Social Structure and Culture: The Macro Context

Abstract

The larger macro-social context of the hidden injuries of class cannot be ignored. While the world was watching events unfold in 1968 (Democratic Convention, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinated, and the TET Offensive in Vietnam), I was worried—because of a lack of self-confidence—about making an error and losing the Catholic Youth Organization Championship baseball game. We eventually won that game on a key play in which I was involved, which temporarily helped my self-confidence. Despite being in a major “world capital,” we seemed to be living in a bubble, impervious to the political and cultural change of the 1960s, until the Vietnam War and the cultural spread of sex, drugs, and rock and roll came to our small corner of the world. Many of those who fight wars come from neighborhoods like City Line. In fact, I sometimes found myself feeling guilty for not having served in the military (a value that is a product of the neighborhood). It was also during this time that working-class wages peaked, although some people today seem to have forgotten that fact and tend to blame others (blacks, Hispanics, Muslims) for their own social and economic struggles.