I loved you'r English class it was fun and i just wanted to say thank you and merry Christmas.

                                                                                                        sincerely Daniel Kimondo Mzee

Final Essay

In today’s world it’s a free for all, what is your is yours and you keep what you kill. But because of this we continually hurt our self’s and our society, because we don’t think of other people and what they might be going through. In THE RICH and THE REST of US by Travis Smiley and Cornel West they discuss these issues and how these issues affect the society today and how it hinders progress. If only we got rid of these modern day stereotypes that keep us down we would be able to better our self’s and see through the superficial layer of garbage that we think separates us from others and see that everyone has their own problems. These stereotypes are ‘’good for business’’, they ‘’Distract us from the really issues’’, and make us feel “distinguished” from everyone else because we then think we are better than them or we don’t need their help cause their problems are theirs and ours are ours.

The stereotypes that most people are not necessarily true, because of this we don’t think of the issues that affect us most. We never think that someone else is having the same problems that we are until we voice our issues to the world. Most people tend to think that the rich don’t have the same problems as we do but in truth they do. Just because someone has a nice car, or lives in a good neighborhood doesn't mean that they are rich. These are just assumptions that we make because we are used to the thought that nice cars and nice houses means someone is rich. The stereotype that “poverty doesn't exist in the suburbs” (175) is a particularly harmful one because if these people are being affected by the issues then doesn't that mean that the people who live in the ghettos are in a much worse off position. If only more and more people spoke up against these issues the problems would only get fixed sooner than later. The problems in this country affect all of us not just the poor. The sooner we see this the sooner we can lend a helping hand to those in need and the sooner we can help each other. The longer we wait the more the problems grow, it’s our fault that we aren’t listening to the issues and we aren’t speaking up to the issues.           

These stereotypes also blind us from what is really happening, while we are busy in our own lives to see what is really happening. For many years people have been concerned with race and how that affected them while in truth they should have thought of what other people were doing to fool them. Stereotypes blind people from seeing what is really happening, and keep us sheep from interfering with other matters. “It’s not envy its class war. Its war that has been perpetrated by the rich onto everybody else” (154). Class war is the war that the rich have decided to use on us, a sense of survival of the richest is what comes when you think of such a thing. The rich are trying their hardest to keep their spot at the top of the hill and we are busy fighting each other to notice that they are constantly pushing us to the bottom while they stay on top. Only by realizing this can we as a collective fight together and stronger than separated and weak. We must find strength in numbers because that’s what the rich are doing against us they are banding together and we have yet to realize this.           

While we are cutting our self’s off from the rest of the world the rich take advantage for this and are continually exploiting this weakness. We tend to think that because other people don’t have the problems that we do, and because of this we don’t think that the problem is big we just think that the issue is small and we don’t have to speak in public about it while we do. In this confusion the rich profit while the rest suffer. During periods of stress or economic disturbance most people don’t think to save their money they think of just spending it on things that are not really that needed. The problem with this is that the rich won’t feel the pressure of the purse strings but you will. Instead of saving they want you to spend, and buy more of their things so that they make money off of you. The only person who gets hurt in the process is the consumer, because while you not only work for them to make them money you also buy their items making them richer.      

In conclusion if we only banned together we would be able to stand up to issues better and not be continually suppressed by the rich. We must get rid of the stereotypes that we have and realize that we aren’t all that different from each other. If the rich suffer from the same problems as we do then there has to be a flaw in the system somewhere. Second we must understand that the rich are using us to fight each other in order for them to keep their place on the top of the hill. The longer it takes us to realize that we aren’t each other’s enemies can we stand up against the really enemy. The rich are making enormous amounts of money from us by shipping their factories off shore and selling the goods made there to us. What choice do we have but to accept it. In the end are the rich to blame or is it the people who continually turn a blind eye to the problems that affect them more and more every day?