Lauren's Sociological Autobiography

On a sunny, hot day in May of 1991, a screaming baby girl was placed into the arms of her white middle-class mother and cooed over by her white middle-class father. Little did she know that she had already received three ascribed statuses within her short time on the planet. She was a female, signified by her pink baby hat. She was white, signified by her skin color. And she was middle-class, signified by her parents’ occupations and the type of car they drove her home in. The brand new baby, with three social statuses already to her name, and countless other possible statuses on the horizon, was me.

Let’s begin with how my ascribed status of female has affected me. Bombarded with female gender roles (from Disney princesses to magazine ads), I gathered the idea that women are only as good as their bodies. This led to a couple crash-course diets and a generally bad body image. I was also taught to accept the idea that boys are better at math, science, sports, and physical combat. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been good at these things anyway, but I certainly am not now. I remember distinctly enjoying math and science until about halfway through elementary school.

Being white definitely affected the way I view the world. Discrimination was not part of my childhood, and I ended up with a sense of race entitlement. Growing up in a mainly white area, my ideas were tinted with stereotypes of other races, and perhaps even the idea that whites are better. Although I realize now that this is untrue, it was still a part of my childhood, and it affected the way I think, subconsciously at least.

As a middle-class child, my parents were always very involved with my homework. Both of my parents have Masters degrees. Education was the most important thing, and I had that idea pounded into my head. My parents taught me how to read before I was enrolled in school, and this gave me a leg up and I was quickly placed in the advanced reading group. Thus, I was given the idea that I was one of the “smart kids” very early on. Consequently, I had more self confidence in my abilities through the rest of my schooling. My parents also enrolled me in several extracurriculars. Gymnastics, church musicals, horseback riding, Girl Scouts, and soccer were all in my agenda. My summers were never spent at home. I would spend weeks at camp, the Governor’s School for the Arts, and the Governor’s School at the College of Charleston. Time spent with my family during the summer was spent traveling. Whether it was to upstate New York to see my family or to Europe to be tourists, museums and historic sites were frequented on the way. Everything was turned into an opportunity for learning, and becoming a more well-rounded person for college. My parents started preparing me for college when I was just a child. Being middle-class also led to the cultivation of the idea that I have the right to be treated like an equal and that I have the ability to question adults. It gave me a sense of entitlement.

My parents occupations definitely also had an impact on me. Both are certified teachers, although my mother is the only one who actually works as a teacher. My father works for Allstate. From my mother, I saw the intrinsic rewards that can come from being a teacher, and I got a first-hand look at the responsibilities that go along with the job. I doubt I would be studying to be a teacher now if it weren’t for her. My father was always bringing home free rewards from his job for working hard. Once they even gave us a free family Disney cruise. From these experiences, I got used to the idea that one day I would be working a job that was good. Never did the idea of working for minimum wage the rest of my life cross my mind. Because I was middle-class, I knew I was going to college, and it wasn’t even an option.

My favorite things in the world are Broadway musicals. Without a different life, I might never have been exposed to theatre. My parents both value (and can afford) art, so I was taken to local shows as a child, and was encouraged to take part in church and local productions. This is a trend that has continued through my life and led directly to me working part-time in the theatre department here at the college and being in a production this year.

Because of the year I was born, I am a Millennial. Because of this, I am adept at using technology and probably have too high a view of myself.

The town I grew up in was very small. This definitely affected my perceptions. I am used to knowing everyone and manners being an everyday part of life. Living in Charleston now, I feel very small and insignificant because I am used to much smaller groups of people. I was also unaccustomed to the bluntness of those who live in the city.

My parents are both very religious. Because of this, I’ve been going to church since I was a baby. This has affected my beliefs and I am still a Christian today. Had my parents not exposed me to religion as adamantly as they did, I probably would not be religious.

Growing up in the South definitely also had an impact on me. I have been constantly pelted with conservative beliefs. It is probably this combined with the time I spent at liberal institutions (like the Governor’s School programs) that caused me to break away from my family and identify as a liberal.

In the future, I can see this past affecting me in many ways. I am planning on attending graduate school for Egyptology. If my father had not been a certified history teacher and subscribed me to Archaeology magazine as a kid, my trajectory would probably be quite different. My upbringing will help determine the mate I pick. I am very likely to pick a person of my own social class. It will also affect how I raise my children. While I plan to be more liberal with my kids (a direct consequence of my parents being overly-conservative with me), I will probably raise them much like my parents raised me. I know I feel the same way about punishment as my parents, and I will also take my children to church. Growing up in the south, I believe, will push me to move up north before starting a family. I would like to stick with the small town idea, though, because I believe it’s the best environment to raise a child in. My kids will be taught to value education and the arts (mainly because I will force them to listen to Broadway show tunes).

