Class Conflict in the Dorm Room

           Social class becomes salient at particular times and place within the Harvard community. At these intersection points,we have the opportunity to experience the cultures of social classes different from our own. For example, Jeremy and Zack, are roommates who come from very different social classes; this situation often creates tension and strife in the room. Jeremy is a financial-aid student who works a part-time job and lives on a farm. Zack, on the other hand, comes from an upper class family in England and is accustomed to having a chauffeur, a housekeeper, and a chef reside in his house. 

Jeremy hails from a working class family and expressed frustration over his roommate’s inability to understand his financial situation. Because Jeremy comes from a poorer family, he is very stringent with his money. He is not only on one of the highest levels of financial aid, but he also has a weekly job to help cover the costs of school supplies and other odds-and-ends. As a result of his 10 hours a week job and frugal spending, Jeremy is capable of being financially independent from his parents and does not need to ask them for money. He told me that he has not purchased a new article of clothing since arriving on campus, while his roommate has already ordered 18 boxes of new clothes because “his dad pays the credit card bill.” From these interactions, it is evident that Jeremy habitus is characterized by a taste for necessity. Rather than purchase exorbitant amounts of clothes like his roommate does, he only uses his spending money for items like staples, pens, and printing paper, all of which he views as necessities. Often times, Jeremy feels that his roommate does not understand his financial situation and expects him to chip in when paying for parties and alcohol. When his roommate invites friends over, they purchase liquor and then ask Jeremy to help pay for it after the fact.  Jeremy feels very uncomfortable in these circumstances because he wants to help out but he does not want to spend his well-earned money on alcohol every weekend. To him, it seems that his roommate, because he is from a higher socioeconomic class, automatically assumes that everyone is capable of spending twenty or more dollars per weekend. His opinion on this issue was, “if you’ve been brought up in an environment where money is not an issue, then you have no problem asking for it and taking it from your parents.” This perspective reveals the stark differences between Jeremy habitus and that of his roommate Zack's. Jeremy's childhood on a farm  shaped his habitus to value thriftiness and independence, while Zack's youth led him to grow accustomed to always having spending money within reach. Because the roommates’ distance from economic necessity, one of the intrinsic properties of class, are substantially different, their interactions with money have evolved in separate ways. When discussing the intrinsic properties of class during lecture, Professor Nelson noted that people from the middle class are more concerned with status and making the wrong move while those from the upper class have no care for others’ judgement. This concept was very noticeable in my interviews with Jeremy and Zack. While Jeremy complained often about Zack's careless spending and financial dependency on his parents, Zack was not embarrassed to reveal exactly how much he has spent so far on clothing and dining. Jeremy also seemed hesitant to discuss his job and financial aid package in front of Zack. The unease that Jeremy felt when discussing finances in contrast to Zack's frankness with the situation reflects the disparities between upper and lower class views towards class differences. 

Zack, on the other hand, did not express concerns with the class differences that exist in his room. As I interviewed Zack, Jeremy remained in the common room with us. Despite Jeremy's presence, Zack openly revealed how much money he spends. When Zack casually commented that he has already spent $4,000 so far and should probably be more careful with his money, Jeremy let out a gasp of surprise. Unlike Jeremy, who works for a hourly wage, Zack is allotted $6,000 a semester by his parents as spending money. When I asked what he spends his money on, he responded that he likes to eat out at restaurants in Cambridge. When Jeremy heard this comment, he grew aggravated and retorted, “Why don’t you just eat at Annenberg where it’s free?” Because Zack is accustomed to life in the dominant class, he has developed a habitus characterized by a taste for freedom. Since Zack is financially free from the practical needs and urgencies of making a life, he is able to stylize and formalize natural functions like meals and clothing. Rather than purchase a coat for practical reasons, as Jeremy might, Zack purchased a $700 sweater because it was in-style and fashionable. These types of purchases, along with his more expensive dining selections, reveal Zack's taste for freedom. Despite the stark contrast between Jeremy's and Zack's lifestyles, however, Zack does not feel uncomfortable about their class differences. He acknowledges that Jeremy might not have as much money as him, but does not feel that the financial imbalance creates any tension in the room. Jeremy, however, was bothered by Zack's openness about his expenses and grew bitter, claiming (after Zack had left the room) that Zack flaunted his money and made him feel inferior. As seen by the interaction between Zack and Jeremy, members of the upper class tend to accept the inequalities and are comfortable coexisting with people of lower classes, while lower class people are often more unhappy with the situation.

