Climbing The Social Ladder

I really enjoyed reading “Black Middle-Class Suburbia”, by Karyn R. Lacy. African Americans that climb the social ladder often come under fire for the choices that they make in choosing to assimilate. Sadly, a lot of the criticisms come from fellow African Americans. Lacy talks about the different choices that these citizens make as they rise in economic status. They often move to different neighborhoods and have their children attend different schools. However the neighborhoods and the schools are usual predominately white. The parents all express that they felt that the only way for their children to have an advantage is to be comfortable being among other social classes besides their own. They are often judged for this decision and are told that they have missed out on the black experiences.

I personally agree with the idea of assimilation. As much as we would like to admit it or not, we live in society where Caucasians own most of the wealth, property and businesses. I feel that if we want to be successful and move upward in the social class system, we need to understand that America is made up of lots of races and cultures. It would be in our best interest to learn how to socialize with people that don’t always look like us.