All of my life I have seen the effects of class around me, but never truly understood what “class” really means. Until recently I had not often thought about how I viewed the complicated issue of class in the United States.
Why do we avoid class?
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012An interesting class culture question
Monday, January 30th, 2012To what extent is a person’s class culture determined by the environment they are raised in, and to what extent is it determined by their parents’ class culture?
Hiding the lunch ticket
Monday, January 16th, 2012I was an outsider at my junior high school. Why was I ashamed of my family’s poverty?
Guilt and Defensiveness vs Owning Our Privilege(s)
Friday, January 6th, 2012What follows is a very personal essay about my own learning about class, race and other “isms.” I use my own method of self-critique and observation and lived experience. Most of what I’ve learned is, of course, unfortunately, hindsight.
Thoughts about Thanksgiving (& -isms we may encounter at the table!)
Thursday, November 24th, 2011After listening to a NPR segment about Thanksgiving and some anxiety that this very social holiday brings up for folks, I realized that this year may be challenging in new ways. Not only has the economy been stagnant, unemployment is rising, and political movements are taking place nationwide and internationally that put class inequality at the heart of the discussion. What do we talk about when we see each other?
Giving thanks humbly or smugly
Thursday, November 24th, 2011When I was a girl, at the beginning of Thanksgiving dinner, my family would sing a beautiful old hymn, We Gather Together, the most traditional Thanksgiving song, written in 1597. I loved the melody and the tradition and didn’t think much about the words. But in my 20s, with my newly critical eye, I scrutinized the lyrics and was horrified by the self-righteous meaning I found.
Socializing with Ivy League elitists
Thursday, October 6th, 2011“But you don’t seem poor” — five words that I’ll never forget. In the fall of 2009 I arrived at Wellesley College after having spent my entire life in a small town in Ohio. Most of the kids that I had dated in high school were the same kids I played with on the playground. Our families knew each other and we all grew up relatively the same way. Flash forward to my first fall semester at Wellesley, and the story gets really interesting.
CEOs Rewarded For Dodging Taxes
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011As the Super Congress eyes trillions in budget cuts that will undermine the quality of life for most Americans, here’s a stunning fact to contemplate: Twenty-five hugely profitable U.S. companies paid their CEOs more last year than they paid Uncle Sam in taxes.
Misconception of debt
Thursday, July 21st, 2011Like many college students, I recently took out my first loan for college. Although not a significant amount, it was still more than I’ve ever had in my own personal bank account. My loan was the first money I’ve ever borrowed; I don’t even own a credit card. Unlike my mother, who is already worried about paying it back, I’m not as concerned with repayment. It’s not that I’m irresponsible; I just think that by the time I have to make payments it won’t be that big of a deal. I had assumed that I was alone in this feeling until I stumbled across a study conducted at Ohio State University based on a survey indicating that the more debt individuals age 18 to 27 have, the more empowered they feel.
Owning Class Folks – Let’s Explore Some Tough Questions
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011How can we owning class folks who care about enormous horrors going on today initiate a systemic difference by speaking up about the harm that continues in a drastically different manner? For some of us, the origins of today’s enormous inequities are from the source of our wealth. Will you join me in this conversation? Let’s get honest and face some questions and fears about our essential roles in the transformation this celebrating-its-birthday country needs. It’s time to think and act outside the box.
I Love Money
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011Recently, my partner, who was raised working class, called me out about an emotional block I have around money. He said, “As long as you hold onto the idea that money is dirty and evil, you will never hope to make any of it.” He encouraged me to repeat after him “I love money”. The best I could manage was a passionate “I hate money! Money is evil!” Where did this attitude come from?
Query: How to open discussion with a poor-basher?
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011Dear Class Action, What should I do? My neighbor in my conservative rural town emailed this racist/classist piece of junk to me. I need some advice on what to do next.
Learning about Class in Private School?
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011Like parents everywhere, we wanted to give our teenage daughter advantages we never had. High on our list was to provide her a much clearer class-consciousness than what we got as kids.
Ironies of hip places and companies
Sunday, June 12th, 2011The San Francisco Bay area is the most open minded, experimental, and inclusive place in the world. It is full of a million young white/Asian professionals with lofts, Iphones, and lattes who all vote Democrat and all think differently.
Middle Class Brats?
