Class

1
Class

• What kind of society do we live in?

2
Class Defined

• It is an experienced of shared economic
  circumstances and shared social and cultural
  practices in relation to positions of power.

3
Some Realities

• All are born into a class.
• Class affects ones life including access and
  opportunities.
• One will probably remain in the same class as
  ones family.

4
Classes

• Upper
• Rich
• Middle
• White Collar (middle)
• Working
• Lower
• Poor

5
Middle Class(es)

• White Collar (Middle)
• Job autonomy
• Manager
• desk
• Higher status
• College education and beyond
• Trend
• More Lower paying white collar jobs.

• Working
• Hourly
• Managed
• Physical
• Lower status
• High School and lower
• Trend
• Fewer higher paying blue collar jobs.

6
Ideas of Class

• Class is generational
• Although there have been changes in technology
  (bank clerks, plumbers, etc.) from times past the
  structure is still in place.
• Class structure is observable
• One can see ones class by matching it against
  others or certain circumstances.
• Class intersects other identities
• Ones class is part of ones other identities
  (race, ethnicity, gender)

• Class structure is organized.
• If one were to take a look at class one would see
  how class is organized. For example someone
  controls who works and the level of education
  required for it.
• Class has an consciousness of consequence.
• We strive to emulate those at the top. However,
  there is a mutuality with others of similar
  background and/or group position.

7
Cloaking of class

• Working class people
• are invisible.
• their intelligence is devalued.
• their experience is devalued.
• Visibility is linked to power and knowledge
• Working class people are invisible because they
  do not have access to how things (education,
  books, structures) are structured. They are the
  objects.

8
Example

• When the story is told from the top down, we
  learn about the feat of building the railroad,
  how it opened new frontiers and provided jobs.
  We may not hear that 10,000 Chinese and 3,000
  Irish got the opportunity to earn about 1.00 a
  day and die by the hundreds building those
  railroads. p. 106.

9
Sources

• http//www.ew.com/ew/article/review/movie/0,6115,2
  2976310catsmeow,00.html
• http//www.hvmusic.com/albums_kq.shtml
• http//www.marxists.org/subject/art/visual_arts/pa
  inting/exhibits/socialist-realism/young-steel-work
  ers.jpg
• http//crossroadsmedicalmission.org/operations/pat
  ients/