The Road Ahead

"Her journey has transformed her so thoroughly that she no longer fits in easily. Her change in status has left Ms. Justice a little off balance, seeing the world from two vantage points at the same time: the one she grew up in and the one she occupies now." -Class Matters: Up From the Holler

After being at Harvard for two years, I sometimes feel disconnected from the place that I call home. At times, I find myself different from the person I once was, a little less silly, a little more attune with the political correctness of things around me, a bit more mature. I feel as though I'm at a point of my life where I feel that I either have to embrace the skills and ways of life I have developed since my stay at Harvard, or to completely ignore it and go back to where I came from. Although, as previously mentioned, I do not always feel comfortable with life at Harvard, I do feel a need to allow myself the chance to become the individual I came here for. But another part of me, finds it hard to let go of the girl I once was, the person I was before coming to Harvard. I once vowed that I will never let Harvard change me, but in a way I feel that I have changed.

Do I want to go back to being that girl who barely ever spoke in proper grammar around her friends, back to a class status that I was born into, or choose a different path for myself? I chose Harvard for a reason, yet letting go of who I once was is much harder. My college experience will always be different from those of friend's back home. Most of my friends chose to go to state schools, some chose to drop out, but no matter what, their exposure to this world of class is completely different from that of mine. They will never experience that sense of elitism and exclusivity that comes along with the prestige of the Harvard name. Similar to Ms. Justice from the article, I too, can see "the world from two vantage points at the same time." But unlike her, I have to choose which path to go on with.

Recruiters on Campus!

With the start of recruiting season for summer internships for Juniors, the words "connections" and "networking" have been thrown around so often that I think the two year olds in Leverett D-hall know how to say it. There is something about those two words that I greatly dislike. I don't like the idea of having to talk someone up, and acting like one is interested in something that they're clearly not into, to get a job. This type of attitude and life style was just something else that I was completely foreign to and had to adapt to.

Where I come from, being the realest a person can be is being the best a person can be. No one likes it when "anyone puts on airs" or "tries to 'rise above' their station" (Lecture 12: The Working Class). It is highly looked down upon to try to act like what someone is not. As mentioned in Lecture 14: Crossing Class Boundaries, "Lower income students talked about character traits as class advantages," they include:

• Hard work
• Appreciation
• Self-reliance
• Frugality

In lower class culture, it is believed that one should not rely on others for opportunities, that one should always work their hardest to get where they can instead of "shining another person's shoes" as in a Chinese saying. Yet, at Harvard this is the type of attitude one should use to secure a future in the career of their choice. This attitude and culture is just something that I do not necessarily approve of, but have come to accept as a way of life.

Fast Food for Everyone!

In conjunction with Soc 155, I'm also taking a class on Social Inequality in Health Care, Soc 166. Of all the topics that interested me the most from this class, it was the issue of obesity. In America, areas of extensive poverty often times have a high rate of obesity and other health issues. This is due to the fact that people from lower classes can only afford to eat food that is cheap and comes in large quantities, aka junk food.

In higher class societies, there is often more of a need to be skinny whereas in lower class neighborhoods body image does not seem to be a big issue. I began to notice this issue first when I was in a summer program at a college in Massachusetts my junior year of high school. In this particular discussion we focused on body image issues that affect young girls of present day America. My fellow classmates had a lot to contribute. They were mostly from predominately affluent neighborhoods, and talked about the need to be skinny where they are from. They feel a pressure to order salads with no dressing, drink nothing but water, and exercise so much so that they're legs do not touch. I commented on how this was not an issue we have where I come from. No one was ever pressured to be skinny, at least not to my knowledge.

In Oakland, basically around every corner, I can find a McDonald, which would always be across the street from Burger Kings, and then at the side street there would be a KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). The abundance of fast food restaurants that was available to choose from was sometimes overwhelming, it made making a decision on which type of greasy, unhealthy food to buy, extremely hard. Eating healthy certainly is not the first thing in anyone's mind when there is so much cheap yet filling food to choose from to feed one's family. It makes sense that obesity and other health problems affect areas of lower class people.

Another thing is, although I understand it's better not to eat such unhealthy food, I also think that McDonalds and all those other fast food restaurants taste better than some healthier options. If it is more filling and tastier, then why not eat it? As is mentioned in Lecture 18: Accounting for Taste, "the realities of economic necessity means that tastes of LCCs are organized around that which is functional or practical—the "taste for necessity."

Welcome on Board...

