In modern times, many Americans like to believe in Mr. Carraway’s comical thought that “Anything can happen” or as my father has often told me “Anyone can be successful.” That's the American dream, is it not? People usually cite examples of wealthy or powerful minorities, such as our current president. But, in reality the minorities that make it into the upper (or often even middle) class are exceptions, and the majority of minorities have very little, if any, social mobility. The factors that lead to this lack of social mobility are, discrimination in the criminal “justice” system, and a subconscious, as well as, conscious, racism held by many Americans.
As the tragic events that took place in Ferguson made clear to many Americans, discrimination is still very prevalent in law enforcement. For example, “45% of non-whites are frisked when pulled over compared to only 29% of whites, even whites are 70% more likely to carry a weapon”. This racial profiling by law enforcement results in more incarcerations for minorities. A Huffington post article confirms this saying, “One in every three black males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in their life, compared with one in every six Latino males, and one in every 17 white males” (Knafo). Racial profiling by law enforcement results in more incarcerations for minorities, and being incarcerated undoubtedly keeps you in the lower-class. Thus, we can conclude that the myth of justice being blind was not, and is not, true in America. Which, results in lower-class minorities staying in the lower class.
In addition to the discrimination of law enforcement, discrimination by everyday American citizens also hampers the social mobility of minorities. In research for an older post I found that minority homebuyers are offered roughly 10% fewer units than their white counterparts. Additionally, minorities were often offered a higher rent. Both the higher rent, and secrecy when it comes to properties in certain neighborhoods is because realtors want to keep minorities out of the wealthier white neighborhoods. One of the consequences of this is allow parents to give their kids the best education because the schools in the North Shore receive much more funding than the CPS. As you can see from the image below, this secret form of segregation unfortunately seems to be working.
From the demographics map on the left, one can clearly see just how shockingly divided Chicago really is by race. I took the liberty of drawing in some lines to make these divisions stand out. And after overlaying this map of divisions on to the map of income on the right, I found that race undoubtedly correlated to income. The predominantly white northern suburbs are blanketed in red dots (100k+) while the predominantly black communities to the south and west have a clear 
trend of dark blue (20k-). If America was as equal as many American’s would like to believe, then why do we see such clear divisions between different races and different classes, and furthermore, why do we see a correlation between the two?
trend of dark blue (20k-). If America was as equal as many American’s would like to believe, then why do we see such clear divisions between different races and different classes, and furthermore, why do we see a correlation between the two?While the racism of realtors is a very conscious decision to keep minorities out of wealthy white neighborhoods, a more subconscious racism exists in the minds of many Americans. The article Professors are Prejudiced, Too showed that professors are more likely to respond to an email from a white student than a minority student. According to the data from the article, “87 percent of white males received a response compared with just 62 percent of all females and minorities combined” (although the data includes information on gender, focus on information on race for the purposes of this paper). What’s even more shocking is that it made no difference whether it was a black student emailing a black professor or a white professor, they were discriminated against regardless. This leads me to believe that it couldn’t have been a conscious choice to discriminate, rather they didn’t respond to the students of racial minority because they subconsciously view minorities as less than, and thus don’t feel like they have a responsibility to respond. Evidently, many Americans identify a person’s class by their race, and treat them accordingly.
Many minorities cannot rise from the lower-class due to a number of factors in American society that encourage inequality and discrimination rather than social mobility. Chris Rock illustrates this, in a quote from his stand up routine Kill the Messenger, "I live in a place called Alpine New Jersey. My house costs millions of dollars. In my neighborhood there are four black people: me, Mary J. Blige, one of the greatest R&B singers to ever walk the earth, Jay-Z, one of the greatest rappers to ever live, and Eddie Murphy, one of the funniest actors to ever do it. Do you know what the white man who lives next door to me does for a living? He's a fucking dentist." So while yes, the passengers of the limousine in The Great Gatsby, the President, a number of celebrities, and many other American citizens of various racial minorities have achieved success, they have done so despite the hidden yet powerful forces of discrimination that continue to hold minorities in this country back even today.