NY Times book list

          In last week's lecture, we discussed Herbert J. Gans' views on taste cultures and taste publics. He believed that choices in consumption are not random and that a person who prefers one particular interest will tend to prefer an array of cultural objects and practices that share a common aesthetic. He calls this preference a "taste culture" and defines the people who make these similar choices for similar reasons as the "taste public." Although these taste publics can be based on race, age, or gender, the major source of differentiation between taste cultures and publics is socioeconomic level or class. To differentiate between the various taste publics, Gans divided society into five basic taste cultures: high, upper middle, lower middle, low, and quasi-folk low culture. 
      One difference between the various taste cultures that piqued my interest was the preference for a particular theme in books and media. While the upper middle culture liked nonfiction and themes that dealt with individual struggle and success, the lower culture preferred action and melodrama. The lower middle culture  focused on performers over creators and paid no heed to critics; high culture, on the other hand, focused on the directors over the actors. Because the high culture is the most creator-oriented of all cultures, it is dominated by critics and theorists. High culture tends to prefer themes of alienation, and since the critics and theorists come from this class, books that are reviewed as top-sellers tend to share the tastes of high culture. To validate Gans' observations, I scanned the New York Times Best-Sellers List to see which themes were prevalent. I found two example within a few seconds of reviewing the list that accurately portray the prevalence of high culture tastes on the New York Times list. Both novels follow a theme of alienation, a taste that is not as liked by taste cultures of lower socioeconomic classes.

2

THE LAST BOY, by Jane Leavy.  A biography of the Yankees star Mickey Mantle, who grappled with a wrenching childhood and physical injuries.

5

UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS, by Portia de Rossi. The actress discusses her career, her anorexia and her years of hiding her lesbianism.

         Perusing other books on the Best-Sellers list, I found mostly themes of alienation or individual struggle and success, the theme most characteristic of upper class culture. Themes representative of the lower middle culture and below were harder to find. Although the lower middle culture is America's dominant taste public and prefers substance and forms, books following this format were not as common on the list. Because the list is created by critics, the list is organized by a taste public that all share the same taste culture- high culture. This phenomenon parallels Marx's idea that the media amplifies the ideas of the ruling class. Because the high culture taste public is the dominant class, they can reproduce the viewpoints of their dominant institutions through the media, as seen by the New York Times Best-Sellers list's tendency to list novels that appeal to high culture taste.

The Omni Syndrome

            In today's society, there exists a universally accepted belief that America is classless. We choose to believe that social distance is unreal and that any gaps between "us" and "them" exist because of personal reasons; socioeconomic ones do not play a role. This false notion that the "middle" is almost limitlessly encompassing is known as the Omni Syndrome. DeMott criticizes this concept that everyone has equal access to a society that is fluid and full of social mobility. He emphasizes that we need to acknowledge the class differences that exist in our society and work to understand their effects, rather than pretend that we are all similar individuals belonging to the same all-encompassing middle class.
          I believe my high school's community outreach program is a perfect example of the Omni Syndrome's effect on our perceptions of others. During my four years at the school, we were required to fulfill a certain number of community service hours at a non-profit location. As freshmen, we were piled onto buses and sent to low-income daycares or schools to help tutor and interact with the children. Coming from a mostly Caucasian school, we were all shocked to walk into a classroom and see only black and Hispanic children. The children all spoke in different ways than we did and sometimes we could not understand the slang they used or the way they pronounced their words. Because my classmates and I had all grown up interacting only with those of the same socioeconomic class, we had come to believe that class was inexistent, so it was hard for us to understand the children we were supposed to be helping. Their family situations were much different than ours, more unpredictable and unstable, and we were unprepared to deal with these glaring differences. As DeMott described, the culture of poverty causes the lower class to be shut out of mainstream society and to be easily overlooked. Because of their isolation from us and what I perceived to be the easily-accesible middle class, I had not experienced any inter-class interactions before. Therefore, I was not prepared to come face-to-face with actual differences rooted in class, barriers, and impositions, rather than differences existing of one's personal characteristics, like character and intelligence, which I had originally thought were the only distinctions between the "poor" and the "rich".
         While I had originally believed that lower class persons could easily scale the social ladder if they so chose to, but they simply had not bothered to, I realized from hearing these children's stories that the Omni Syndrome is a myth. There are many other factors beyond one's individual drive to succeed that play a role in social mobility and we do not, in fact, all coexist in the same middle class. As we fulfilled our community service and became more aware of our country's social inequality, many students struggled with not knowing who to blame- the actual people or the system itself? Class is a touchy subject in America and it is difficult to recognize the true effects of barriers and to understand the shaping of class without blaming people that are different from us and criticizing their values. Because we are afraid to get past the mythology of what class is and is not, and to acknowledge the differences that exist, the Omni Syndrome remains an accepted belief in our society: an inaccurate proclamation that we are all fundamentally the same.