The ascribed statuses I was given as a baby definitely influenced the earned statuses I pursue now and will pursue in the future. Although I could continue to list the factors that made me who I am today, these--gender, ethnicity, social class, my parents’ occupations, the things my parents value, religion, region of the country I grew up in, the generation I was born to, and my hometown--all greatly influenced the facets of my personality and my beliefs.

Monthly Budget of Living in Charleston

To determine how much a 4 person family with 2 young children (in elementary school) would spend on food each month, I went to Harris Teeter and planned out a hypothetical meal plan for a week for the whole family and then multiplied that number by four to determine the monthly total.

For breakfast:

16 pack of waffles-- $2.27

A dozen eggs-- $1.89

1 box of Cheerios-- $3.55

TOTAL: $7.71

For lunch:

10 Uncrustables (for children’s school lunches)-- $6.99

2 bunches of bananas (for children’s school lunches)-- $2.76

2 loaves of white bread-- $2.39

Turkey sandwich meat-- $5.99

Sliced sandwich cheese-- $3.69

1 bag of goldfish-- $2.19

TOTAL: $24.01

For dinner:

4 Totino’s frozen personal pizzas-- $5.00

1 box of Mac & Cheese family size-- $2.45

4 cans of ravioli-- $5.00

4 cans of soup-- $6.00

1 box of spaghetti noodles-- $2.59

2 cans of spaghetti sauce-- $2.00

1 bag of frozen corn-- $3.99

1 boxed taco kit-- $2.89

1 package of ground beef for tacos-- $4.97

2 tomatoes for tacos-- $3.49

1 package shredded cheese for tacos-- $2.65

1 lettuce head for tacos-- $1.49

1 package of chicken for grilling (four large pieces)-- $4.66

1 bag of frozen green beans-- $3.99

1 bag of frozen broccoli-- $2.19

TOTAL: $53.36

Drinks:

10 juice boxes (for children’s school lunches)-- $3.65

12 can pack of soda-- $5.99

1 large can of coffee for two for week-- $2.25

2 bottles of juice-- $4.45

TOTAL: $16.34

WEEKLY TOTAL OF FOOD: $101.42

MONTHLY TOTAL OF FOOD: $405.68

I also assumed that the family would probably go to a decent out to eat dinner at least once every two weeks. Assuming that every dish costs around $10, this jacks the monthly total up $80.

REVISED MONTHLY TOTAL OF FOOD: $485.68

This total is over $100 less than the $643 predicted by the epi.org calculator.

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To determine housing, I looked for 2 bedroom apartments in North Charleston on craigslist.com. I found three decent-sounding apartments for about $450-$500 a month. This is much less than the $823 a month predicted by the basic family budget calculator on epi.org. This is probably because the hypothetical housing in that calculator is located in downtown Charleston.

http://charleston.craigslist.org/apa/1664309606.html

http://charleston.craigslist.org/apa/1625812723.html

http://charleston.craigslist.org/apa/1645267366.html

MONTHLY TOTAL FOR HOUSING: $500

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For transportation, I assumed that my family would have recently bought a car for transporting the children to school. Using this website:

http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools/kiplinger/auto05/tool.fcs

I decided that my family would probably have something like a $20,000 car. If their down payment was $2,000, and their interest rate for a loan was 5%, they would be paying about $415 a month on the car. Although my family would park the car for free at their home most nights, they would probably have to occasionally park around Charleston. Since parking at most garages is in the teens for just a few hours, I estimated that my family would spend $100 a month on parking around Charleston.

MONTHLY TOTAL FOR CAR: $515

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Since there is only one car and, since my family will be living in North Charleston, I decided one parent could use public transportation to get to work. Carta fare is $1.50 per ride, so the parent would use $3.00 a day, adding up to $93 a month, assuming they only go to and from one place each day that month on the bus and walk everywhere else.

MONTLY TOTAL FOR BUS: $93

MONTHLY TOTAL FOR TRANSPORTATION: $608

The epi.org calculator estimated $482 a month, but my family total is more than $100 over that.

