The deceptive eye (mass media), in society is leaving out the facts in their television broadcasts, newspaper reports, and radio shows. They cover material on the underclass, however, they alter, twist and bend the true image before it reaches you. Once you see the coverage on television, listen to the report on the radio, or read about it in print, the image of the underclass has been altered to either show them in a cheerful state or as the enemy of the working people. The ‘deceptive eye’ needs to look to Gunnar Myrdal’s use of the word underclass as he used it in his 1962 book Challenge to Affluence. Following is a excerpt from that book as used in an essay by Herbert Gans entitled Deconstructing the Underclass. “He used the word as a purely economic concept, to describe the chronically unemployed, underemployed, and underemployables being created by what we now call the post-industrial economy. He was thinking of people being driven to the margins, or entirely out, of the modern economy, here and elsewhere; but his intellectual and policy concern was with reforming that economy, not with changing or punishing the people who were its victims” (Gans 104). The media tends to “concentrate on somewhat different behavior patterns, but most include antisocial or otherwise harmful behavior, such as crime” (Gans 104). Being classified as part of the underclass of society is not a good thing, and the majority of the time, one does not label themselves as being part of this lower class in the American society, but instead they are stereotypically and financially labeled as being part of the underclass. As Mydral put it, the word underclass is linked to those who have been ‘driven to the margins’ or out of the work force. This is not of their own fault or due to their race or creed, but instead simply by the flex in the economy, a lack of consumers results in a lack of workers to produce the products which in turn gives a rise in the underclass. This is what the ‘deceptive eye’ should focus on, to help the economy rebuild and pull those who have been sucked into the underclass, like soup through a straw, back into the working class, and back into a life of pride.
The mass media of this country has become a ‘deceptive eye’ through which we see all that does not happen physically to us. “For the most part, our media is national in nature and single-minded (profit-oriented) in purpose” (Mantsios 560-561). If someone is willing to be a paying supporter of a television or radio station, in return they are able to influence what is aired and the nature in which it is aired on the station. If the station does not represent an event or in this case, a class of people in the way that they prefer, they will discontinue their funding of the station. This could be extremely helpful for a company promoting home and auto alarm systems. They would want you to think that the underclass is a bad group of people and are nothing but thieves, making you want to buy their product so you would feel safer. “There are few among the poor who speak of themselves as lower class” (Mantsios 193), so why should the media speak of them as such in American society? When there is coverage of the underclass it usually is altered or only shows those who are helping them, such as soup kitchens, or toy drives around the holidays. If the coverage is strictly of the members of this underclass, it is usually for reasons such as unemployment, racism or crime. They are not shown as people who have been placed into their current situation but as people who have chosen that path. A large majority of the coverage offered them depicts them as undeserving of advances in the economic structure of our country.
When looking at Gunnar Myrdal’s reinvention of the term underclass in 1962, we understand that being part of the underclass is not by choice but by circumstantial situations and therefore we should focus on “changing or punishing the people” (Gans 104). When someone is given the opportunity to succeed they often will. If someone is given the opportunity and expected to fail then there is a large chance that they will fail. “We know from social research that teachers with negative images of their pupils do not expect them to succeed and thus make sure, often unconsciously, that they do not” (Gans 106). If the media continues to represent the underclass as they currently do, all of America will soon look at the poor and unemployed in the way the media is representing them, degrading our entire society. After a time, those who are seen as part of this lower class in society will soon feel themselves stuck and destined to stay in this class for all of their own and their families lives.
When comparing, on a personal level, those who are classified as being in the working class and those in the underclass there are few differences. The one major difference between the two classes is money. There are other differences, but most of them boil down to having or not having money. Do you think that the underclass choose to live at or below national poverty levels? Would you want to live in a house with a leaky roof that you could not afford to repair because you had been laid off from your job of ten years? Where do you think the underclass comes from? Yes, some are born into the underclass, but some are knocked out by some situation that is out of their control, and when they wake up they find themselves in desperation and mixed with a class of people that they once paid no attention to. It is the common working man and woman that need to be more informed about where they might be one day, this is where the media needs to remove the filter from in front of the camera lens and let the public see the truth. “The term "underclass" is very ambiguous in meaning. Conditions that one person may perceive to determine poverty levels may be higher or lower than conditions seen by another person. However, in all cases, an underclass citizen is unable to share the comfortable well-being of the prototypical American: a person that has a comfortable sized home, a nice car in the driveway, two and two-thirds children playing in the spacious yard, and a bountiful feast on the dinner table each evening. The fact remains that a vast number of Americans are far from this point of luxury” (Cox, Ashland University). It is this prototypical American that the media covers day in and day out. If you turn on the news you will hear about the American people, but what they mean is the working class. If the underclass is referred to it is by calling them the unemployed, low class, or the poverty stricken. If the media would show not its views, but the views of the people, then we would begin to have a small understanding of why we are here and they, the underclass, are there.
The media needs to remove itself from the idea that people are placed in a class because that is where they are supposed to be. It is not by choice that a person fails, it is by circumstance. If a person is told that they are a failure and is reminded of this constantly by the media then there is a good chance that they will fail. If the only coverage of low economic class neighborhoods that the media covers is of crime and poverty then a person could very easily begin to believe that they are a criminal because they live in a poverty stricken area. For example, “boys from single parent families who are picked up by the police are often thought to be wild and therefore guilty because they are assumed to lack male parental control” (Gans 106). This is where mass media has already changed our mindset, we no longer even consider the possibility that the boy who was picked up lives with his father, and is regularly disciplined for his actions that are not suitable of children there age.
Many of Americas’ working class can subtly relate to the situations of the working underclass. In many towns across America a large percentage of its population is living close to the poverty level, but living at the same level as everyone else around them, they are not viewed as being higher or lower than anyone else. In today’s economy, it is very common for an American working class family to just make ends meet, especially if they are providing for elderly parents or have children in school. Jobs that once would have provided workers with a premium pay check as well as affordable insurance now provide mediocre pay with outrageous insurance premiums.
Underclass is not a social label that is chosen. There need to be options available for people to try to remove themselves from this label that has been placed upon them by the media and society. “When social commentators or liberal politicians draw attention to the plight of the poor, they do so in a manner that obscures the class structure and denies class exploitation. Wealth and poverty are viewed as one of several natural and inevitable states of being: differences are only differences. One may even say differences are the American way, a reflection of American social diversity. As said by Gregory Mantsios in Class in America - 2003. He continues to say, “we are left with one of two possibilities: either talking about class and recognizing class distinctions are not relevant to US society, or we mistakenly hold a set of beliefs that obscure the reality of class differences and their impact on people’s lives” (Mantsios 194). Differences are needed in any society, especially the American society, which is known for its opportunities for advancement. However we can not place the underclass out at the curb on garbage day for them to be removed to a poverty-stricken neighborhood, we need to face them and help them remain in this world and get back on their feet.
Works Cited
Cox, Berdina G. “Social Views and Policies of the American Underclass.” Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University. April 1995. http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/respub/v6n1/cox.htmlGans, Herbert. “Deconstructing the Underclass.” Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. Ed. Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers, 2003. 103-109.
Mantsios, Gregory. “Class in America - 2003.” Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. Ed. Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers, 2003. 193-207
- - -. “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible.” Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. Ed. Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers, 2003. 193-207