Black People + Classism (Patreon)

I do not know a life without being singled out as a black woman, and I certainly don't know what it's like to be rich, safely shielded from the realities of poverty and stressful despair.   

I cannot recall my first brushes with racism or misogyny, but both have permeated my life like a stinky cheese. I have always known the epithets and foul treatment that accompany both. Similarly, I do not recall my first experience with classism, and the respectability politics and  broke bitch insults have always been there.  I never knew what the word meant until college, the same time I learned what wealth disparity was, but I had always felt the sting of its reality.

How often does mainstream black media address classism? How often do the most prominent black celebrities, influencers, and athletes? You know the sad answers to these rhetorical questions. Compared to the amount of flexing, wealth stunting, and hustle shaming that happens in the entertainment and social media worlds, the concern shown for classism is miniscule. The voices and organizations that do address classism in this country thoroughly are by no means mainstream, as American popular culture glamorizes greed. 

America, like other nations, also associates occupation with social status. For example, this classist social hierarchy  means that teachers have tons of respect and value, but get paid weak salaries. Because teaching is seen as noble, even if a career educator is "broke", they won't be ridiculed or derided as lazy the way a fast food worker earning minimum wage would. Both provide a service, and both are underpaid, but both do not receive the same respect as laboring survivors in a capitalist economy where you literally must work to secure basic needs and minimal comfort.  

These are all things I thought about when creating this episode on classism within the black community.  I hope they are things you'll think about too, and speak with others about. Classism goes hand in hand with racism, and both lead to exploitation and violence.  

Sources + Further Reading

Is There a Black Upper Class? (Monte Williams)

Our Kind of People (Lawerence Otis Graham) 

Negroland (Margot Jefferson)

Jack and Jill: Elitist, effective, either, neither, or both? (Michael Coard)

The Keen Teens of The Columbia Chapter of Jack and Jill of America Inc

Related Intelexual Media Content

Why No American School Should Be Named After Booker T Washington

Resources, Racism, and The Myth of Inferior Black Intelligence

Zip Code, Race, and Class: Understanding The Cycle of Black Poverty

Black Children And The American Dream Myth

The Racial Wealth Gap