Carolyn R. Fallahi, Ph. D.
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Understanding and experiencing class privilege
 The social construction of social class in the
U.S. is controversial.
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 The institutional, cultural and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value to people according to their socioeconomic class, and an economic system that creates inequality and causes basic human needs to go unmet.
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The wealth of our country is not equally distributed
 In the last decades of the 20 th C, production and worker productivity increased dramatically, but real wages for working class people feel, and both income and wealth shifted away from workers to capitalists.
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The relationship between class and power
 Analyzing class allows us a better understanding of power.
 The economic trends reflect shifts in the relative power of workers and their bosses.
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 Children who grow up in privileged families are more likely to become professionals than those raised in a working-class family.
 However, one point to be made, education still matters.
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Loewen, James
The Land of Opportunity
 James Loewen laments that many students dk understand the social structure of
America. They hold the following ideas:
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The poor are poor b/c they have done nothing to be successful.
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They dk understand that the social structure of
America influences what opportunities people can have, what ideas we hold, and how we live.
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Many feel that all of the isms are rooted in classism.
Classism is the parent – the common seed.
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The stereotype of the poor and working class
 The stereotype of the poor and working class are: unintelligent, inarticulate, and overly emotional.
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 Most teachers dk talk about class. They will talk about the injustices of being a person of color; gender; sexual orientation – but they avoid the discussion of class.
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Children’s first knowledge of class differences
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Direct discrimination: a person who is denied a benefit or treated unfairly b/c of his or her class (or other grounds for discrimination).
Indirect or constructive discrimination: a person who experiences a negative impact b/c of a rule or policy impose by an individual or institution.
Systemic discrimination: a person who is affected by subtle and unsubtle barriers imposed through the existing structure, policies, and/or practices.
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The unintentional consequences of classism
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Children’s issues
Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb – The hidden injuries of class
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 Direct discrimination
 Indirect or constructive discrimination
 Systemic discrimination
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 Harassment
 Poisoned environment
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 Class markers – even when someone has made it big and moved out of poverty, the class markers remain.
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 Wealthy nations are greedier than ever.
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Poverty is a real issue.
Whether it’s the right to life or the right to an education, people’s human rights are being violated b/c they are poor.
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Freire: “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”
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Dehuminization: humanity has been stolen, but it also says something about those who have stolen it.
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Who suffers the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who is better at understanding the necessity of liberation?
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As long as the oppressed remain unaware of the causes of their condition, they fatalistically
“accept” their exploitation.
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1997-2006 International decade of the
Eradication of poverty.
October 17 th – International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty (began in 1993).
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 What kinds of things do we mean when we say people are in one economic class or another?
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 I was in a private school before my folks broke up. They had money when they were together. He left us and now my mom has a job and gets some help from my grandparents to help raise my family.
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 My mom and dad both work, and dad has two jobs. We’ve wanted to move to a bigger house out of our neighborhood for a longtime, but can’t afford to right now.
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 When we were in grade school, my little sister and I qualified for free lunches; but a lot of times I took a pass because of some of the jokes that people made.
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 My parents inherited some money and I have a trust fund for college. We don’t take big vacations or have a lot of cars or anything, but we are doing okay.
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I’ve got a job, and I’m helping out with money at home. I’d like to buy clothes and shoes with what I earn, but the fashions cost more.
I always have an argument with my folks about what I can buy.
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 I was living on the street; I made a lot of money selling drugs before I got picked up.
I’m in a group home now, but I know what I’m going to do to make it when I get out of here.
I don’t talk about it at school.
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 What reasons did you use to classify these people?
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 Each group will receive one of the following institutions:
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School/education system
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Real estate/housing/land ownership
Business/jobs/corporations
Criminal justice/prison system
Organized sports
History books
Government
Banks/financial institutions
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 Questions:
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Who is at the top in this pyramid? This can include those people or organizations who have the most wealth within the institution (e.g. the highest paid people who work in the institution), as well as whom the institution most supports, most protects and keeps wealthy (e.g. who the institution benefits or works for most). Write names at the apex of the pyramid.
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 Who is at the bottom of this pyramid? This can include both who is poorest (lowest paid or non-paid people who work in the institution), as well as whom the institution most excludes or keeps poor or makes invisible. Write the names on the bottom of the pyramid.
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 How are the people who are lower in the pyramid “exploited” by or made to work for or serve or provide profit for those who are higher? Write answers across he middle of the pyramid.
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 What ways does the institution work to hide or cover up class differences, or “distract” people from seeing class differences that we’re not all on a “level playing field” Write answers along right and left sides of the pyramids.
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 What are possible ways this institution could
(and sometimes does) work against classism to promote equality?
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 Living on the Pyramid
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People can decide in various ways to live in the pyramid by getting ahead
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Getting by
 getting back at
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Getting out.
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If people decide to “get” in this particular way, what do they do?
 How might they relate to other people
“above” them in the pyramid? Below them?
Side by side, like family members and friends?
 Given the structure of the pyramid, what is likely to happen to them?
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Upsetting the set-up: Getting Together
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If people decide to get together, what can they do?
What would they do to get more and more people together?
How could people resist classism? How could they be allies against classism?
Why might they want to get together?
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Housing: how should housing be organized so that everyone can live with some privacy and safety while not excluding some people? Think about cities, suburbs, rural areas, as well as group and family living, people being able to live together and apart, or differently at different ages.
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Upsetting the set-up: Getting Together
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Food: How would the community produce and obtain its food? How would it make sure everyone was fed, and that all kinds of different foods could be produced so that people could have variety and balance in what they ate?
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Safety: How would the community organize to keep its children safe but not afraid? So that adults would not hurt each other? If someone did hurt someone else, how would it be handled fairly?
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Upsetting the set-up: Getting Together
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Work: What kinds of work are needed to make a community happen? Who would do what work? How would people share community tasks like garbage, housekeeping, cleaning, and so forth?
School: How would he community provide for children and adults being educated? Who would teach? Who would be taught? How would the community ensure that all of its members had time to play, create, relax?
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Upsetting the set-up: Getting Together
 Children and Elders: How would the community operate to make sure that its children and elders are cared for?
 Voice of the people: What should the community government look like, to enable everyone to participate in decisions affecting the entire community?
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 To begin to undo the damage caused by classism, it is useful for everyone to examine their own feelings about money, education, privilege, power, relationships, culture, ethnicity.
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