Social Class Interactions...

The movie that we are watching in class is very interesting. Learning about all the different social classes and hearing real stories from real people from all different economic backgrounds can be really surprising, but it's important that we understand this to have a more cultured view of the world. One thing that I noticed that really made me sad was how they were talking about how the different social classes don't mix. For example, poor black people don't talk to rich white people. It is not socially acceptable in a way. I do think that we separate ourselves based on class. In the lunchroom, the kids that I sit with are white and upper-middle class. Right next to our table, is a group of black kids. We separate ourselves naturally because we think we would have more in common with people who are in our same social class. But the thing is, that isn't necessarily true! We don't know if we have anything in common with people from other social classes because we don't spend the time to get to know them to find that out. This "social norm" of grouping with people from your own social class spreads to our children and our grandchildren, and now everyone is acting this way. Also, the movie mentioned that lower class people feel invisible. Even though they might feel this way, I think it goes both ways. Yes, upper class people exclude lower class people, but lower class people also exclude themselves from other classes. This happens again because social classes separate themselves into similar groups. Now that I'm aware of this, I hope to try to learn more about other social classes to be more educated.