Among the more nonsensical phrases used in political discourse in this country is this phrase demanding that people pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The idea to them is simple, you should be able to improve your conditions solely by working hard without the help of anyone.
What this phrase fails to communicate is that for many Americans, self-determination is not enough. There are laws, customs, institutions, and numerous other obstacles in the way of upward mobility in the social structure.
“Conversations about class are resisted in part because there is a tendency to imagine that one’s class reflects upon one’s character. What is key to America’s understanding of class is the persistent belief, despite all evidence to the contrary, that anyone with the proper discipline and drive can move from a lower class to a higher class. We recognize that mobility may be difficult, but the key to our collective self-image is the assumption that mobility is always possible. So, failure to move up reflects on one’s character. By extension, the failure of a race or ethnic group to move up reflects very poorly on the group as a whole. What is completely missed in the rare public debates today about the plight of African Americans is that a huge percentage of them are not free to move up at all. It is not just that they lack opportunity, attend poor schools, or are plagued by poverty, they are barred by law from doing so. And the major institutions with which they come into contact are designed to prevent their mobility. To put the matter starkly, the current system of control permanently locks a huge percentage of the African American community out of the mainstream society and economy. The system operates through our criminal justice institutions, but it functions more like a caste system then a system of crime control. Viewed from this perspective, the so-called under-class is better understood as an under-caste – a lower caste of individuals, who are permanently barred by law and custom, from mainstream society.”
--Michelle Alexander - The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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