Club Soccer

          I attended a private school for high school. The tuition was steep and there was not much diversity among the students. It was a preparatory school with a Monday through Thursday uniform and a blazer, button-down, and skirt uniform for Fridays as well. Every student was expected to own a laptop and bring it to class each day. In my entire grade, about one hundred thirty students total, there was only one African American student.
         The only encounters I had with people of different economic classes was when I played on a club soccer team. Twice a week, I would drive to a local soccer field, situated in a bad part of town, to practice with my team. Almost every other girl on the team went to a public school. Immediately, I noticed several differences between me and them: I drove myself to practice in my own car, a Lexus. Most of them, on the other hand, were driven to practice by their parents in the family car. While my family owned three cars, most of them only had one. Some times, one of my teammates would not show up to practice because she could not afford to pay for gas money. Another girl wore the same ripped-up soccer cleats all year round because she could not afford a new pair. The shoes had holes in the toes and the soles were coming off.
     At first, I felt guilty for what I had and they did not. I felt obligated to lie about my class background so they would not feel ashamed or uncomfortable around me. Now I realize how much it helped shape me as a person. Although the media depicts America as a classless society, as DeMott criticizes, social class is real and needs to be recognized by those with power in society. If I had not played on that team, I would never have seen the socioeconomic differences that existed in my own hometown, and so close to my home. I would have continued to live in my own preparatory, private school bubble where buying clothes and purchasing gas are not daily issues.

Opera and Theatre

         In high school, I participated in a time-intensive drama program. During the fall of my Junior and Senior year, my theatre group and I traveled to New York City to see various performances. Because of these trips, I have had the opportunity to see the following musicals and plays: Hair, Bye Bye Birdie, Wicked, Monty Python, Phantom of the Opera, August Osage County, Ragtime, Oleanna, In the Heights, Chorus Line, Avenue Q, and more. We also had the opportunity to dress up and go to the Metropolitan Opera to see Madame Butterfly one year, and Princess Turandot the next year. Madame Butterfly was the first opera I had ever seen and I thought it was very boring. I almost fell asleep in my seat. The next year, however, when I watched Princess Turandot, I loved it! Because I knew what to expect and I had seen an opera before, the opera really appealed to me. My parents have also been very supportive of my love for the arts. For my birthday, my parents flew me to New York City to see a play and my mother and I would go on "mother-daughter dates" to see local productions. Due to this upbringing, I possess cultural capital that others my age might not have.

             When I arrived at Harvard for pre-orientation, I started hanging out with a group of girls who seemed nice. Unfortunately, as soon as we started chatting, I realized there was a disconnect between them and me. The other girls discussed Cosmopolitan, MTV, and current singers and rockstars. They knew the lyrics of all the top songs and the current gossip of today's socialites. They obviously did not have the cultural capital that I did; none of them followed the arts or knew anything about theater. Their conversations were interesting but because I did not share the same interests as them, I had a difficult time interacting with them. This disconnect was not just with theater versus pop music. As Gans observed, people who like one object will tend to like other objects with a similar aesthetic. Unfortunately, this meant that the other girls had more and more in common and I discovered that for every similarity they shared, I liked something very different from them. Their taste culture involved tabloids and pop culture, my taste culture contains the fine arts and creative expression. Gans noted that the main difference that separates taste publics and taste cultures from other taste publics and taste cultures is socioeconomic class. As I learned with these girls, there was a reason we preferred different interests. It turns out that these girls all came from a different social background than I did and did not have the experience and opportunities of my class advantage.

