Class, Privilege, and Social Markers

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by Medusa

This is interesting to me Dylan, how you and I see the term "working class" differently. I have almost the exact opposite take on it (surprise!). I have always viewed "working class" as a term that kinda equates with "blue collar", as in "the people who actually get their hands dirty".
Albeit, Ive never thought about it in any super depth.

I do know that when I was growing up, I knew the difference between blue collar and white collar even before those terms were introduced to me. My Dad and Step-Dads went to work in jeans and a t-shirt and drove a beat-up Datsuns and old trucks to their jobs. They carried their lunch in a leftover paper sack from the grocery store and mostly came home dirty, sweaty, and grimy.
I remember spending the night with a friend from school one time and her Dad came home from work and was wearing a shirt and tie and drove up in something that I perceived to be a fancy car. He wasnt dirty and they had actual glasses at the dinner table instead of plastic cups from McDonalds.
I also remember my friend having her own room (I shared with a brother and a sister) and how clean everything seemed to be.

I thought of my Dads as "working class" and their Dad as some "other" kind of class. Higher class. Better. Because you know how kids like to compartmentalize and label shit

I do think you have a good point about how saying "working class" instead of "poor" negates the working poor. Its like it creates this invisible barrier where the working poor must not be working hard enough because they are still poor or something. And it probably causes some of that "well they can get a second job at Mcdonalds - They're just lazy!" stuff that people seem to be so fond of.

I think my views on 'working class' stem from the people I have seen use the term. They're mostly middle to upper middle class people using the term to describe either their own upbringings or The Poor. When used in their 'self descriptions', I've seen it used to downplay their own middle class upbringings, and when used to describe others, it's always The Poor.

I have rarely (you're probably the first) seen someone who actually grew up Poor use the term 'working class' to describe themselves. I (in my own experience) equate it to the term 'fat'. Fat people call themselves 'fat'...while Others refer to fat people 'overweight' or 'heavy set' or some other 'polite' term.

Blue collar and white collar are the terms I personally use to describe the difference in jobs you spoke of in your post. Also, I think there's this funny idea that 'blue collar' workers are 'poor/working class'. I've seen this attitude for years, and it always makes me laugh. Office workers always assumed I was a class 'beneath' them when I came out to fix their roof. Yet, when I was in the union, I was making a helluva lot more money than most of those people. In the late 80s/early 90s, I was making 33$ an hour...which is (even today) a far far cry from 'poor'. And it was a helluva lot more money than most of the white collar folks I knew. I had better benefits, a better retirement package, better overtime/double time benefits, etc. But, because I got dirty at work and worked outside, it was assumed, I was 'poor' or 'beneath' office workers. It's just interesting to me. It's interesting to me now, because I see comments (even on this site) that landscaping/outside work is still treated this way, and that's what I do now...not because I'm poor and it's the only job I can get...but because I love love LUV it. Yet, it's assumed I wouldn't be doing this work if we weren't in a bad economy, or this is a low-paying field, or some other classist somesuch.

It's also interesting to me how One's friends tend to also come from One's own class bracket growing up. And, if One's friend(s) falls out of The Specified class bracket, One will somehow (subconsciously even) find a reason to drop that friend. I even saw someone post in one of these online survey threads that the quality they most admire in the friends is money. It's just surprising to me.

I have partnered with people who tend to have more education than I, and who grew up with more money than I. This has caused some problems in the past. One area I've really seen this is in the area of 'food in the house'. For some of my partners, when there's not too much food in the house, it's not that big of a deal. "If there's no food, we'll just go out to eat". But I (me,me,me) go through something I call, Food Panic. Even if I have money in the bank, it freaks me out if there's no food in the house (or if the pile is getting low). I've only noticed this type of Food Panic in people who grew up poor...people who have experienced not eating for days (our of Poordom...not out of 'I don't feel like eating for a few days-itis'). Even my dog goes through food panic, and constantly checks the level of food in his bag (yeah, Mahhh Boo and I have been poor together). I also tend to hoard food. I'll do this in hotel rooms; I did this on a cruise. I have to have food with me. I even keep food in the car in case there's an emergency.

I've also noticed that sometimes when One falls from a certain class bracket, some people will immediately equate that with 'an issue' (drugs/depression/some reason to blame the One who fell from the class bracket they were in). Example: When I lost my job a few years ago (you know, with half the country who lost their jobs too), some people stopped talking to me, because I couldn't afford to go out to eat and do the same things I used to do. I heard all kinds of stories through the rumor mill that the reason I didn't have any money is because, "all he does is sit around and do drugs all day". Now...um...if I can't afford to eat, I certainly don't have money to buy drugs. I mean, I heard allllllll kinds of crazy stories about why I didn't have any money. But I never heard from Others about how we were in such a miserable economy, and how half the country had lost their jobs, and how we were in a recession, or any of that. It was always blamed on my fictitious drug problem. It's just interesting to me how being poor/doing drugs/alcohol seem to go hand in hand in some people's minds. I think the stigmas of Olden Days still carry on no matter how ridiculous they are. Being poor is (almost) always chalked up to something The Poor Person did. "They don't work hard enough"
"They're on drugs"
"They're lazy"
"They're just not looking for a job"
"They just don't want it bad enough"
"They'd rather just mooch off of other people"



I'm Rambling Now,
Dylan