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What's the most memorable symbol of class from your childhood?
I had Payless shoes where other kids had Nike and Adidas.
I was the only one in my group of friends whose parents owned a vacation home - and later: two vacation homes.
My earliest recognition of my class position was probably in 2nd grade when I realized that my mom always rented houses with housemates because we couldn't afford to not have them.
Lunch time during school. Some kids were on free lunch, like myself; other's were on reduced lunch, and then there were the kids that brought their own delicious lunches with great snacks from home. Unfortunately, at that time, it was very obvious who received free and reduced lunches, because there were separate lines for each. Hopefully, that doesn't exist anymore, because it was humiliating, and there were many times I decided to just go without.
McDonalds- we could never eat there, and I always wanted to!
My mother made a lot of my clothes or they were from Sears rather than Levis.
I first became aware of the idea of class when I started school and received free lunch. After the first few years I would beg my mother not fill out the income forms for free lunch because I knew that we would receive it and did not want the other kids in school to know how poor we were.
I noticed that most other kids had parents with enough economic and social class to keep and raise their own children (versus having young minority mothers-with-absent-partners who were so ""low"" as to be pressed to adopt-out their babies.)
I remember when people started carrying mp3 players and ipods. they were more of a status statement than a tool for listening to music. i remember feeling bad that i was behind and still carried a cd player.
I was in high school and my shoes were worn through the bottom. Every day or two I put in fresh cardboard to cover the holes.
I attended an inner city school in Newark, New Jersey. My father taught me the game of tennis and I was an above average player. However, tennis in those days wasn't the dominent sport in Newark. The school I attended was a few blocks away from the housing projects. There were very few green areas in this inner city location. One day I went to Livingston High School and played a match with someone from that school. The school appeared to be like a country club. There was green grass and trees everywhere. The school not only had tennis courts but a football field, a baseball field, and a swimming pool. Seeing this gross disparity made me feel that this contrast did not exist because someone made a mistake or was in some way insensitive. No, this gross discparity between the Newark and Livingston existsted because something was profoundly wrong with the political economic system in the United States.
We had a maid who lived in another part of town that was not as nice as our part of town.
I remember my father saying he saw a man laid out on the street all bloody but that he didn't help the man up because the man was really filthy and messed up. While my father was watching the man, a young teen came along and helped the guy up. My father told the guy that he had ""done a fine thing"" and the young guy said ""it's not about if its a fine thing or not, it's just what you do."" My father was shamed out by this. Later, when he told me this story, I didn't understand why he couldn't have just washed his hands after if dirt was such a big deal. I didn't understand that my father was trying to run away from a lot of things...
My owning class mother said to my father, ""He is not OCB."" I asked, ""What is OCB?"" Mom responded, ""Our Class Baby."" I felt shocked....
I didn't play backgammon. That was for the WASP kids.
My knowledge of class was due to my father's desire to attend a Unitarian church where everyone's parents had at least one college degrees and my parent's had only an eight grade education. I knew that I lived on the wrong side of the tracks.
I went to a religious private school where the study body was dispersed all over the north of Chicago. 3 quarters of the school was from a northern suburb and a quarter was from the northern neighborhood of Chicago proper. There was a perception by me and my friends that the further north suburban kids had more money than the city kids and near north suburban kids.
Getting made fun of by other students because my mother made some of my clothes.
MORE SURVEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
April 2008:How can publishers, librarians, and teachers make working class literature (including poetry) relevant to you?
March 2008: How do you think Barack Obama’s success in running for the Democratic candidacy for President will impact the way we think about race and class?
February 2008: How do you see class impacting your parents' parenting? Your own?
January 2008: Do you have any New Years resolutions that concern class and/or classism, and what are they?
December 2007:What does your religious, spiritual or philosophical tradition say to you about simplicity and poverty, especially related to holidays?
November 2007: What did you learn in school about the Native American experience?
October 2007: Have you, a family member or friend ever worked in agriculture? What were the circumstances?
September 2007: How did (or does) your social class impact your educational experiences?
August 2007: What books or films have expanded your understanding of class?
July 2007: How does your current class position effect what kind of vacations you take?
June 2007: How does your class background affect how you use the commons (public spaces, commodities and rights)?
May 2007:How do you see class differences in the way that holidays are celebrated?
April 2007: How does your class affect what you eat?
March 2007:Has class status affected your family's mental health and or access to services? How?
February 2007: How do you feel your class situation has impacted your experience in or with sports?
December 2006: What responsibility do different economic classes bear for reducing their contributions to global warming pollution? Should wealthy people assume more of the cost of fixing the problem?
November 2006: For those who have served (or who are currently serving) in the military: Have you encountered classist attitudes about your choice to serve? For everyone: Do you see a class divide in terms of who serves in the military? What does this mean for the military and the country?
October 2006: How is television perpetuating stereotypes or classist portrayals? What are some examples of characters, storylines, or news stories that you have found particularly troubling?
September 2006: Higher Education can be a class marker, the access channel to "upward" mobility,or class liberator. What are the connections with class and higher education for you?
August 2006: How does class affect how you spend your non-working hours and impact your vacation options?
June 2006: What are the ways that you see class or classism play out in your spiritual community or congregation of faith?
May 2006: When did you first become aware of your class or class differences? How old were you?
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
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