Classism

Humans tend to surround themselves with people they find to be similar to them. The Northshore is a perfect example. We surround ourselves with other wealthy families and like minded people. The children are almost unable to see how the vast majority of America lives since we create this bubble around our society that’s so hard to penetrate. It’s only on vacations or far away sports games that we are able to see different types of cars and houses even though we are able to drive just 20 to 30 minutes outside of our society and see big changes. It's like our parents don't even want us to be able to look at the people living in these societies. We are divided into different classes and exclude ourselves from the others. This is classism and it’s what America is built on. Through the great gatsby and our other short stories, we read and seen examples of this separation based on wealth, race or gender. Since the U.S. values race and wealth, classism continues to occur.

America was founded on the separation and discrimination of races and religions. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans and more have all been separated and some still separated today into different social classes. The idea that one group of people are superior to another group of people built America. Whether it was when black Americans were forced into physical labor and treated like animals or when lower class Americans were abused and treated like machines during the industrial revolution. America would not be what it is today without the exploitation of other minorities. We are able to see this type of behavior in the great gatsby. Within the first chapter, Tom is explaining why civilization is falling to pieces to Nick and says “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things”(13). Tom explains the separation of classes and how to stay on the top. From the very beginning of the book, Fitzgerald starts defining the different social classes and we see this throughout the rest of the book. When Tom says “This fellow worked out the whole thing” it makes racial prejudice and descimination seem like a math equation that if solved correctly, whites will continue to sit on their throne above all others. This parallels to today where coronavirus is putting millions of people out of jobs. Just recently my mom sent me an article about the unemployment of colored people during the corona outbreak. One part of the article that interested me talked about the great recession and the lessons we can learn from that moving forward. Here it talked about the unemployment rates of colored people, “Overall U.S. unemployment peaked at 10 percent during the Great Recession. But it soared even higher in communities of color: 16.8 percent for Black workers, 15.1 percent for American Indian and Alaska Native workers, and 13 percent for Hispanic workers”. A 6.8% difference in unemployment shows the separation of races yet again. We can also expect a similar figure during the corona outbreak as people of color are more likely to workplaces that are closed due to the virus. The separation and descimination of races remains one of the foundations of America.

Much like race, wealth also continually divides the population of America into different divisions. Money determines opportunities, relationships, and class. Money gives the illusion that people are able to treat others differently. The idea of class is arguably the biggest theme within the great gatsby. From the first page we are given two towns that are located right next to each other but are divided based on wealth. Towards the end of the book, Nick comments on Tom and Daisy’s carelessness “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made”(179). Tom and Daisy are able to use their money to lay their problems on to other people. When Nick says they “retreated” back to their money, I think of a battlefield where Tom and Daisy see their money as protection and salvation and they are able to throw money at problems to make them disappear. In the short story starefood, we don't necessarily see mistreatment however we are able to clearly see the separation of classes. When Dade would rest on the roof of their store, he would look down the street towards other towns, “Into the low hills where oak trees grew in rows on the curbs and where girls drove to school in their own convertibles… He [Dade’s Dad] also made me look in the other direction… these were the neighborhoods where men sat on the curbs on weekday afternoons, where rusted, wheel-less cars lay on blocks in the yards”(2). We are able to see these separations especially in the Northshore where we too have oak trees that grow in rows. These different social classes are what makes America America. Immigrants think of the american dream but don't realize that the dream is only reserved for the very top.