Mentioning things

[mmcirvin]

So which is it? Do people constantly talk about class in America because they don't want to mention race, or do people constantly talk about race in America because they don't want to mention class? Because apparently both things are true and I want to know which taboo to fight first. Or are these different groups of mentioners?

Comments

[pantom.livejournal.com]

Past racial struggle is fine to put on TV. Past union struggle (a class thing) isn't, because of the obvious reason that the broadcaster is a corporation.
OTOH, the fact that schools currently are more segregated than at any time since the late sixties is definitely due to race, but there is an element of class in there, as upper-class people, white or black, simply refuse to allow their children to have anything to do with children of a lesser class. I almost divorced my wife over that argument. I lost, so I'm still married. Still makes my blood boil every time I think about it. BUT, she's the one who got the local school board to make MLK day a holiday. I held my tongue about the contradictions in her position when she did that, of course.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

My parents put me in public school specifically so that I wouldn't be in an upper-class bubble. It was in one of the most lauded and richly-funded public school systems in the country (Fairfax County, VA) but at the west end of the county (originally semi-rural, though that rapidly changed) where the money gradient was palpable. And I ended up bugging out to special programs over at the rich end of the county for part of my time in the system, though not all of it. It took me a long time to realize that some of the bullying that went on was actually fueled by class-based resentment, whether the kids involved knew it or not.

they have more money

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...My time over at the other end was also when I realized that there were people who were much, much richer than I was, and that they were Different.