Underclass

Theories of the Underclass

Sociologists disagree on both the makeup and origins of the underclass. In Dangerous Classes: The Underclass and Social Citizenship, sociologist Lydia Morris defines the underclass as “a group portrayed as living outside society's norms and values.” Journalist Ken Auletta, author of The Underclass, defines the underclass as composed of people who do not assimilate into mainstream society. They include the “passive poor” (such as people on long-term welfare), petty criminals, drug addicts, dropouts, the homeless, mental patients who have been released from institutions, and street hustlers who are not usually involved in violent criminal activities.

The underclass is seen primarily as a phenomenon closely associated with inner-city African American communities. However, in a 1993 article for the Wall Street Journal, researcher Charles Murray identified the presence of a growing white underclass as well. In “The Coming White Underclass,” Murray notes that more whites are unemployed, living in poverty or on welfare, born out of wedlock, or serving time in prison than any other ethnic group in the United States. Murray argues that the white underclass receives less attention, because its members are scattered throughout most communities rather than concentrated in a single area. By contrast, the poorest blacks are usually found in a few predominantly black urban ghettos, which were created by segregated housing policies and white flight from the inner cities.

Several theories attempt to explain the origins of the underclass. Many observers favor an economic explanation, which traces the rise of the underclass to a loss of job opportunities for working-class blacks. According to this theory, the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs beginning in the 1970s eliminated a major source of gainful employment for unskilled and semiskilled workers. Black workers were particularly hard hit by factory closings. Most of the newly created jobs were low-wage service sector positions that barely paid enough to make ends meet. Many people found that they could receive almost as much money from welfare or unemployment as they could earn working for minimum wage. Others discovered that criminal activity, such as petty theft and drug dealing, was more profitable than the legitimate jobs available. Legal employment provided almost no incentive to work, creating a class of people who depended on the state or preyed upon others to survive.

Not everyone subscribes to the economic theory of the underclass. Some more conservative commentators claim that the underclass was created by the welfare programs established during the so-called War on Poverty of the 1960s. Those who subscribe to this view believe that government payments to the unemployed or to single mothers encourage people to be dependent upon the state. The same Charles Murray who warned about the coming white underclass tends supports this viewpoint.

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