Reading these two articles there are many points that I have found

Reading these two articles there are many points that I have found very interesting and eye-opening. The first article is called the Original Underclass, they talk about the majority of the people living in the Appalachian region and their political views, living conditions, historical aspects and “white trash”. The second article we reviewed was The First White President. This article was focused around Donald Trump and White supremacy that surrounds him. They also talked about an opioid epidemic, Hillary Clinton, and Barrack Obama. In this paper, I will be comparing these two articles to each other and explaining the differences between the importance of class and race. In the Article Original Underclass one statement “ swiftly narrowing the distance between indentured servant and merchant, landowner and clerk- all except the African slaves” While people leaving England and coming to America simply think they would be starting a new life and become equal, but that was not the case. Isenberg says “ Independence did not magically erase the British class system”. A woman that was held in captivity from the Indians was told she still owed the debt from her dead husband, just because of her class status. People in the lower class bracket got walked all over just because they weren’t related to someone of importance. Thomas Jefferson related the class system to like ranking animal breeds the be completely natural. Jefferson said, “ The circumstance of superior beauty is thought worthy of attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs and other domestic animals, Why not man?” This statement is very arrogant to say considering he is very intelligent and at the ‘top of the ladder’ in society. If you think about it the other way around do you think a poor man would say a statement like that? I cannot see a poor man or even someone from the middle class stating that. Another interesting fact in this article was the opioid epidemic. Vance’s story was about his mother. She was the smartest person Vance knew at the time, but after 5 marriages there was alit of fighting. She drank heavily and became addicted to painkillers she could get from her job as a nurse. In today’s society, this is a big problem in our economy. According to The Recovery Village “Heroin use, as well as abuse of prescription opioids, are on the rise, and it’s more important than ever for people to understand the signs of opioid abuse, and also the impacts these drugs can have on lives and society.” Heroin itself might not directly make people more violent, although it can exacerbate underlying mental illnesses and conditions. It does however indirectly lead to crime and violence. Many people will turn to crime including stealing and violent robberies in order to pay for their addiction to heroin, and it’s not just the people who are addicted to heroin that are more likely to engage in criminal activities. While having such an expensive addiction they are less likely to climb the class ladder to become more successful. Knowing all this information about the first article I would have to agree with more points from the second article I read ‘The First White President’. This article talked about the difference between the poor white and the poor black voting for president trump. A point I agree with in the article is when they stated that Trump was the first president to have served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch. According to Zach Crockett from Vox, he stated “I went through historical presidential archives and manually compiled each president’s total years of service to the country prior to being elected. I define “public office” as any elected or appointed government position and “military service” as active duty in any capacity, including leadership positions.” Trump was the only president to not have any political or military experience. Obama made a statement that if black people work twice as hard as any white person anything is possible. This is a very degrading quote, but in reality, it is true. Trump approval rating was negative with every race except whites. Trumpswhite support was not determined by income. According to Edison Research, Trump won whites making less than $50,000 by 20 points, whites making $50,000 to $99,999 by 28 points, and whites making $100,000 or more by 14 points. Trump won white women (+9) and white men (+31). He won white people with college degrees (+3) and white people without them (+37). He won whites ages 18–29 (+4), 30–44 (+17), 45–64 (+28), and 65 and older (+19). These statistics show that whites are the majority of people who voted for trump. The Article states “ To accept witness brought us Donald Trump is to accept whiteness as an existential danger to the country and the world.” they believe that because white people aren’t going to be the majority of America anymore trump was voted in because of this scare. According to the Washington Post, “It was 2000 when the Census Bureau first projected an end to the white majority of the population in 2059. Four years later, it revised that date to 2050. Then in 2008, it told the public that the passing of the white majority would occur in 2042. At this abrupt rate of change, some anxious whites might see displacement as an imminent threat.” This is a fair argument that is quite possibly the reason why Trump got elected to become president. Roediger talks about the experience of a white maid in 1807. A British investor who made the mistake of asking a white maid in New England whether her “master” was home. The maid admonished the investor, not merely for implying that she had a “master” and thus was a “sarvant” but for his basic ignorance of American hierarchy. “None but negers are sarvants,” the maid is reported to have said. Even know the lower white people were doing “servant” work black people were doing “slave work”. Both of them were basically doing the same work but the whites were higher in the social class because of their skin color. They considered white slavery a sin, but Black slavery is natural. In this article, the two great divides of society were not the rich and the poor, but the whites and the black. Black lives did not matter and could be cast aside altogether as the price of even incremental gains for the white masses. Theodore Bilbo was campaigning for the Senate in the 1930s and endorsed lynching black people to keep them from voting. Certainly, not every Trump supporter is a white supremacist, just everyone white person in JIM Crow South was a white supremacist. But every Trump voter felt it acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one. On the other hand, Sanders replied to the Clinton campaign “ it is not good enough for someone to say, ‘i’m a woman! Vote for me!’ No, that’s not good enough… One of the struggles that you’re going to be seeing in the Democratic Party is whether we go beyond identity politics”. Hillary tried to do what helped Obama win his election, instead of the first black president. She preached the first woman president. While she was doing that Trump has a different way to campaign. He would say some outrageous and painful things, but people are tired of the same typical politician speech. He would set talking points about things that have been poll-tested and focus group studied and say that rather then what is actually going on. This would create the least amount of offensive things being said and not upsetting very powerful people. Both of these articles have gone through a lot of information and some of it overlaps with each other. The Original Underclass is talking about the difference in class. They focus on early America and how inequality was based on your social class. They also mentioned drug problem based on your social class. This was problematic because of food stamps and people working around the system. The article of the First White President focused on race and stereotypes perceived against Trump.They also touched on identity politics when it came to the presidential election. This plays a big part in the election and they believe this is the only reason why Trump got elected. In early America, they explained how the lower white class was classed servants, while blacks were called slaves. They did the same thing but because of race, the whites were higher up than the blacks. In these two articles we reviewed some course concepts as well. Inequality plays a big role in each of these articles. In the first article, the inequality was base on class status in the society. In Jamestown in the early 1700s if you didn’t own any land you were looked down upon and deemed worthless. Another example of inequality by class is someone who is on food stamps buying t bone steaks, while someone that just barely doesn’t qualify for food stamp cannot afford that kind of steak. Food stamps are to help the less fortunate but necessities, but some people will take advantage of the system. In the second article, the inequality was based on an individual’s race. Obama stated that black people have to work twice as hard as whites to achieve the same accomplishments. Another aspect of inequality in the article is when they spoke about the maid in the 1800s. A British investor who made the mistake of asking a maid where her master was. The maid lashed out and saying that she was not a servant and only negers, were considered slaves. While she was as low as the slaves she didn’t want to be considered one of them because socially she is a step higher than the black because of her skin color. Inequality plays a big part in our society today, we wouldn’t be where we are without it. It is necessary for some people to be the owner of the factory and others to be the workers. If everyone wants a lot of money without doing any work today’s society won’t work. In reality, you need to have a pyramid type of society to run smoothly. If everyone was paid equally for every job there wouldn’t be people being doctors or lawyers because they can get paid the same for doing anything else without having to do the hard work and dedication.