Ariel Durham

1. In both readings, it illustrate how society perceives different social classes. Most people are familiar with the concepts of low, middle, and upper classes. Average Americans considered themselves middle class. However, looking at capitalism shows how the top 1% rose over the years. There would not be a top 1% without the lower class and the working employees at these corporations.

2. I am picking the E train, which is considered middle-class. The E starts at Jamaica Station on 165th Street.I don’t feel like this is accurate because many different classes of peopel live in Jamaica and ride the E train.

3. New York City is becoming a billionaire paradise, as California is to the actresses, entertainers, and the wealthy. New York City shows deep inequalities of capitalism through different neighborhoods. You can see a brownstone and high rises, and a few blocks away, the projects where low-wage earners reside.

1. In both articles, the idea that social class encompasses more than just wealth is prevalent. They agree that class is about how people live, where they live, and how they perceive themselves. These articles convey that social class significantly influences daily life, either through one’s environment or self-identification. However, reading 4.2, The New Yorker, brings this idea in front of your face; through an adventure on the NYC subway, highlighting material and wealth inequality you can see from space. All the while, reading 4.1 looks at more subjective methods; how different sociological institutions and demographics, such as education, income, and occupation, affect one’s perception of their class and identity.

2. The station closest to me is Forest Hills/Union Turnpike. It is around the median income for many NYC neighborhoods. It’s not ultra-wealthy in any means, but it is comfortable and can be described as middle-class in relative terms. It must be said that New York is so diverse and so densely varied that even within one neighborhood, you have upper-income, middle-income, and lower-income residents living quite close together. So no, I’m not surprised by this information. I might expect the representation to be broadly accurate in terms of income, but not completely accurate about experiences or perceived class.

3. In NYC, income is extremely unevenly distributed; you can see it on the streets and in the subways with families and those with no homes hiding away from the cold in the “less cared for” areas, to the stations with police precincts, and all-around cleanliness. The gap between neighborhoods is steep: there are places much poorer, and places much richer. In turn, self-preception is blurred across all class lines; the middle class is a dominant identity, and everyone believes they’re middle-class, no matter how much they struggle. This mismatch between the objective and the subjective means that perceptions of inequality are altered, and many come to believe they are fine when, in fact, they are not.

Crime has often been used as a form of social control by governments, ruling elites, and dominant social groups to maintain power and enforce social norms. By defining certain behaviors as illegal, those in power can limit opposition, suppress dissent, and regulate the actions of marginalized populations. Throughout history, legal systems have been used to criminalize the practices, movements, or resistance of certain groups, reinforcing existing social hierarchies. For example, laws that targeted specific racial or economic groups have been used to keep those populations subordinated and maintain the interests of the dominant group. In this way, crime and the criminal justice system can function as tools to shape behavior and maintain the social order according to the values and priorities of those in power.

Keep in mind our Online Discussion Guidelines:
https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government/online-discussion-guidelines/

Instructions for completing this discussion board assignment:

a) Identify which discussion question you are answering in your comment by placing the relevant number at the start of your answer. For example:

2. Crime has often been used as a form of social control by…

4. Michelle Alexander’s argument about segregation…

b) Respond to one other student’s comments.

NOTE: As usual, follow the guidelines from previous discussion board assignments, in answering by creating a new post…

1. Do you notice any similarities in the way social class is discussed in readings 4.1 and 4.2? Do you notice any differences in the way these two readings DIFFERENTIATE between social classes?
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?
3. Based on Reading 4.2, do you notice a general pattern about social classes in NYC?