Economic Inequality Within Our Systems
Sydney: Bryan Stevenson, lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, once said, “The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.” In class this semester, we have been writing weekly diary entries on systemic injustices. Systemic injustices are much more than individual biases- they are entangled in society and affect large groups of people. Because of society’s immense influence on the way we think, systemic injustices occur regardless of legislation or other actions attempting to fight it. Systemic injustices are deep and complex. For this podcast, Hannah and I decided to make economic inequality our focus. Money is deeply rooted into many of our everyday activities. It determines our opportunities and experiences throughout our lives, thus making it an easy target for injustice and inequality. Today, we are going to discuss systemic economic inequality in the courts and at the voting polls.
Hannah: Hi, I’m Hannah Sullivan, a freshman here at OSU.
Sydney: Hi, I’m Sydney VerDow. I am a 4th year here at Ohio State.
Hannah: The idea of wealth is something that I would assume most people strive for. Living comfortably is important for many as they need to support their families and themselves. Once people begin to make money, I think that they typically continue to grow within their position and can make more money as they go. However, that may not always be the case for everyone in the workforce, and even if someone is working, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their job is capable of paying for the needs that people could come across in life. In most cases, this allows for the person with more money to access opportunities that people with less money cannot. Unfortunately, this kind of injustice happens in important instances, and because people with money are able to obtain more, they can get away with more.
An example of a time when wealth would help other people over people with less money would be in places such as court. I had been told a story about a man that was fighting a case in court that was crucial for the society around him. However, he can’t fight back nearly as hard because he does not have the support system that the opposing side does. The money that these people have is able to pay for attorneys and lawyers, while this individual man must spend his time researching and studying for himself the laws, in order to be able to hold himself in a strong manner. He does not have the money to attend school to get a further knowledge of these topics, and because of how important this case is, he spends time away from his job, family, and friends because this has taken over, and become more of a job all on its own. Instead of spending money, now he must spend time, day to day, subscribing to law companies, reading and familiarizing himself with the law, in order to defend himself. Some people might be getting away with their wrong doings because they have a degree from Harvard, which also could indicate the fact that they have money. Judges are human, so it would only make sense that they would see money as an incentive. However, that is why I think this is considered an inequality. This man’s argument is not taken into consideration nearly as strongly as the wealthy people who are able to pay other people or “officials,” to do the work for them.
The difficult thing with this topic is that so many people across the United States work so hard for the jobs that they have and make far less income than those who have done nothing but been handed down money from those before them. I think that this is inequality because people are not having to do the same kind of work as others, but they are able to possess things that may not be well-deserved. Wealthy people make it harder for middle and lower-class people to stay afloat, when money has so much power over other people.
Sydney: As Hannah just said, money has the power to simultaneously be a form of privilege and oppression for different groups of people. Money can allow people to get away with things in court that may technically be morally and lawfully wrong.
Hannah’s example goes along with the idea that lack of wealth can prevent people from access to important events, such as voting. With Election Day happening and all of the footage showing people at the polls, there has been a lot of focus on making sure every vote is counted. Although we may not think it, socioeconomic status can either help or challenge people’s ability to vote. Areas where the majority of voters experience low socioeconomic status could have underfunded mail services and election offices. This could make it more difficult for their votes to be counted. People with less money may have more difficulty getting to the polls to vote. Wealthier people may be more willing to vote because they could have more access to the resources and time to participate. An occupation that a person has could determine if they are allowed time off to vote. Additionally, wealthier people also have more access to higher education, which can lead to a better understanding of how the voting process works.
People with a low socioeconomic status may also feel underrepresented or misunderstood by politicians. If people don’t think politicians care, or truly care, about their well-being, they are less likely to vote. If their community already is unreliable with other government-funded programs, they could already be dealing with government distrust- again, making them less likely to vote.
The examples we gave dealing with classism and wealth inequality cannot be understood fully without looking at them from an intersectional perspective. In class, we learned that intersectionality takes into account overlapping identities to better understand the complexity of a person or group of people. When talking about class, for example, you must also take into account one’s gender, race, educational background, etc. With the voting example, class can intersect with race and even the criminal background of a person. In the past, voting in the United States has almost been exclusively reserved for white men. Even though women and Black people later got the right to vote, Black Americans still faced voting disparities. Taxes and literacy tests, among other things, still barred them from exercising the right to vote. Although times have changed, the voting disparities have only evolved, as I started to mention earlier. According to an article published in 2019 by the Washington Post, they found African Americans and Hispanic people typically have to wait longer at the polls. Additionally, some states have restrictions on voting for people holding various criminal convictions. Due to over-policing and other disproportionate factors in Black communities, this is yet another way of barring Black voters.
