| Class Is More Important Than Race (And Almost Everything Else)
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By Steve Gilliard
Here is where the problem lies. Race is only part of the social equation. Class is the important one and one you see reflected again and again. You can be blacker than night, but if you have a degree from MIT, you're a member of the club. Class is the issue which hits you in the face. No one cares who you date, what color they are or how old they are. They will care a great deal if you start bringing around the cleaning lady.
Class matters. Who you know and where you went to school matters. Not just Harvard, either. Three of the people who make Netslaves attended NYU. Years after, we wound up working on this project. Not because we had been friends in school, we weren't, but because the New York journalism and Internet worlds are loaded with NYU grads, everyone from lawyers to web designers.
All these places create mafias, people who look out for each other informally. They hire alums, help them survive corporate politics and form social groups.
Just because you went to Harvard doesn't mean you grew up easy. Harvard loves hard luck cases. Seventy percent of the school gets financial aid. And it certainly doesn't mean you dined with the rich and famous. But it does mean you're somewhat intelligent.
There are about 20 schools which can be considered Ivy in terms of class. Schools like Trinity, Haverford, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Smith, Vassar and Sarah Lawrence all count. You may not have heard of some of them, but the people who matter have. There are another 30 which starts with Duke and U Chicago and end with NYU. They make up the top 50 schools in the US and you will find their graduates dominating the professions. Bill Clinton is a Georgetown alum, like most of the State Department, those who didn't go to Tufts, that is. Wall Street has NYU grads in every department. Duke's alums include Charlie Rose and Richard Nixon. Michigan, UT Austin, Berkeley, Howard, all have powerful people in important jobs.
It isn't just Harvard and Yale any more, but it is Harvard, Yale, Berkeley and Northwestern. The Ivy's aren't the only route to success, but you can bet that of the 2500 universities in the US, most of Congress, most industrial leaders, and most internet folks went to the top 50 in that list.
Why does this matter? Because it says everything about class. The subject Americans really hate to talk about. They'll talk about race at the drop of a hat. But broach class and they just look at you. There's the rich kids at Harvard and the scholarship kids. And the two never meet. Not even there.
In the world of the Internet, the real class divide comes from the working class and the middle class. The kids of the working class and lower middle classes know what it's like to not have money, to save and to work at crappy jobs for the money. They know that college was the only way they'd get a decent job. They are cautious because all it takes is a phone call to know how their lives could have ended up.
The middle class kids are more likely to take things for granted. They ask more questions because they don't know about the downside of risk. They never missed a meal in their lives and while not rich, they don't ever remember lean times.
With divorce and single parent families, the working class life cuts across race like a knife. So does the middle class life.
Why does this matter? Because it defines how you approach work. If your family were union people, you don't just toss around cash to feel big. You know what an ordinary job is like and you know that you just can't spend money forever. Risk is a bigger deal.
If you grew up middle class, you have the confidence stability brings and an understanding of finance and risk that working class kids don't.
Neither is good or bad, but it's more important and relevant than race in this workplace. There may be the odd black person who wasn't hired, but you can bet a lot more people didn't get jobs for the school they went to than the color of their skin.
Think about that.
But it isn't just school, plenty of dropouts get work in the industry. It's where you grew up, how you speak, what your interests are. What you see as race is often class. You can bet that Eminem has far less of a chance walking into a net company and getting a job than Tiger Woods. Why? Because Eminem was a poor kid and speaks and acts like one. Woods is confident and educated.
Take away their success, make them normal people and you can guess who would be sitting next you at work.
Companies openly say they want Ivy grads. They don't mean Yalies, they mean middle class people who accept their values. Ivy as a cachet is more than a place, but an attitude towards life. If you know what NPR is and have eaten crème brule, you're in the club. If you watch the BBC every night to get "the real news", you're in the club. An X-man devotee since childhood, sign right up.
However, if you mention Polish sausage night at the local Slovak club, well, be sure to pick up your bowling ball. That may be a great childhood story, but let people know it's a part of your life, well, you will stand out. And not in a good way.
It is the real social issue in the Internet industry and people don't want to admit it, deal with it or even discuss it. Because class is hard in the American context. You know why people like Caddyshack and Animal House? Because they are none too subtle attacks on American classism.
Race does matter, but in the Internet industry, people will look past race. They won't look past class.
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Name: Sophie
Email: SophiesChoice2001@hotmail.com
Date: Thu Dec 14 08:21:11 2000
Comment: That's crème brulee. With two e's.
Seriously, you have a point. Interesting read, though a bit dated: Paul Fussell's book, "Class." It makes the point that generations of middle-class strivers have been duped into believing that ANY degree counts, when some obviously count more than others.
