Alice Goffman did a TED talk on this exact topic talking about how in america some kids are primed for college and others for prison. This interested me because it is true to a certain extent. Its claimed that we have equal opportunities in education and that it is an opportunity for those less fortunate to work hard and succeed but in reality it just creates a bigger and bigger divide; separating people in the wrong way.
She speaks in particular about the college that she went to; University of Pennsylvania. she says that the area in which it is based bordered a neighbourhood where the people living there were less fortunate educational as well as economically. After she finished at college she went to live in he neighbourhood to observe the police and the young people that lived there. She found that from a young age children were playing games about the police and how they would capture people and as they got older being taught how run from the police and where to hide. People being arrested and put into prison was a common occurrence in hie neighbourhood.
I thought this was interesting because it suggests that there s a class divide found worldwide as we in the UK experience such a class divide. Although it is argued by many people that society is a meritocracy and is fair and that everyone is given the equal opportunity in reality it isn’t. Your money and ethnicity define whether you are prepared for work or prison, two very separate routes, one spiralling upwards one spiralling downwards.
This Ted talk gave me an insight in to crime levels and and poverty as well as elements of socialisation as well as institutional racism which ensures it covers wide areas of sociology so definitely worth the watch!
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