Classism in America? (page 2)

under74

Thanks for your thoughts on this everybody.

stopthepain- I think it's somewhat possible to be whatever class you want to be....but the problem is when you have a group of people that assume things about not only the others in the group but poor people in general.

LR- Thanks.

franklin- Man, it didn't even come to family line BS. I'm on the west coast and in a SUPER liberal city so I guess I expected a different treatment of the subject.....but I guess that's the pittfall of liberalism, eh?

sassafrass- jees, I had the same kind of experiences....I even had one at the Kindom all I attended when I was young.

under74

I was made fun of in school for my clothes as they were always hand me downs or I wore the same thing over and over, at the KH there was a very petite sister in her 50's who gave my mother dresses for me, they were awful! OMG the embarrasment I felt at wearing ultra conservative old lady clothes, I felt like such an unattractive idiot.

OH, I know exactly what you speak of here DL.
It's good to hear what you're plans are with your kids. I think that's what it boils down to. I don't expect for others to be brought up poor, I just expect for a bit of compassion when they speak of the poor...if they speak of them at all.

mtbatoon

Your English professor was in a sense right but what he should of said is that in America you don?t have the same class structure. Firstly class isn?t about money, well OK it is but it isn?t if you see what I mean. In the 70?s a group developed in the UK known as the affluent worker. They where factory workers who due to the changes in working practices became skilled labours and commanded the same pay as clerks, a staple middle class occupation. It was thought that they would evolve from working class to middle class. This was not the case, even thought they lived in the same houses and had the same goods as their middle class counterparts, culturally they stayed working class. They still followed the same working class pursuits, their children still had the same educational aspirations as their parents and they didn?t mix with their middle class neighbours. The class structure in the UK has blurred over the last couple of decades but the link between class and culture is still strong. Using myself and my family as an example though my job is not well paid the type of work I do puts me in the middle class band. The house in which I live is in a working class area but my hobbies and the aspirations I have for my children?s education is again middle class. It may put me on the bottom rung of middle classdom and there are many who are better off financially that remain working class but I remain middle class.

under74

hmmm...that's pretty interesting mtb.

Yeah, I guess it's not the same structure...I guess with my experiences that I hadn't expected here in the US for there to be such a gap as was shown to me in this class this last week. I usually go about my day to day life without much a thought to it but this week it just turned my stomach when I realized most of my peers are not only from a different class but that they have a totally wrong idea of what it's like to be without money.

under74

NOBODY'S GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY ABOUT THIS?

pepheuga

do you think you'll ever have another andrew jackson for a president? no? maybe that's a pity. by the way, don't believe that snobbishness is on the wane in england. it's alive and well here.

pepheuga

under74

Why slave owning, "trail of tears" inciting A. Jackson?

mtbatoon

I?m with you on that pep, my point is the social divide has become blurred, starting after the Great War and then further after WWII. If anything by creating a greater number of intermediary steps in the class structure the opportunity for snobbery has increast and as the natural human state is a smug sense of one up man ship, it been duly filled.

Little fact. The tern snob is actually an acronym. It was the shorthand used in place of an heraldic title in public school (private school in the U.S) registers and stood for sans nobility.

74: they have a totally wrong idea of what it's like to be without money

It saves on having to worry about the poor when they?re spending all there lovely cash on tat for there pointless lives.

Dan-O

I think that there is indeed classism in the US, but the beauty of our country is that you're not necessarily stuck in one place. There is opportunity for those who find a way to grasp it. And perhaps those who rise to a new level are still looked down upon by those who remain 'above' them, but they (and their children) realize a whole new set of opportunities. I grew up poor. I ain't stuck there.

ColdRedRain

There can't really be calssism in America because classes here aren't static like in other parts of the world. For instance, MC Hammer and Mr T were American royalty. Now they're praising Jebus on church TV.

Classism could only be classism if people are in a static class.

Classism in America?

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