The American Caste System

The American Caste System
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The American Caste System
In the U.S., the issue of inequality comes out as class or race. A majority of Americans would be shocked to discover that anything like caste could be predominant in a nation that prides itself as founded on liberty. The caste system in India defines social status by birth and limits job opportunities within a particular community. It would appear that in America, a caste system cannot exist at all. However, an examination into the history of the U.S. demonstrates a rigid racial caste system and continues to have adverse effects on African Americans.
American Caste System
Most Americans are convinced that the racial caste system that dominated the colonial era has vanished. The American caste system today is not as rigid as it was during colonial times. However, the idea that it continues to operate many decades after independence and the advancement of society demonstrates that it is deeply embedded in the American system. One would expect that since American has witnessed economic, social, political, and technological advancement, casteist ideologies are long gone. On the contrary, such ideologies continue to form a part of everyday life for Americans.
At the bottom of the caste hierarchy are the people of color. Disadvantaged since colonial times, African Americans, in particular, continue to suffer more. The system renders a rigid hierarchical system that includes whites and excludes the minority African Americans and other people of color. The social hierarchy pushes African Americans to the bottom of the pyramid. The inequality and race gap in educational opportunities demonstrates how the caste system has permeated even the education system. The ideology reinforces the fact that African Americans are different from their white counterpart. In the eyes of society, whites are superior to blacks, and that is how it should remain. When blacks attempt to make upward social mobility, they soon discover that the system is too rigid for them to succeed. African Americans have to work harder than whites to qualify for the same opportunities.
Most Americans tend to view marginalization from the lenses of class and race problems. They fail to see how casteist ideologies have defined the bottom as the place for blacks. Whites have unearned privileges, just like the Brahmins in India. Because of their skin color, whites find themselves exposed to numerous opportunities to pursue the American dr...