2. Pick the station closest to where you live. Using the concepts from Reading 4.1, what social class tends to live in your neighborhood? Are you surprised (or not) by the answer? Do you feel it is an accurate representation of the people living in your neighborhood?

Based on the article, “What Determines How Americans Perceive Their Social Class?” by Robert Bird and Frank Newport, they report that social class can be seen through two perspectives, objective and subjective. The article states, “A focus on objective social class entails a direct determination of a person’s social class based on socioeconomic variables — mainly income, wealth, education and occupation. A second approach to social class, the one that occupies us here, deals with how people put themselves into categories. This is subjective social class — an approach that has its difficulties but helps explain class from the perspective of the people. This is important since the way people define a situation has real consequences on its outcome.” With that being said, when looking into my neighborhood’s most common social classes (Rockaway Park, by the A line), we are placed in lower and median household incomes. This is due to the Neighborhoods demographics, future opportunities in my area, and the difference in living situations. Therefore, this observation does not surprise me and it is accurate.