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For childcare, I called the Sunshine House in North Charleston to get their rates. (http://www.sunshinehouse.com/enrollment.php) For one child in the after school program, it is $65 a week, and with two children, you get a 10% discount on the second child, so it is $58.50 for the second child. Altogether, this comes to $494 a month. This is almost half of the $859 estimated by the calculator. This discrepancy could be because the children in my family are young, but old enough to be in school for most of the day, so they do not need to be at a daycare for the entire day.

MONTHLY TOTAL FOR CHILDCARE: $494

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The Basic Family Budget Calculator says that health care for a family of four in Charleston would be $414, and this seems to be a pretty universal figure for South Carolina, so I am just using it for my family.

MONTHLY TOTAL FOR HEALTH CARE: $414

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The Calculator says other monthly expenses would be something like $352. I have no way to estimate that, so I will just use the epi.org number.

MONTHY TOTAL FOR OTHER NECESSITIES: $352

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Epi.org says that monthly taxes for a family of four in Charleston would be somewhere around $297, and I will just use this figure because I have no way to determine a new one.

MONTHLY TOTAL FOR TAXES: $297

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Here are my totals for the month:

FOOD: ............................................$485.68

HOUSING: ......................................$500

TRANSPORTATION: ......................$608

CHILDCARE: ..................................$494

HEALTH CARE: ..............................$414

OTHER NECESSITIES: .................$352

TAXES: ...........................................$297

MONTHLY TOTAL: .........................$3150.68

And finally, my annual total:

ANNUAL TOTAL: ............................$37808.16

Interestingly, my annual total is nearly $10,000 lower than the epi.org calculator predicted. Of course, several of my numbers (especially housing) are based on the luck of finding good deals. The biggest discrepancies in my numbers and their numbers are in housing and childcare. This can be accredited to the fact that we’re in a recession now and housing value is way down. At the time the EPI numbers were calculated, this was not the case. Also, the calculator could potentially be talking about housing in downtown Charleston, whereas I am calculating numbers for North Charleston. For childcare, my family’s children will only be spending a few hours at the daycare a day rather than most of the day, so that is where that difference comes from, probably.

Hispanics and Their Rise Through the Social Ranks

I found the projections that Hispanics will become more widely accepted as whites, and only a little below “real whites” in the social hierarchy a little surprising. At this point in the country, I would say Hispanics are as mistrusted and disliked by racists as black people are. They also carry some heavy stereotypes. By the general white population, Hispanics are considered to be stupid (often because they do not speak English), most are automatically assumed to be undocumented workers, they are seen as a very homogenous group (even Hispanics from different countries), and they are thought to perpetrate more crimes and join more gangs than other races. They are also discriminated against in that they are overlooked in the mass media, paid very low wages, and hate crimes are often performed against them. They are also hated for “stealing American jobs.”

Perhaps the only reason that Hispanics are projected to have overcome this racism is because they are also projected to significantly rival Caucasians as the majority race in America by 2100. As Malcolm Gladwell explained in his final anecdote in Outliers, in areas where an oppressed group of people becomes the majority, they tend to be less discriminated against. Gladwell tells of how blacks greatly outnumbered whites in Jamaica, and how blacks there could expect greater rights than those in areas where whites outnumbered blacks. Perhaps this is a natural human way of avoiding revolt by an oppressed majority, but whatever the reason, it seems to be a pattern. With Hispanics on the rise, the only way for whites to retain control of the country is to allow them to move up on the social ladder.

Another factor is that blacks have been discriminated against for much longer than Hispanics. Blacks were originally brought to this country hundreds of years ago with the intention of making them property. Although this is no longer the case, blacks are still seen as lower-class citizens--not legally or officially, just as a social construct. Major Hispanic immigration is a relatively new phenomenon in America, and so Hispanics have no danger of being enslaved. They have less history of oppression in America, and this will continue to hurt African Americans and benefit Hispanic Americans.

Although these things could all be factors as to why Hispanics will climb the social ladder and be more widely considered white, the most important factor is the actual color of their skin. Hispanics are much lighter than African-Americans but slightly darker than whites. Their coloring directly correlates with their projected status in America. Whatever the reason, Americans still cannot disconnect skin color from personality or ability to succeed. Because African Americans are the darkest skinned, they will always occupy the bottom of the partially hidden social hierarchy lines that are nevertheless obvious in today’s America. Hispanics, with their lighter skin, will be able to rise through the ranks to the “almost white” order.