Felice Yeskel's article is the one that resonated most with me for this weeks reading because classism was something that I was most exposed to as an adolescent. During middle school, I had been the target of bullying because of where I lived. It carried on with me for years, making me self conscious of my living situation even though I lived in a loving home; I always wanted to compare my living status with others.
Like the author, I went to a high school that was for gifted students where I was consequently exposed to kids who went to the private schools, had nice houses, and had parent with nice careers that made them a lot of money. When compared to them, I always felt like I did not belong and I that I was lesser; where I stood in terms of my class made me question if I was really competent enough to go to that school
Classism is something that we never talk about because like Yeskel said, we stay within our own class groups so we never really see the difference. Kids at my school definitely did not see their privilege since they were friends with the same well-off people from their old schools.
It is an especially important topic because their are so many other types of discrimination that fall in line with classism. I felt that me being a black girl who was also working class made my inferiority magnetized even further.
When we separate classes and keep them out of each other's way, we tend to not notice how much classes can tie into oppression. Bringing the issue to light by exposing the two sides to one another can have tremendous effects on this underrepresented problem. We need to not only bring each other together, but have empathy for one another and realize that there are people who live completely different lives in terms of socioeconomic status.
No comments:
Post a Comment