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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. Social Stratification - 31. Caste and Class - 2. The “Meaning” of the Concepts “Caste” and “Class”
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672 ^
An American Dilemma
What is the true condition of the laborer? I take it that it is best to leave each
man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don’t believe
in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good.
So while we don’t propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest
man an equal chance to get rich with anybody else. When one starts poor, as most
do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition;
he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor for his whole life. ... 1 want
every man to have a chance—and I believe a black man is entitled to it—in which
he can better his condition—^when he may look forward and hope to be a hired
laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterwards, and finally to hire men
CO work for him. That is the true system.^
The class differences denounced by the American Creed are the rigid
and closed ones. The Creed demands jree comfetition^ which in this sphere
of social stratification represents the combination of the two basic norms:
^^equality” and ^‘liberty.” And it is prepared to accept the outcome of
competition—if it is really free—though there be some inequality. This
demand is the essence of American economic and social liberalism. Behind
it is the theory that lack of free competition results in social inefficiency.
Rigid class distinctions, therefore, hamper social progress. And this gives
us the clue to the more precise valuation of caste and class in the American
Creed. A contemporary American sociologist, investigating the American
minority problem, emphatically expresses and gives his allegiance to this
national valuation:
Democracy is an empty word unless it means the free recognition of ability,
native and acquired, whether it be found in rich or poor, alien or native, black man
or white. Minorities in the United States consume as much of our national wealth
as they arc permitted by group prejudices and productive capacity. When their
productivity is artificially held far below their potentialities, the final result is not
that there is more left for a dog-in-the-manger majority, but that a selfish majority
is defeating its own purpose by limiting the total national productivity to the detri-
ment of the welfare of American residents as a whole. The days are gone when
one class in the western world may long prosper, at the expense of the masses.®
Our value ’premise in this chapter will he the American ideal of free
competition and full integration in this sense. Social distinctions which
hamper free competition are, from the viewpoint of the American Creed,
wrong and harmful. From this value premise we derive our more precise
definition of caste and class. The ‘‘meaning” of social status and of distinc-
tions in social status is not an a priori evident matter. It varies from one
culture to another depending upon what is commonly considered important.
It is not quite the same in England, France, Sweden and America. It has
to be defined, or otherwise we do not know exactly what we are observing
and measuring. And it is usually’ best defined in terms of the ethos in the
particular national culture we are studying.
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