America: A Superpower With Significant Economic Inequality - Essay Sample

Introduction

America is one of the world's super countries characterized by a stable economic structure. The technological and innovation advances in the country have played a significant role in the improvement of the economy. However, the nation suffers from massive economic inequality despite its stability. According to Amadeo, the gap between the rich and the poor in America is significant, with many people living below the poverty level while others are prosperous. Notably, this inequality is often traced to race-related as demonstrated in the short story, The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara. Notably, Bambara's portrayal of the African-Americans discrimination regarding enlightenment hinders their economic growth like Native Americans.

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In The Lesson, Bambara portrays how unfair society is to the African-Americans. The story centers two significant characters, Sylvia and Miss Moore. Sylvia, who is the narrator, is a teen girl who hates school and sees herself as trendy in the neighborhood. She is an unappreciative kid who thinks that she can control her peers with her attitude. She later finds out that she is not as "intelligent" as she feels when she encounters Miss Moore, who behaves more civilized. Miss Moore, on the other hand, is different from other African-Americans as she is educated and does not use her informal first name. She decides to educate the neighborhood children the potential to break bars of poverty by attempting to show them the economic inequality status in the country.

Importantly, education is the key to success. It provides an enlightenment platform which people can use to reach their economic goals of excellence. According to Oztuk (2008), an educated society is a potential for economic development. However, in The Lesson, this is not the case in Sylvia's neighborhood in New York, where most of the people are uneducated and do not understand the importance of having an education. As a result, most of them, especially the children, are not aware of the imbalanced economic status and they kinder enjoy the poor condition. They even end up hating and resisting change that should help them open their eyes to reality. For instance, at the beginning of the story, Sylvia states, "And we kinda hated her too..." (Bambara, 85). Here, she was referring to Miss More, who is a symbol of change. Their attitude that results from being uneducated and unenlightened can be concluded to be the reason why they suffer from inequality.

Another aspect of economic inequality is demonstrated through the wide income gap between the Whites and the African-Americans. Indeed, the Whites seem to be earning very high salaries as compared to the African-Americans who are languishing in absolute poverty. Bambara portrays this difference in the story when Miss Moor takes the children to an educational trip into the city. There, they are taken to Fifth Avenue, where F.A.O Schwarz Shop is located (Bambara, 88). The shop's main customer targets are the Whites as it sells costly, which the African-Americans cannot afford.

The reality becomes more evident when Sylvia internalizes the trip while they are on their way back to the neighborhood. Here, she thinks of the expensive toy that she saw in the shop that cost $35. She imagines how much this amount could serve her entire family in many ways. She counts how her family can use the $35 to pay rent, the piano bill, and remain for them to visit her grandmother (Bambara, 91). Her calculation makes her wonder, "Who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain't in on it?"(Bambara, 91). These questions demonstrate the economic imbalance among people from the two races. They show how some of the people are living lavishly while others are suffering, yet they are in the same country that is driven a similar economic system.

Conclusion

In conclusion, The Lesson shades light clearly on how racial discrimination contribute immensely to economic inequality. Even though this book was set in the early years, it still depicts problems that America still faces up to date. Importantly, Racial discrimination is much bigger than a societal issue since it affects the economy negatively. In a country where the gap between the rich and the poor is big, development lags and goals may never be reached.

Works Cited

Amadeo K. Income Inequality in America: Causes of Inequality in America. The Balance. Published on June 25, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/income-inequality-in-america-3306190

Bambara, T. C. The lesson. Gorilla, my love (1972): 85-96. Retrieved from http://birdiebird.pbworks.com/f/TheLesson.pdf

Ozturk, I. The role of education in economic development: a theoretical perspective. Cag University. (2008). Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1137541