Torsten Whetsell

Ms. Odle
Pre AP English II / Hour 4
30 November 2014
Social Status- A Curse or a Blessing?
Social Status. A term familiar to most people. Some people, when asked if societal status
affects relations between people, they would say no. This is ignorant thinking, and would only be
true if people were selfless and not faulty. Anything can affect everything. Social status is no
exception. In fact, social status is merely a collective result of combining everything about our
social life; race, religion, wealth, gender, nationality, the list goes on and on. Status causes a
potentially exponential negative effect upon humankind.
Of all the factors of social status there are two intertwined ones people love to pick over
more than any others, race and ethnicity. Racial and ethnic tensions are high all over the worlds
countries. The second a person walks somewhere they are automatically labeled by their race and
ethnicity. In Afghanistan, as portrayed by Khaled Hosseini in The Kite Runner, minorities are
frequently beat on by the Pashtun majority. Assef, a nazi appreciating muslim boy, frequently
insults Hassan and his father calling them Flat-nose and Babalu respectively (Hosseini, 3840). In this situation the Pashtuns have the higher social standing, and they treat those lower than
them like filth. Assef does more than simply insulting Hassan, going as far as assaulting him just
because he is a Hazara (Hosseini, 75). Assef, as with most of those in higher standings, abuses
his superior class. What divides people even more than race is religion.
Religion is seen as all that is holy, a beacon of light, salvation in the dark. Is that really
what religion is though? How many have died due to holy wars? The answer is not many at all.

Approximately two percent of all life lose in war is due to religion. However wars are still fought
over religion. Two such groups are the radical Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. The division
between the Sunni and Shia lead back to who was thought to be the rightful successor to the
prophet Mohammed. While not historically violent towards each other, the Shia group has long
been persecuted over the larger and more powerful Sunni group. The Shia minorities are
socially and economically disadvantaged which has recently contributed to the Shias sense of
alienation and their quest for emancipation and legitimacy, (Hunter, 2). Again it is shown that
the majorities who hold higher social status are cruel and hateful to their lesser minorities. Power
corrupts in all aspects, be it race, ethnicity, religion, or wealth.
In the modern age one of the greatests measurements of success is monetary wealth.
There have been many elite in our societies, such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, the Walton
family, and Mark Zuckerburg whose wealth is measured not in dollars but in billions of dollars.
The compassion and helpfulness of the super wealthy is most commonly measured in their
philanthropy. According to Judith Warners article The Charitable-Giving Divide the super
wealthy develop an inability to empathetically relate to others needs. This causes the super
rich to think of their own needs and not give a higher percentage of their income, which they
could easily give more of. This is also documented in other articles. The wealthiest Americans
reduced their share of income to charity by nearly five percent while those significantly poorer
donated almost 5 percent more. Even though the middle and lower income Americans gain less
money than the super wealthy they give a larger percent of their makings to charity (Daniels, 1).
This unwillingness of the super rich to help more of their fellow Americans negatively impacts
society as a whole. If the wealthy gave more than we could focus on ridding the great United
States of America of more pressing matters such as poverty and hunger. The selfishness of the

super wealthy due to their supreme wealth very greatly impacts their treatment of others, even if
it is not direct.
Social status is a very dangerous aspect of human society. Society is run by those with the
highest status, yet as shown here just by having higher status a person is more likely to
negatively impact those around him. The more powerful our leaders get the more that negativity
will show. Ethnic divides will widen further throwing entire countries into chaos, religious sects
will continue to fight others, the wealthy will become more selfish. The differences between
social classes will become greater and the lower classes will be treated worse and worse.
However, simply by learning about the factors of our society we become less susceptible to
them. Education is the tool to battle corruption and unfair conditions. In spite of the dangers,
humanity should be able to use social status not to further any country but to further us as a
species together.

Works Cited
Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner. New York: TKR Publications 2003 print
"As Wealthy Give Smaller Share of Income to Charity, Middle Class Digs Deeper."
philanthropy.com. Alex Daniels, n. d. Web. 16 November. 2014.
"The Charitable-Giving Divide." NYTimes.com. Judith Warner, n. d. Web. 7 November. 2014.
"Sunni-Shia Tensions are more About Politics, Power and Privilege than Theology."
acmcu.georgetown.edu. Shireen Hunter, n. d. Web. 7 November. 2014.