Is class really more prevalent than race?

In class we talked about the theories of Wilson. One of the things touched on was his idea of class being more relevant than race. A comment was made concerning Wilson that if we saw a white guy with baggy clothes, hat turned backwards on one side of the street; and on the other side a preppy black boy who would people be more afraid of and everyone said according to Wilson the white boy because class is the biggest determining factor. I disagree with that because in Today’s society we would like to think that class has a bigger effect on the way people think; but the representation of blacks in the media put out these controlling images that make it hard for people to see beyond skin color

This brings me to the concepts of de-industrialization; with de-industrialization we talked about how major companies that were in specific locations that brought jobs to the area, people and small businesses left it made that area one of social isolation which leads to concentration effects. In a place of social isolation there are limited job opportunities, no social jobs or networks. These people that are in these areas have no access to employment; so then that leads to higher crime rates, and violence in these specific areas. Concentration effect just says if you put people in one concentrated area; of no jobs and little resources the crime rate will be higher because they really don’t have anything else to do. It was interesting how section 8 was originally designed to help those of lower social class, but it ultimately ended up hurting them; because people in these areas are the main target of police officers. In the video we watch we saw the reaction from some of the people in these neighborhoods, and how they feel that society was designed to hurt rather than help. I also think it’s important that we acknowledge African Americans are of lower class levels typically because they haven’t historically had the same opportunities as whites, and even though society is much more equal than say 50 years ago that doesn't change the fact that what they went through as far as slavery, and being disadvantaged has put them on an uneven playing field. Many believe that people in these areas are like this because they don’t work hard enough. I we take a look at Wilson’s theory it does help explain a lot, but we can’t look at class without also understanding how class came into effect, the disadvantages that minorities were placed in having no choice at all. I do believe that sometimes class has a bigger influence, but that’s because most of the people of lower social class are minorities. In one of the clips shown in class it touched on the mistrust that minorities have for the police in these areas. How the police single them out rather than help them like they're supposed to. I believe this is because society has shown us that people of lower social class so we believe it. I wonder what Wilson would say about police brutality that happens in these neighborhoods, and would he continue to think that class is more relevant in today's society than race.