Saturday, April 9th, 2011I fear I am raising spoiled-rotten, middle-class brats. I fear I am raising the very kind of children I would have hated as a child. Why? Because they are comfortable and cozy and have everything they need in their day-to-day lives.
Joe Bageant: 1946-2011
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011It is with great sorrow that we learned of the recent death of Joe Bageant.
Condescending Baby-Feeding Advice
Thursday, February 17th, 2011Who Gets Plowed in New York?
Sunday, February 6th, 2011After the first huge snow storm on December 26, my family was asking two questions: a) where are the damn snowplows in our Brooklyn neighborhood?; and b) why is Manhattan clear? Smells like a class issue here.
Rapid response to “low-class Italian white trash”
Sunday, February 6th, 2011What a coincidence! Just a few days after posting the two pieces below about responding to classist comments, I heard a doozy – and I think I responded quicker and better because I’d so recently read Nicole’s and Susan’s advice. But I’m still not sure whether it made any difference.
Responding to Verbal Classism
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011When I hear a classist put-down, I feel like Derek Zoolander in the Ben Stiller movie Zoolander, tongue-tied and unable to come up with a response until hours or days later.
When you’re rich and when you’re poor
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011When you’re rich and lose money on a leveraged investment, you are a victim of the bad economy and deserved to be bailed out. When you’re poor and lose money on a risky investment, you’re a financially incompetent yahoo who chases get rich quick schemes.
Defending my vibrant neighborhood
Thursday, November 18th, 2010Recently four people were killed about ten houses away from where I grew up in Mattapan, a neighborhood of Boston. The neighborhood was maligned by the media coverage which plastered the headlines “Massacre in Mattapan” in large print across the 6:00 news every night. That image of Mattapan was permanently emblazoned across the minds of the nation.
Living in a rich neighborhood
Thursday, November 18th, 2010I’m a kid of a single mom that works very hard to make a living and support her family’s needs. We live in a rich neighborhood. The other kids at my school are richer than us and they have a lot of things we don’t. They can get a lot of stuff that they want. Sometimes I get jealous.
The Bus Stops Here
Thursday, November 18th, 2010I have two little boys; they are very bright, good boys. They have never had a babysitter and maybe I have been a little over protective. But their innocence is refreshing. They do not understand that when a bigot sees that our car is dated, and that our address is in the flats, and they are snubbed for a play date, that it is not about them. It’s about the crappy soul of that person.
Classed Relationships on the Internet
Friday, November 5th, 2010“Social class and the Internet” usually implies issues of access to high-speed Internet and newer computers. But recent online discussions have me reflecting on how my Facebook friends are divided clearly along class lines, in how we interact online. Class differences in dealing – or not dealing – with conflict show up starkly in my online conversations.
Obstructed Views from the Country Club
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010I was born and raised in New England, half Jewish, half WASP. Went to the same prep school as my grandmother, and the same college as my great-grandfather. I ended up in graduate school for sociology, with a specialization in class + race + gender inequalities. I heard the occasional call for studying the unmarked side of those hierarchies (rich / white / men). I thought, “I could do that – those are my people.”
Illiterate in 3 languages
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010At a meeting in Amman, Jordan, high-powered social policy analysts from many nations were deploring the limited intelligence of illiterates and the effects on their offspring; I rushed to defend illiterates. Then, I suddenly realized that my mother had been an illiterate.
B&B Breakfast Classism
Saturday, July 24th, 2010It was the usual chit-chat among strangers encountering each other over breakfast at a Seattle bed-and-breakfast: “where are you from?,” “how’s the weather there?” Three middle-aged couples and a 20-year-old son who immediately set off my classism alarms. The first red flag was his face, a sneer usually seen on sulky teens much younger than him. While the rest of us oohed and ahhhed at each food item presented proudly by the proprietor (berry scones with homemade jam! eggs with local tomatoes!), he appeared deliberately unimpressed, as if he’d seen it all before. I took an instant dislike to him, thinking “spoiled boy.”
Special Delivery: Mexican-in-a-Box
Thursday, January 27th, 2011I found myself an unprepared witness to a classist/racist “joke” where and when I least expected it. Should I have intervened? Is there a way to turn such ugliness into a “teachable moment”?
Tags: classism, classist comments, Conflict-avoidance, racism, service workers
Posted in Class in Higher Education, Classism in Everyday Life, Race and Class | 6 Comments »