          Another observation I noticed while interacting with these girls was that low status individuals are the most culturally exclusive. Bryson claimed in his findings that musical tolerance increases with one's education level and I agree with this statement. Most of the girls I was talking with were athletes and had been recruited here, not accepted due to academics. While we talked about our musical interests, most of them choose country, rap, and pop. While I prefer to listen to latino music and other more obscure genres, I will also listen to those genres as well. However, when I told them what music I like to listen to,  the girls laughed and revealed that they hated broadway music and latino music and would never listen to those. I found it interesting that my experience with these girls, whom I am no longer friends with, aligns very accurately with Bryson's findings. He described this access to the knowledge of a broad range of musical genres as being an "omnivore" and considers this openness to be its own form of cultural capital.

The Tampa Yacht & Country Club

      The Tampa Yacht and Country Club, which holds the debutante ball each year, is a very exclusive aspect of Tampa social life.  The club advertises itself as a member owned, family oriented private club known for fine dining and entertainment. Founded in 1904, it is one of the most exclusive private clubs in the city. While the facilities are impressive, these numerous amenities can be viewed as excessive. With nine tennis courts, saunas, a fitness center, a lap pool, swimming pool, kiddie pool, an equestrian center, several dining rooms, and a ball room, nothing is not provided for the members of the club. 

     Tradition is taken very seriously at the Tampa Yacht and Country Club and all events are very ritualized. Several events are held each year that all members are expected to attend. They wear their finest attire and parade around the ball room, socializing with other members. All members are expected to know each other's names and their current social and financial standing. Even with their high social standing, members are not safe from the judgements of other members. In fact, especially in high-status groups, in-group favoritism manifested in stereotyping is common.

    Most members of the club are rich, middle-aged to elderly men and their families. The dues they pay to be in the club help pay for the club's marina, sailing club, stables, as well as the dining rooms and pool service. A majority of these members, however, only participate in a few of the services provided. My family, for example, is a due-paying member of the Yacht Club, but we do not sail, dock our boat there, or ride horses at the barn. Instead, we eat at the club's restaurant once or twice a month. Membership into this club is not about having the opportunity to ride a horse or sail a boat; it is about having the social status that comes with it. To truly be viewed as a  Tampa socialite, your family must be a member of the Tampa Yacht and Country Club. Unfortunately for new families to the area who are eager to climb the social ladder, this process is easier said than done. Not only must a potential member be viewed as elite enough to join, but the entire board of directors must agree to admit the man and his family.

Debutante Balls

           In my hometown of Tampa, Florida, debutante balls are an integral part of a teenage girl's entrance into adulthood. While most cities have lost this old-fashioned tradition of "coming out" into society, this process is still very prevalent in the South. The tradition is very exclusive, however. Not all young women can become debutantes. In Tampa, only the daughters of Tampa Yacht and Country Club members can participate in the event. Unfortunately for most girls, the Tampa Yacht and Country Club is very exclusive- only a select number of families are invited to join each year and they must be recommended by existing members. Because of this, the debutante ball is viewed as a rare opportunity that only the most elite in society are able to participate in.
           Not only does the membership requirement limit the number of potential debutantes, but the financial requirements do as well. For example, to be a debutante, one must buy a white dress, similar to a wedding dress, earrings, high heels, and all other expected accessories needed to stand out in a room of beautiful women.
         These financial and social requirements create a symbolic boundary between Tampa's middle class and its social elite. Only the families with social connections, a large income, and a good reputation are invited to participate in this event and the families who lack in these aspects are left out on the sidelines, only able to gossip about the event that they are unable to participate in. As we discussed in the lecture on boundary work, individuals differentiate themselves from others by creating a collective identity with those with common traits and experiences. This sense of shared belonging creates a collective identity that separates the upper class "us" from the middle and lower class "them."

           The debutante procedure is not even a single party or event. It is actually an entire season consisting of parties, teas, and dances, all held by upper-class families to formally announce the arrival and availability of their daughter. These "coming out" parties reinforce class solidarity by emphasizing upper-class exclusivity. Because only upper-class daughters and their suitors participate, the season encourages and creates upper-class familial unions and helps daughters of wealthy families find suitable matrimonial partners among their social class.  Through these events, the bonds of intrametropolitan upper-class social relationships are further defined.