Hannah: Similar to the examples Sydney listed above, the types of intersectionality that might be commonly seen in a court case might have to do with race, gender, and/or the previous history of a person. Let’s say that there is a man and a woman on opposing sides of the court case. In some cases, the woman might be seen as the victim, and the judge would hold a bias against the man. However, some may see the woman of lesser power than the man, so the man would look more intelligent or trustworthy. When there are issues such as the Gender Pay Gap still of relevance, it might make it hard to not believe that there is more power for men in certain situations. Relating to this would be the race of each person. Although things should be different by now, people still believe that certain races stand superiorly compared to others. Though discrimination ended several years ago, many still feel as though they are being treated unfairly, especially in a setting like court.
Sydney: Another relevant example highlighting wealth inequality can be seen in the COVID-19 pandemic. Areas with low socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected. Limited access to healthcare puts these communities at greater risk of contracting the virus and not having the resources to potentially recover from it. Additionally, essential jobs would be more common, where the act of just being at work puts people in close contact with larger groups of people (thus increasing their risk). This example also needs intersectionality to be better understood. Race in these communities, and gender in these communities, also affects how people are put at risk from the pandemic.
These are all examples of systemic injustice because the impacts have been seen over a span of many years.
Hannah: The system here has caused problems because of what seems like a snowball effect for the middle and low- class citizens of the United States. Within the healthcare system, people are unable to get the care that they need, and when some of these people are unable to get the help that they need, they would not be able to work, and the cycle continues as Sydney described. In a similar manner, the court system seems to cause people with trouble because people with money continue to get away with crimes because money is something that can be used to get them stronger help, or as an influential tool for people like judges. The system is unequal because they look at the person with less money as the person with less power. However, what I don’t think is being taken into consideration is the work being put forth by the people with less money. As I mentioned before, the snowball effect works for this case as well because the person with less money has now been spending time teaching themselves the laws, and taking time away from their job because of how important a case may be, but because they are taking time away from their job, they won’t be making as much money, and with the several books and resources that they might have to pay for, again they continue to lose money and the guilty continue to get away with crime. These are systems that continue to affect the lives of so many Americans from day to day, and because things have been this way for so long, it almost seems impossible for things to change at this point, but with time, I hope that it will.
The idea of wealth must be put aside when looking at people and the amount of power that they hold. People of less money should not have to worry about whether or not their vote is getting counted. They too are a part of our country, and their vote matters. People should not have to feel belittled in court because they do not have the support system such as attorneys and lawyers or income that their opponent does. I think that facts need to be taken into consideration when dealing with cases, and making sure all voices are heard, especially at a time like this, it is crucial.
Sydney: To overcome this inequality, we first must acknowledge these disparities and fight for action. Intersecting factors must also be addressed to fully understand these inequalities and how they might impact groups of people differently. For the voting example, there should be more of a push to equally distribute polling machines, in addition to workers and volunteers. Communities of lower socioeconomic status should be the focus when making sure there are an ample amount of polling locations. Information about other forms of voting, such as the process of mail-in voting, should be easily accessible and understandable for all. As we have seen so far in this year’s election, mail-in ballots do hold power and have the ability to make an impact.
On a much broader scale, there is still clearly a lot of work to be done. Besides changing laws and fighting for more accessibility, we need to start by evaluating our internal biases.Changing the language we use with one another and changing the societal influences hold the key to true action. For our example with economic inequality, there are many identifiable stereotypes we may subconsciously believe, or at least think of as “normal”. One unfair assumption is that those with less money simply need more drive or another job to reach economic success. However, when we look at intersecting factors that could influence or limit people’s opportunities, we see that this issue is a bit more complex. In class this week, we read The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The main character exemplifies another stereotype showcasing economic inequality. He attends Princeton, an Ivy League School. Throughout the entire novel, he hides his economic status from others. This plays into the assumption that all students at Ivy League schools come from financially well-off families. Students there on scholarship may feel like they don’t belong.
By starting a conversation and looking at intersectional factors, we can begin to better understand this systemic injustice.