Social Class
I've been thinking of this for awhile now. We have always, always, always had social class. I can't think of a time when we didn't have social class. If you can think of a time when social class was not an important factor in anyone's life, please let me know!
We took a "What Social Class Do You Belong In?" quiz on Christian Science Monitor. The quiz asked us 30 questions and based our "social class" off of our answers. My social class was, bourgeois vous, or for those of us who can't read French, it just means upper middle class! I agree that this is the correct social class for me to be placed in. I'm fortunate enough to go on vacations and my family can afford a lot of things, but when it comes to things like paying for college we don't have some long family line or a well known last name that would pay for it. Paying for college is definitely going to be a difficult to pay for!
In class we also got the chance to watch a small excerpt from the documentary People Like Us. This film was ideas about social class from the eyes of those living in that social class. We watched a part of the film about a woman who lived in an old, broken down trailer with her three sons. She worked part time at Burger King, but had to walk 10 miles just to get to work. Her kids are embarrassed to have her show up to a public place or event. They try to avoid her. It's so unfortunate that this is a situation that, not only this woman has to live in, but many families in the United States have to deal with. We like to focus on the positives that are going on here in America and the bad things going on in other countries, because it makes us look better. It makes the citizens of the United States think, "Oh, it's not that bad here, because we have all of these good things going on, and in other countries they are suffering so much." But here in America we don't like focusing on our own problems, and we definitely don't like focusing on good things happening in other countries. Why is that? Shouldn't we want to focus on making America better? Shouldn't we want to applaud other countries for doing great things? It seems very backwards to me. We need to focus on those who live life in lower social classes and help them out!
Do you ever think there will be a time when we won't have social classes? I can't ever see it happening! But if it did, would it be a good thing?
I agree with your comment that you don't see the idea of social class disappearing. I think there's always going to be a divide between people that can afford over-the-top luxuries and people that can't afford dinner for their families. This has become a part of American life in a way, and you can see these divides basically everywhere you go. I don't think it would be possible for our society to work without these divisions because it's kind of how it was built; class can be taken back all the way to the days of slavery--there were the rich white families and then there were the poor African American slaves that worked for them. Class these days isn't as extreme, but I think it will always be present.
ReplyDeleteI thought the part about how the kid was embarrassed about how his mother didn't take care of her appearance. This lady is working so hard to keep the family together and fed, and he's embarrassed that she doesn't take time to dress up. That's so sad, and I bet that hurts the mother really badly.
ReplyDeleteI just can't imagine ever being ashamed of my mother since she's one of the best people I know. It's easy for me to say this since I have grown up in a privileged household, but I think even if the mom from the video were my mom, I'd be proud of her. I would try my hardest to show her how much I appreciate how hard she has worked to keep everyone afloat. I'd introduce her to everybody and say "hi, this is my mom and she' the hardest-working person I know".
I know that when I was younger, I wouldn't have said that. I would have probably been ashamed of her appearance, too, and it wouldn't have mattered how hard she had worked. But, knowing what I know now, and feeling gratitude as much as I do these days, I think I would have a different response.