people only in low income or poverty stricken

areas but I do believe there is a direct relation between the amount of drop outs for these guys

and lack of education and amount of arrests or jail time.

One of the issues is that most of the State/City politicians and representatives believe that

if funding is allocated to the schools in these areas the funding will be wasted and the schools
 Greene 3

will end up in the same position they are trying to repair. The schools in Chicago as opposed to

Naperville pay their educators are a much lower rate, making it nearly impossible to keep or

retain educators that can and will make a difference for these students- the class size is usually

much bigger than recommended as the schools cannot afford the employ many teachers let alone

pay them the fair wages for teachers based on the funding of each school-, the books for these

schools are much older and of much less quality so the information that these students are getting

in a lot cases are not up to date or accurate when new books have been introduced and

information about a lot of topics have changed. This is not only a disservice to the students but to

the entire community as its feeding into the cycle that is already clearly failing. This isnt even

taking into consideration the upkeep of the schools, the schools in these low income or poor

areas most times have rat/mice infestations, unlicensed teachers and these facilities are in very

poor condition, somewhere I imagine most people wouldnt feel comfortable leaving their

children.

Classism in education also directly affects the state as a whole, for instance, take a look at

most schools in the West, not all, especially not in Arizona or California, but in states like Utah,

Colorado and Idaho- most schools have the funding necessary to provide the proper education to

their students, Utah has one of the highest rates of their young adults graduating high school and

attending college or going on to further their education whereas a lot of states in the south like

Mississippi and Arkansas, their schools are not funded at the right rate thus their education

system is seriously lacking in not only some of their cities but most of their cities, which shows

why their states are not thriving or doing well. Residents taxes and other funds are being applied

to items that the residents/occupants of that state thinks are more important that the education of

their minors.
 Greene 4

Another important part of understanding classism in education is understanding how not

getting the proper education or having the ability to obtain the education necessary is related to

dropping out of school being related to unemployment, especially when we are speaking about

areas with high unemployment rates and areas with high gang violence and high crime rates such

as Chicago. Not giving these kids a real chance to get the education they need and deserve just

feeds the cycle and keeps the negativity going. The students in the lower income areas in a lot of

cases have to drop out of middle school and high school to help provide for their families,

unfortunately in a lot of cases these students are part of families that no one was able to graduate

high school or further more go onto higher education like college, the jobs that are attainable

with no high school diploma or GED are usually only paying minimum wage and help very little

when youre trying to provide for an entire families, this is where the cycle deepens and these

young students turn to joining gangs and selling drugs or thievery for the quick money it can

provide. If we were to allocate the funds and resources appropriately a lot of the drug, violence

and crime would cease naturally without having to have interventions between Kanye West or

Steve Harvey and President Trump. This is something small that can make a huge difference but

I dont even think this is an option given to the people, not only that, its also based on ignorance,

I think a lot of people in the more affluent cities or areas dont see the negativity happening in

their backyard the way that people in the slums do, therefore, its not an issue they believe needs

to be brought to light. If a very small portion of the funds from one thriving district in a better

area went to aid in the failing districts schools in an area that was really struggling, I think that

would be a great start for the repair of not only schools but communities and entire states.

The easiest way for America to get rid of its Racism issue is to first focus on the HUGE

classism issue its facing and realize that the two are directly correlated and its impossible to
 Greene 5

have one without the other. We cant talk about classism without talking about racism and

especially without talking about prejudism. I believe our problem really isnt racism, its elitism

or classism, one people believe their better than the other people and therefore are not willing to

help or take a step back to see how easy it would be to fix these issues.

We were able to look at what classism is and how it directly relates to poverty and high

unemployment rates as well as crime rates, drug usage and high gang violence. Its also

important to remember that racism and classism are directly related.

 Greene 6

Works Cited

1.)Gorski, Paul. "The classist underpinnings of Ruby Paynes framework." Teachers College

Record 12322 (2006).

2.)Langhout, Regina Day, Peter Drake, and Francine Rosselli. "Classism in the university setting:

Examining student antecedents and outcomes." Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 2.3

(2009): 166.

3.) Langhout, Regina Day, Francine Rosselli, and Jonathan Feinstein. "Assessing classism in

academic settings." The Review of Higher Education 30.2 (2007): 145-184.

4.) Andrews, Dorinda J. Carter, Gail Richmond, and David Stroupe. "Teacher Education and

Teaching in the Present Political Landscape: Promoting Educational Equity Through Critical

Inquiry and Research." Journal of Teacher Education 68.2 (2017): 121-124.