underclass

noun

un·der·class ˈən-dər-ˌklas

: the lowest social stratum usually made up of disadvantaged minority groups

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So colleges are racking up the frequent flier miles and hotel nights while trying to host their own underclass recruits on the weekends, before the dead period returns. —

Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 24 Jan. 2025 Webley, a veteran of short films and commercials, never shrinks away from the heart-rending nature of the story, which reflects a bleak reality perhaps familiar to many struggling families from America’s underclass. —

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Jan. 2025 The welfare recipients themselves were regarded mainly as a budding underclass—unable to function in the economy and a threat to social stability. —

Michael Bernick, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2024 After Stalin’s death in 1953, expressing discomfort with one’s place in the Communist paradise was no longer necessarily fatal, and a new underclass of pariahs—many poets and scientists among them—became a subversive force. —

Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 13 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for underclass