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Originally Posted by joep182
I totally agree on this. Where we may differ is on what causes it. My suggestion is that it's society's capitalist institutions that send out messages (mainly through the media and juidicial system) that create it.
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I can agree with you on that:
1) Because there is a mindset that is used to promote a type of society based on polemical and economic terms. That mindset benefits only a slim group of persons who have most of the power in society.
(that is, of course, "classicist" in its interpretation)
However, to make a "racial" interpretation on the social disparity, I would contend that the educational, legal, economic, political and social institutions in society use "stereotypes" as a way to promote one particular group racially, while all others are held below the standards of the first. As a result, societal law is governed to benefit one racial group above another due to those types of standards.
I believe (but I'm still reading up on this) this is because of
social dominance theory, a theory that there are messages out there that promotes the superiority of one group so much so that they think that they are "better" racially (socially, economically, politically, etc.) than others and therefore society only privileges them and not anyone else.
This aspect cuts across the classes and involves everyone racially.
(This is not the entire explanation of the social dominance theory, but only a small kernel).
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They'll talk about immigrants stealing peoples jobs. They will tell you there are more black people in prison (but dont tell you that figure for the overall poor is probably higher). They will say there are more minorities on welfare but there are obviously a higher number of working class on it. This all makes poor white people hate/dislike/distrust black people, instead of realising their common bond.
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That, I agree with, because the negative stereotypes are not only played in the media; there are some politicians (most notably the "Willie Horton" case that George H.W. Bush used when he was running for office) who use race in that way as a "wedge issue" in order to capitalized on people's prejudices.
After all, "welfare Queen" would not be as popular as a mindset among a certain "class" or "race" of folk if it weren't built upon their prejudices and classicism about people who are not like them.
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Again i think the same aregument can be applied to these people - i dont think they are somehow born naturally racist. It's just that many of them benefit from the capitalist system and so buy into its values more easily.
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You're right. Not all middle class people are racist. But, the bourgeosie are most famous for exacting revolutionary changes (i.e. the French Revolution) because they had the most to lose from the poor as well as the rich. And in America, the middle class also is part and parcel of change so much so that it is they that exacts the changes because the only power that they truly have is one of votes. They pay an excess of taxes that the rich and the poor do not have to pay. They cannot get as many benefits as the rich or the poor. And Madison Avenue caters to them above anyone else in terms of advertising because it is their money that fuels the rich.
Yet, American values are placed upon the Middle Class as the level that everyone aspires to. When people think of the United States, they think white, Protestant, Middle Class people. God-fearing people. People with "individuality" and "moral value". People who "pull up themselves up by their own bootstraps".
They never consider the uglier side of this "aura" that is being projected and who it leaves out.
And for the rest of us? For people of color? We're considered "poor" if we don't embrace their values. And the rich? The rich are considered "above" us all.
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Likewise  It's always refreshing to speak to an American who doesn't call me a Stalinist 
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Thank you.
As for myself, I love to discuss ideas with vigor and passion. And especially, ideology has always fascinated me.
As for other Americans, you have to keep looking! We're out there!