Because of an unprecedented family emergency near Thanksgiving, I had to change my initial plans of staying at Harvard for the break and had to find last minute tickets to fly home. If it were not for an emergency, I would never buy tickets so close to the actual flight date. I usually start looking for tickets months in advance, hoping to notice trends in the sale of tickets so I can buy the cheapest ones possible. It is so hard going to school so far away from home, because of my financial status, it's not possible for me to just fly home if problems occurred. It is just extremely inconvenient.

Because of my need to find the cheapest ticket possible, I have to sometimes connect three different flights and fly for ten or more hours in the air when it should only take, at most, six hours to fly from Boston to Oakland. To me it is more important to save $50 instead of spending that extra money to fly home as soon as possible. I was once talking to a friend who is from a pretty affluent background and he told me that time is so much more important to him. He said that he thinks that it's ridiculous I'm willing to waste so much time to save only $50. Yet to me, $50 can buy around 10 meals at McDonald's. It can feed so many more people than what saving a little time can do. I guess these are simply my lower class tendencies.

People of upper class statuses try to maximize their time whereas people from lower class backgrounds try to maximize their money. Due to the fact that people from a higher social class don't need to worry about money since they have enough that they can feed a couple of generations even if they don't do anything. Yet, they do not understand how important every single penny saved can be to a poor family.

I Got Style

A distinctive indication of class status that I have noticed is the difference in the choice of color in clothing that the upper and the lower class wear. People of the upper class status are more prone to wearing clothing of neutral colors, such as gray, black, and navy. Individuals among the lower class status, however, are more into wearing clothes of bright colors, such as bright green, pink, purple, etc. In the urban city that I grew up in, a lot of people often wore the brightest, boldest, colors, matching from head to toe in from earrings to shoes. In a more elitist society, such as Harvard, however, people tend to dress in a more reserved way.

In class we learned that the old money class tries their best not to draw attention upon themselves. They do not want to wear things that scream out "rich" to other people. According to Class Matters, "Inherited wealth smoothed the rough edges, their descendants morphed into American high society and evolved a signature style of living based on understatement and old-fashioned patrician values," "Showing off money was a sin," and "Wealthy people dressed down" (2-3). Individuals from the old money upper class social status feels a need to blend themselves into the background so that they do not get called out for being rich and wealthy. They find a need to hide their wealthy and not flaunt it. Individuals from the lower class, however, try their best to be noticed. They tend to wear a lot of bright and loud colored clothing, huge hoops, and match from head to toe. The way they dress tend to draw attention to themselves. The difference in style and clothing between the upper and lower class is indeed an interesting one.

When hope is not enough

As I read How to Raise a Hopeful Child, I couldn't help but think that the article was targeted towards people of a certain class status. From driving three hours to visit an art exhibition, to taking time off from work simply to spend time with a child, these are all activities that a middle class and upper class family can take on, but definitely not the lower or working class.

The article is simply saying that in order to have a hopeful child, you have to be able to give them the attention and time they need. This is not something everyone can do, this is certainly not something the lower class community can do. A lot of people in the lower class community have to work long hours in order to support their family, if this time were taken away so that they can help their children be hopeful, then they will not have a source of income. When there is no money coming into the family, then they will not be able to afford the basic needs a person should have.

The idea of raising a hopeful child is a beautiful one, but not everyone is able to spend quality time with their kids all the time. The assumption that simply everyone can do the same things to raise a positive child is a foolish one.

The Cost of Education

"But class is still a powerful force in American life. Over the past three decades, it has come to play a greater, not lesser, role in important ways. At a time when education matters more than ever, success in school remains linked tightly to class." - Shadowy Lines that Still Divide

This statement from a New York Times article reflects the structure of class in America's current society. Education has become one of the biggest indicators of future success. Yet it is something only people of middle and upper classes desire. Individuals from working classes are stuck in a seemingly endless cycle that ends with them being stuck in the working class. Those who are rich and wealthy are able to send their kids to private schools instead of the public school system. These kids are prematurely exposed to the importance of obtaining a college education at a young age whereas the kids from lower class communities do not.

Often times, people from the lower class community attend a school that does not help them prepare for their future and does not care at all in the students' learning. Some of these kids graduate high school at a fifth grade reading level. Students from the lower class status are not exposed to the same opportunities that more affluent kids are exposed to. These kids do not know about internships or summer opportunities that can help them get into a good college that will help them move upwards in the social ladder. In the lecture regarding the "culture of poverty" thesis, it is believed that culture is passed on to the next generation, and so will these ideas that school is not important. But with the importance of obtaining a college degree and above to get a good job, lower class individual's inability to do well in school will result in them not going to college and in the end, not getting a good job. This is why the "culture of poverty" thesis exists.