Home Is Where Your Heart Is

I was raised and live in East New York which is a low-income residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. East New York has a population around 90,000. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives public assistance (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF], Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid). East New York is predominantly African American with a significant Puerto Rican population. The vast majority of households are renter occupied. As a result of my neighborhood being a lower class society. The community is alienated by jobs, housing, education.

I am currently located at 2776 Pitkin Avenue Brooklyn NY 11208. My neighborhood has changed greatly from being stricken by drug and violence from the early 80's to late 90's. My neighborhood today has cleaned up and has been in a process of rebuilding and creating an urban renewal within the entire community. In terms of the majority of individuals which make up my community it has drifted from being predominantly African-American and Puerto Rican to now becoming a community that is being marginalized by Middle-Eastern and Islamic ethnicity. Due to this new ethnic melting pot community there is a thin line between class structure with in the community I live in.

The majority of the individuals are referred to as lower middle class and lower class due to their migration to the untied States and the lack of a college degree or nor educational experience period. Income inequality is one of the most important issues in this community. Although ethnicity should not be a factor in education it does play a factor in income. Data shows that higher classes have better education because of a higher income. These conditions do not rule out ethnicity. This inequality persists on controlling occupation. The conditions of work vary greatly on class. What is indifferent about class structure with in the Untied States is that it leaves huge error for ethnicity and it alienates society.

In this social sphere, class and ethnicity has direct consequences on lifestyle. The lifestyle in my community includes taste, preferences, and a general style of living. As a result of Brooklyn, East New York being a community being a general community with three major ethnicity's non being white. The lifestyle of the community is engulfed in poor education, poor housing, and poor means to a way of to life. Consequently neighbors are not segregated by class, but by ethnicity. Everyone shops in the same stores. Go to the same schools, and the only separation between this typical class structure is again, their ethnicity. Which segregates their place of worship.

I have no regrets to where I call my community. It has influenced my in several ways, some good and some bad. Overall, I am proud of what has become of my community. it has cleaned up immensely. The community is safer, cleaner, and is being developed into a working class environment. I am grateful for the different ethnicity's that have moved into the community to make it what it is today. I look forward to continuing to see the growth that comes from the challenges of living in a lower class community. I have seen improvement in jobs, education and living. Which speaks volumes when understanding the way the united States has invented, categorised, and assigned the way individuals live in a class system. I am with out a doubt believing that there will come a time where we as individuals will push pass the categories, assigned classes, and and give meaning to the reason of why and whom we have been created in the image of.