When we were watching the movie in class, it shows Black Americans that are both in and not in the Jack and Jill society. The people that can not get into the group believe that people being "shunned" by other peers is only present in their life. As I was hearing it, they believe that only blacks have a society that not all blacks can be in. It sounded like the wealthy blacks were saying that they are the only ones that work for it, and that it is handed to whites.
Some of the things they were saying bothered me for a few different reasons. I am a member of the Children of the American Revolution, and that is a group that is somewhat "exclusive" as well. You must be related to someone that served in the Revolutionary War, and you must fill out a very detailed application that must be approved. So the same things happen in white societies too. The reason I was upset with the wealthy blacks was because they think they are the only ones that work to gain the status they did. I know MANY white Americans, including my own parents, that worked and put themselves through school and made their way in this world. They broke out of the lower-middle class lifes that they lived. Both of their parents were blue collar workers, and they have both become successful white collar workers; and they did it themselves. So all of this stuff isn't just present in the Black American lives.
This relates to sociology because it is all in the mind sets. People aren't seeing the bigger picture. I have started realizing that not everything is just like me. There are many different ways of life, and because of this class I have started really realizing this. But aspects of all societies are present in many other societies around the country.
As we discussed in class, I think that the movie was saying something more nuanced. That is, I think that upper class blacks not only feel that they had to work for what they have, but they also have to justify that to the larger black community. In general, there is a feeling that because they are black, when they moved into the upper middle class, they sold out and they are leaving their fellow brethren behind. Whites do not have to face this in general. If a poor white person sees a white person on the street dressed up in a suit and the poor white person says "Can you spare some change?" If the suited white says, "No, sorry." There is not generally a reaction in the poor person like "Oh he thinks he's bougeious or he is so uppity." Now, I understand that there could be a situation like this within a family. Even mine is a good example; I am living an upper middle class lifestyle now but my parents are lower middle/working class. Sometimes this creates tension and misunderstanding. But there is a more general tension in the Black community about rising up. And, it should be noted that at the same time that uppermiddle class Blacks have to overcome stereotypes among their white upper middle class cohorts. They face comments like, " You are not like other blacks" or "You write well." SO the dynamic that the movie tried to get across is that these upper middle class blacks feel have an uneasy relationship with the working class blacks that they left behind but yet they do not fit in comfortably with the white uppermiddle class world that they have come to be a part of. See how this creates an uneasy feeling about class? I think the movie was trying to relay this to show how class tends to hold you back - in other words, it is difficult to leave the class you are in (like in your family). And this is true for all races, but the nuanced difficulty that faces blacks really highlights that idea.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying, but I think it's harder for blacks to fit into our majority white society. I think that if the blacks don't get accepted to that group, they are automatically poor, whereas if whites don't get accepted to a social group, they can still fit in.
ReplyDeleteWhite people's hardships are important to learn about too, but I think the movie was trying to point out that people find it suprising that Blacks are part of the middle class. They're not used to seeing that because Blacks are stereotyped as being poor. I think to overcome that they join groups like Jack and Jill, whereas Whites don't really face the same problem of having to proove their social status.
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