Blog Post #3

Poverty is hard to ignore; it is a consistent problem. We try and act like it is not a huge chunk of our population. We can’t pretend that our country has a classless society and does not have oppression or privilege it is inevitable. America has the highest income inequality. There is a lot of unemployment are our shaky economy today. Money makes a lot of possibilities and creates a lot of privileges. After reading through the power point and Peyton Place, SATs were the first thing that popped into my head. In my town the tutor you chose for studying for the SATs was the key to success. The tutors were all getting booked up well into the summer before our junior year some started the tutoring the middle of sophomore year. People would easily drop a couple of thousands on tutoring to make sure there child got into the best college. Money would bring the tutors and the tutors would teach you the tricks to receive high SAT scores. These good scores meant you would go to a good college, which meant a successful career. For my last SAT, I was taking the test in this town called Spring Valley where I legitimately knew no one. My parents would not let me drive to this school by myself because it was in an unsafe area. As I walked through the school, it was run down, had very old computers in the classroom, the system for taking the test was completely unorganized compared to my high school. Sitting down and waiting over an hour for the test I decided to people watch, I was listening to conversations around me. The kids in my classroom only had one shot to take the test and had no tutors. I realized they were at a huge disadvantage. Due to the lack of money, they were not offered the tutoring to succeed on the SATs. This test creates a larger gap in between the classes because when poor people have lower SAT scores they do not get into high caliber with a great education.

Social classes are not a new aspect to American lifestyle. In Peyton’s Place, which took Place during the Great Depression, the different characters were in different social. Selena lived in the shacks, which was the poor area. She had been abused by her father, became pregnant, and got an abortion. Problems like the ones Selena faced seem to happen to those who are in the lower social class. This is like a typical stereotype for the lower class but in actuality these situations do not only happen to this social class. Many wealthy women have gotten raped but the way books and movies make the illusion that the troubled lower classes typically have these issues because they are less civilized and more chaotic. Poverty and the stereotypes that come with it are hard to be ignored. There needs to be a change with the way society treats and views the poor.