How Class is Distinguished

In the article “The Color of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender, and Extended Family Involvement” (Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian) the authors Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian briefly introduce their topic by stating that many politician judge the way Black and Latino/as live by having weaker family trades. One of Gertel and Srkisian main points is that Blacks and Latinos/as live better than white families. White families tend to be at the top of these groups and mostly have financial help. Blacks and Latinos/as help their families most by living near by and supporting each other. They are likely to visit their relatives more than those in the White families. Gertel and Srkisian explain that these racial differences are due to social class. They support this by saying that many Black and Latinos/as say that extended family is important to their lives. White families have more of an advantage because they have more income than Blacks and Latinos/as. Gertel and Srkisian also suggest that these differences are important in our lives because many of the family strategies and difficulties these family have are due to how they live and how their economic life shape their way of living in the communities. Gertel and Srkisian also point out that although Blacks and Latinos/as help their families it should not be considered an obligation that will lead to antipoverty, but that it should be accommodated whenever it is possible.

            While reading through the article I came across many point that seemed to be true and that is why I agree with the authors Gertel and Srkisian. Being Latina my family is very supportive of one another and they are always there to help when something goes wrong. Like Gertel and Srkisian mention in the beginning of their article that many people say that these groups of families such as Blacks and Latinos have a disorganized life, it is not true. I can assume that many people say this because many of these family groups are considered low and middle class. Gertel and Srkisian points were convincing to me because my family is very united and tend to have often communication and we always do family meeting to keep in touch with everyone. In Next to Normal the family that is portrayed there is a White family, with Diana bipolar disorder the family tend to be a little disorganized. Dan at certain points doesn’t like the way he lives because of her wife’s condition. Her daughter Natalie doesn’t even feel like she is apart of the family because Diana doesn’t seem to pay to much attention to her because she only cares about her dead son Gabe. With this you can see that this family doesn’t live very well because they don’t seem to have much support with one another and the only support they encounter is the doctor visit and there own opinions wit one another. 

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