Good article, SteveQ
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Name: Kansas City
Email:
Date: Tue Dec 12 15:37:58 2000
Comment: So much for the Internet being some great liberator. As with all tools, computers are only as useful as the tool operating it. I never thought class divisions disappeared in America, and racial division was simply an instrument the upper class used when concealing that fact to the lower classes in this supposedly "classless" society. All Americans ever wanted the first place was to be equal to the nobles of Europe. Except the merchants of America wanted to be decidedly less than noble--that is, they wanted to possess all the trappings of nobility without the attendant obligations. That's exactly what they got--and upper class with no responsibility to the lower classes a middle class saddled with all the guilt and burdens of the upper class a working class to keep the middle class scrambling and an underclass to keep everyone's mind on "crime control", "runaway slaves/inmates/parolees/probationers/bond servants/dark people", "rioting Irishmen", "yellow peril and their evil opium", "witches", "Injuns", "migrant workers", "the Mafia" or anything else that keeps everyone's mind off the fact that the upper class does no actual work.
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Name: David Cross
Email: dcross1@home.com
Date: Thu Dec 7 14:12:58 2000
Comment: You all should read a book by Fletcher Knebel, named "Dark Horse". It was printed in 1972 and apparently has not been reprinted in years, so you'll have to check the used bookstores for it. I can provide an ISBN on request, but don't have it handy at the moment.
It's a great book, if a bit dated in some respects. I won't say any more, cuz that would spoil it! :)
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Name: MasterPo
Email:
Date: Mon Dec 4 11:17:41 2000
Comment:
Doesn't stop at schools either. Where you work or have worked forms a "class" too. In NYC if you flash your Goldman Sachs card that will get you places.
Real example: I used to work at a place with a guy who was found of telling everyone he met with in a few seconds that "When I was at Sacs...", "Over at Sacs we...." and "Well at Sacs they would...". When he said "Sacs" people thought "Sachs" as in Goldman Sachs. But what he really meant was "Saks" as in "Saks 5th Avenue"!! In truth if you pushed him on it he did bone up to the reality. But few people asked him for it. He got a LOT of milage out of being able to say that!!
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Name:
Email:
Date: Mon Dec 4 05:02:15 2000
Comment: Or, for more fun, a c:\con\con in between IFRAME tags..
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Name: biteme
Email: pooh@pooh.com
Date: Sun Dec 3 23:51:25 2000
Comment: you guys should get a html stripper
otherwise peepool wiff nuttin better 2 do will put images of nekkid wummin in your posted comments section
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Name: biteme
Email: pooh@pooh.com
Date: Sun Dec 3 23:49:48 2000
Comment: test
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Name: bill
Email: netslaves@hotmail.com
Date: Sun Dec 3 21:17:52 2000
Comment: I'm a scumbag from the Bronx and will always be that in the eyes of most people. For this reason, I'm the biggest classist pig you'll ever meet. I know that WASPs from Connecticut can be cool, but they have to go a long way to prove that to me. Sorry for offending anyone here -- maybe I'll get over my prejudice some day, although I doubt it, considering how people try to pigeonhole me for where I'm from and who I am.
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Name: Arf D. Arf
Email:
Date: Sat Dec 2 23:10:31 2000
Comment: Sigh. It's all to true. As one who has been to the gutter and the penthouse (and everywhere in-between) I can tell you it's all too true.
And the poem is relevant. It will help you find like minded people and weed out the poseurs from all classes of lfe.
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Name: Kashif Pirzada
Email: kashif_pirzada@hotmail.com
Date: Sat Dec 2 19:59:21 2000
Comment: That poem is about class in the sense of "she's a real classy gal". This article is about class in the sense of socioeconomic status. Not the same.
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Name: best poem about class I have ever seen
Email:
Date: Sat Dec 2 12:08:47 2000
Comment: Class never runs scared.It is sure
footed and confident.It can
handle whatever comes along.
Class has a sense of humor,
It knows that a good laugh is the
best lubricant for oiling the machinery
of human relations.
Class never makes excuses.It takes its
lumps and learns from past mistakes.
Class knows that good manners are
nothing more than a series of small,
inconsequential sacrifices.
Class bespeaks an aristocracy that
has nothing to do with ancestors or money.
Some wealthy blue bloods have no class,
while some individuals who are
struggling to make ends meet are loaded with it.
Class is real..It canot be faked.
Class is comfortable in its own skin.It never puts on airs.
Class never tries to build itself up by tearing
others down,
Class is already up and need not strive
to look better by making others look worse.
Class can walk with crowds and keep its virtue
and talk with kings and keep the common touch.
Everyone is comfortable with the person who has
class because that person is comfortable
with himself.
If you have class,you have got it made.
If you donnot have class, no matter what else you have,
it doesnot make any difference.
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Name: Lucky to have made it
Email:
Date: Sat Dec 2 01:55:52 2000
Comment: Went to a school known locally where I came from, unheard of where I am, so no benefit today. Went to grad school at a big name school, no social connection but it really opens doors on the resume, even 15 years later. I have absorbed middle-class values, but the real middle class and upper-middle-class is still hard for me to deal with. I defer to them by reflex, and that is hard to overcome, so I don't get everything I might when I negotiate.
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