UNI STU 84 | Summer 2015 | Byrom
Example Article Summary
The author said that the nonpoor discriminate against the poor through cognitive
distancing, and poor people have struggled in many ways as a result. If classism continues,
the poor will not have equal access to housing, education, political influence, or jobs, which
threatens the whole society.
Classism is a type of discrimination that happens through distancing, such as cognitive,
institutional, and interpersonal. Cognitive distancing is when people judge the poor to be less
than or “other.” Institutional distancing is when poor people do not have equal access to
education, housing, and jobs. Interpersonal distancing happens when people treat the poor
differently, based on class. For example, Bullock had seen a shop owner only letting one poor
child at a time go inside his shop, because he thought they might steal things, and he wanted
to keep an eye on them. Human services professionals and others try to help the poor, but
they are often discounting their strengths, skills, and wisdom.
There are two sides to every story, and good intentions may confer negative results
when misapplied. This is the case of people who wish to help the poor while also distancing
themselves from them by buying into beliefs in the dysfunctionality of poor families. In these
cases, “help” is actually paternalism, which reinforces assumptions about the poor as “lacking
diligence, dishonest, lazy, uninterested in education and promiscuous.” Even though they are
not. In fact, attitudes about the poor are usually shared between parents and children.
The author writes this article to alert people, such as psychologists, to the existence of
classism and to encourage them to resist it. These poor people do not deserve this treatment.
They are humans, too, and need to be respected.