Gans Underclass What Message Is the Writer

Gans Underclass

What message is the writer trying to convey to the reader?

In "Uses of the Underclass in America," Herbert H. Gans explains the concept of the underclass and its usefulness in perpetuating social stratification and existing hierarchies. Gans claims that the concept of the underclass is used to promote the interests of those in power and of the hegemony. Positing a vast underclass is a tool of social control and a powerful way to manipulate the public. The poor are referred to as undeserving, which creates powerful social norms that inhibit the emergence of proactive political programs.

One of the primary uses of the underclass is stigmatization. Gans explains how labeling the underclass as such promotes the interests of the non-underclass or the middle and upper classes, both of which possess wealth and cultural capital. The author spends time elucidating the potential positive benefits for the non-underclass in creating artificial stratifications. Gans also notes that the projection of the term "underclass" implies value judgments that are arbitrary but which are nevertheless taken for granted on a massive scale.

Finally, Gans mentions thirteen specific functions of the underclass. Those functions include risk reduction: for example, stigmas create social barriers that are designed to protect the non-underclass from the underclass. Scapegoating, displacement, economic banishment, the maintenance of a black market economy, job creation, moral legitimation, norm reinforcement, the creation of popular culture villains, institutional scapegoating, and conservative power shifting, spatial purification, reproduction of the stigma, and extermination of the surplus are the remainder of the Gans' uses of the underclass in America.

2) Who are the underclass in your world?

The underclass as defined by Gans are everywhere in the world and throughout it, not limited to the United States. They are those who live in the so-called "poor neighborhoods." They are people of color, who are disproportionately labeled as underclass and undeserving. They are those who are called lazy because they do not have access to stimulating education or careers. The underclass are those who work in positions of servitude instead of positions of power, as minimum wage earners lacking the ambition required to climb up the social and economic ladder. The underclass is represented on television and films as pitiable souls who often turn to a life of crime. The underclass consists of all those who are stepped upon by others, taken advantage of and used as a means to promote the interests of the wealthy.

3) What positive consequences do the underclass in your world serve for society at large?

As Gans points out, the underclass -- its label -- serves thirteen distinct and interrelated functions for society at large. Without an underclass, who would want to pick vegetables at below minimum wage? Who would want to wait tables? Clean buildings? Clean floors and shoes? The upper and even the middle classes benefit from an underclass because the low-wage jobs keep down wages. The underclass also enables the feeling of superiority that defines the upper and middle classes, who can look down upon the underclass below them. An underclass offers a convenient scapegoat for crime and enables divisions of society, stratifications based on race and gender as well as on social class.

4) What is your reaction to the content of this article?