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Classism
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Classism is prejudice and/or discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic class. Like all forms of prejudice and discrimination it goes both ways. It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes. Classism is grounded in a hierarchy belief system that ranks people according to socioeconomic status, family lineage, and other class related divisions.
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Encyclopedia
Classism is prejudice and/or discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic class. Like all forms of prejudice and discrimination it goes both ways. It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes. Classism is grounded in a hierarchy belief system that ranks people according to socioeconomic status, family lineage, and other class related divisions. This system leads to a drastic income and wealth inequality.
Classism
Charges that a person, act or institution is classist often provokes argument. There is frequently intense disagreement between the parties over background facts, such as whether modern industrialized societies are economically stratified into discernible classes (and if so, how much); and there is also often disagreement over matters of understanding, such as whether negative treatment is due to prejudice against members of certain classes, or whether it is a rational reaction to "personal" traits of the person being so treated.
For example, the middle and upper classes in the US look down on those at the bottom due to negative stereotyping of poor people (i.e. the poor are lazy, stupid, lack work ethic, lack "soft skills", likely to steal, etc). Those with significant unemployment gaps, who live in the "wrong neighborhoods", and those who have bad credit are routinely denied employment due to poverty profiling in the hiring process. It is standard practice for employers to pull job applicants' credit reports. Job applicants are required to disclose their social security numbers on their signed job applications, which grants consent for the employers to do background checks and credit checks as a condition of applying for the job. Credit reports are linked to the individual's social security number as an identifier. Credit reports disclose everything about you: where you live, any prolonged troubled payment history for basic utilities, evictions for non-payment of rent, outstanding medical bills, and job history. A long record of troubled payment for basic life sustaining utilities is a red flag indicative of poverty.
People who generally tend to find charges of classism against 'lower' classes to be unfounded or unreasonably harsh often characterise the perceived prejudice as expressive of class envy. Those who argue classism is especially pervasive or fundamental to the society that they live in often identify classism as the expression of systematic economic exploitation by the 'higher' classes, and may connect it with an explicit notion of class warfare — but it is important to note that any particular accusation of classism does not, as such, presuppose any such claim, just as people may agree on examples of overt white supremacism, while disagreeing intensely over how widespread or deep-seated racist attitudes are in their society. It could also be said that classism is 'popular' with resentful lower classes, looking for scapegoats as to their lower standard of living.
Internalized Classism
Internalized classism is the acceptance and justification of classism by the subordinated groups, namely people without endowed or acquired economic power, social influence, and privilege. The effects of internalized classism are infrequently recognized by the person or by others. It is often difficult to determine the boundary between the consequences of one’s action and that of political forces over which one does not exert direct control.
In comparison to other regions, particularly the south of England where accent or dress are still considered indicators of class, it is difficult to distinguish between the classes in the United States. As a result, class differences are often recognized as individual differences or demographic characteristics. This causes difficulty when it comes to addressing the issue of classism because of the lack of clarity, perception, and communication about class. Class mobility is also limited by classism; because of the effects of classism and the internalization of classism one seldom is able to achieve a different class standing other than the one they were born into.
Internalized classism is not rooted in the intrinsic characteristics of the individual but rather from the individual’s exposure to systematically negative social conditions. The individual is actually internalizing the experience of being in those negative social conditions, and not properties about themselves.
The manifestation of internalized classism is the felt sense of the individual being different or looked at as “the other.” When it comes to internalized classism shame and anger is omnipresent. Because of the negative connation with being poor or working class the individual often takes this in and apply it to themselves rather than their situation. Even if one is able to change their class status class the internalization of classism does not diminish. Individuals who were able to change their class status still report that they feel like impostors and in a place that they do not belong and the fear of being poor again is still around.
See also
Further reading
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
External links
- - website
- Co-occurrence of rape myth acceptance, sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, and religious intolerance.
- - PDF document
- - PDF by Chuck Barone
- Compendium of statistics, news, and opinions on inequality in the U.S.
- Co-occurrence of rape myth acceptance, sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, and religious intolerance.(ORIGINAL ARTICLE).Allison C. Aosved and Patricia J. Long.
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