Stephen Richard Higley, Privilege, Power, and Place: The Geography of the American Upper Class

Annenberg Workers

          I eat at the Annenberg dining hall three times a day, seven days a week. I pass the same workers at the card counter and cafeteria line each and every day. When I see them, I make sure to look them in the eye, greet them, and make some friendly conversation. I have noticed that other students, however, will walk right past them as though they are not there. Sometimes, the students even fail to return a smile the worker gave them or will push past them if the area is crowded. For some reason, these students think it is acceptable to ignore the Annenberg workers and treat them in a condescending manner. The only difference between us and them is that we are students at the school and they are paid employees. I would say that a large majority of the student class comes from middle and upper class backgrounds and the workers would be labeled as working class but just because we come from different social backgrounds does not give us reason to act rudely towards others.

           In October 26th's Crossing Class Boundaries lecture, we discussed places of class intersection. Along with the Annenberg dining hall, intersection points for different social classes also occur in clinics, where the staff are professionals and the clients are wealthy, and middle class elementary and high schools, where the teachers are viewed as "nannies" by the wealthy, educated parents. These class differences can make interaction awkward between social classes. Classes create collective identities that differentiate themselves from others, so when these "two worlds come together," it can be difficult to surpass the symbolic boundaries that were made.

          This boundary-making is a two-way street, however. While upper-level classes will establish boundaries in order to achieve superiority over another group, lower-level classes will do it as well. These people in more vulnerable positions will create boundaries to self-define themselves and fight the stereotypes and negative images assigned to them by others. Looking at it from this angle, it is not just some Harvard students who refuse to interact with the Annenberg staff. There are also Annenberg workers who seem less friendly and are not as willing to interact with the students. This separation of "us and them" is not entirely malicious though. Because certain individuals feel drawn to one another by common traits, experiences, and a sense of shared belonging, they are more inclined to engage one another socially than they would with others of a different class.

Trick or Treating Neighborhoods

              Halloween is in two days and everyone is very excited about it. I always talk with one of the Annenberg workers when I see him in the cafeteria and today was no different. He came up to me and asked what I was going to dress up as for Halloween on Sunday. After I told him my costume idea, I asked what his plans were.  I learned that he has a son and that he would be staying at the house handing out candy while his wife took their son door-to-door to trick-or-treat. I joked that he would need to buy a large amount of candy because if he ran out the children would be angry. I told him that back in my hometown, my neighborhood had so many trick-or-treaters, that we would have to run to the gas station down the street to buy more bags of candy during the night. Sometimes we had to give two or three times! We did this because we did not want the kids to be sad that we had no candy to give them. He then told me that in his neighborhood, if they run out of candy, the children throw eggs at his house. Shocked, I said," Oh! They've never thrown eggs at us before!" To this he responded, "Yes, well we obviously live in very different neighborhoods."

          I had never really thought about how different trick-or-treating would be in neighborhoods of different social classes. I would say my neighborhood is middle to upper-middle class: the perfect place to trick-or-treat. The houses are close enough together so the children don't get tired walking house to house, and the families can afford to buy plenty of crazy Halloween decorations and candy. In fact, my neighborhood is viewed as such a good trick-or-treating spot that public buses transport young children and families from the ghettoes and other lower-income neighborhoods to our neighborhood so they can trick-or-treat in safety. Starting before it even gets dark, our streets are filled with cars that I don't recognize. Families arrive hours in advance to score a parking spot on our street. On all other days of the year, my neighborhood might have 2 or 3 black families, but on Halloween, over 75% of the trick-or-treaters are black. I had always thought that they came because our neighborhood was fun to trick or treat in, not because their neighborhood might be violent or dangerous like the Annenberg worker alluded to.

        In lecture this week, we discussed ghettoes and how childhood is not a prolonged stage of the life cycle there. Children are not escorted around by parents to knock on doors and receive candy. Instead, the streets are governed by the "hard living" individuals  who revert to violence and tricks when candy is not received. With my family, I've always had a safe environment to grow up in and have never been forced to grow out of childhood too quickly so it is so shocking to think how different my life has been compared to a child in a lower-end neighborhood. On Halloween, when children from my neighborhood came to the door asking for candy, it was sometimes hard to tell their ages. They were all very eager, loud, and happy and they all elaborately dressed up in costumes for Halloween. When the black children from the other neighborhoods came up, however, I immediately noticed a difference between the younger kids and the teenagers. The young kids still maintained that child-like innocence and youthfully enjoyed the holiday. The older teenagers, however, tended to come in normal, every-day clothes and acted either embarrassed or that they were "too cool" for the holiday. Because youth in lower-class neighborhoods will "go for bad" to protect themselves, they develop a very different way of living than I was accustomed to in my neighborhood.