Seeing And Making Culture Summary

Many of the problems now and in time have been the product of someone stereotyping someone else for being “different” than they are. It can be based off the pigmentation of one’s skin, the religious differences between people, but more often than not, it is because of the class a person falls into economically. Class is a system that distinguishes people by the amount of money a person makes, or that is what class is supposed to be. We often see the upper-class portrayed as educated, clean, and powerful people as opposed to the lower-class who are seen as dirty, lazy, and powerless individuals. The way the media stereotypes the economic classes makes a class seem like a culture instead of an economic standing. In many cases, us individuals allow those stereotypes to become who we are.
Now in days, television shows and movies depict the poor as people with no ambition, no dignity, people who cannot be happy with themselves while living in poverty. These negative stereotypes often fill people with a stigma of being or becoming poor. Many of us in this generation, who grew up in poverty or with blue-collar workers as parents, have dealt
Culture is your upbringing, culture is what inspires you and motivates you to get through and be successful in life. In her reading Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor, she shares with us what she learned from her family members: “… not to believe that “schooling made you smart.” One could have degrees and still not be intelligent or honest. I had been taught in the culture of poverty to be intelligent, honest, to work hard, and always to be a person of my word.” Instead of being ashamed, she is inspired by what being raised in poverty taught her. She describes throughout her reading that poverty isn’t always what is shown by the media, that there are people who are happier with the little that have than those who have it