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Elite Resentment
With all of this talk of elitism, I have some insight as to why a blue collar/small town person might resent the elite and this focuses on education rather than income, although they usually go hand in hand.
I teach Adult Basic Education - the Basic means, below high school level or high school, but not ready for college. If some way along your life, you weren't able to finish high school and/or go to college, it's very difficult to get that eduation later on. Sometimes it seems like the odds are insurmountable. Juggling school with jobs and families is very difficult. They see such slow progress, it's discouraging. It is very hard work.
So you can see that to these people, having a good education seems unattainable. We have something they can't get. They can't even get it if they win the lottery. So instead of viewing us with awe and respect, they see us a being condescending.
I think we need to respect that. I know a lot of students who really want to be like me - with a Master's Degree, but it really is impossible for most of them. The gap just keeps widening.
Any other insight?
Comments (5)
As someone without a degree (but yes, a diploma) and a low-paying (if respectable) job, I do think there is some of that. Like, "Oh, you have a degree in economics. That's lovely. What have you actually done, though? Write papers? Mm, how useful you must feel."
When you live paycheck to paycheck, your esteem for others is largely based on pragmatic ideals and less on intellectualism and big-picture issues.
There's also pre-emptive snubbing. Like you know someone is going to look down on you because you didn't earn the certification, don't earn the big paycheck, so you try to beat them to the punch and judge them first. It hurt Kerry - for all his merits, he is more or less the yacht club poster boy, and easy to dismiss as such.
I don't think it hurts Obama, and would in fact say it hurts Clinton when you get west of the Mississippi. I just can't figure why Clinton does better with blue collar folks back east.
April 15, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me, but I think the phraseology in your post reveals the exact reason that those who are less well educated resent those who have had the benefit of a good education. You state:
"We have something they can't get. They can't even get it if they win the lottery. So instead of viewing us with awe and respect, they see us a being condescending."
What's up with that statement? Why wouldn't they be able to get a good education if they won the lottery? Are they just stupid (unlike clever you)? And why should a hard working individual look up to you or anyone else with "awe and respect" just because you have a college degree? A college degree doesn't make anyone special; it is what they do with their knowledge that counts.
April 15, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
kmsor -
Touche! I suppose if you won the lottery, you could devote all your time to education - you wouldn't have to work, or clean your house, or take care of your children.
But - it's tough to build on a shaky foundation and keep the momentum going. It takes years.
Perhaps you did't understand the scenario I was presenting. Let's say you didn't get your high school diploma and later, as an adult you wanted to get your GED and then go to college. Well, it depends on how old you are. The longer it has been since you left school, the harder it is. (There are statistics on this.)
As I said, you have to juggle all the responsibilities that an adult has with school work. It is often independent study and it takes a lot of time and there are frustrations. The reasons that prevented you from completing your education previously might still exist to some extent - a learning disability, emotional distress... So then you continue to have a difficult time.
So, yes, you could pull yourself up by the bootstraps under those conditions and get yourself an education. I'm just telling you why is just doesn't happen for some people and it's not because they don't want it. The gap does get wider and wider.
Some of the same elements are true too for the not quite ready for college student. There are also statistics on this, although I don't have access to them at the moment. A portion of high school graduates are not prepared for college. They lack some important skills so when they do attend community college, they have difficulty succeeding.
NOTE: I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT ALL PEOPLE. THESE ARE JUST SOME SCENARIOS THAT DO EXIST. I KNOW THIS FROM MY WORK WITH THESE STUDENTS AND I WANTED TO GIVE THIS PERSPECTIVE.
April 15, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you, but with an addendum...
The reason "they see us as being condescending" is because "us" often are, in fact, condescending.
I too work with undereducated and low-income people daily and have worked in blue collar jobs. The resentment isn't envy (though that may play a part with some). The resentment is in reaction to the "I'm better than you" attitude that comes from those who were luckier in life and got the luxury of a good and advanced education. It is the same sort of unintended but quite present attitude many whites have when interacting with people who are minorities---especially black people. The whites or "better educated" often don't even know they are being condescending, yet there it is.
All people should take great care to respect every other human being and never proceed from a point of view that elevates them above anyone else. My grandfather had a sign on his desk as a reminder to himself that said:
"Remember, no one is better than you are and you are no better than anyone else."
He lived by that simple thought and was well regarded by all who knew him because he respected everyone he came into contact with. In today's world, it is all too easy for those with advantages to assume that their advantages are a product of some sort of innate superiority as opposed to good fortune.
White liberals often forget this and fall into the trap of becoming holier than thou and condescending to all who don't recognize them as their betters. Reactionary Republicans have scored countless victories over the last 40 years or more because of precisely that failing.
April 15, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oleeb -
Thank you for your thoughts! I agree that in actuality we are often condescending. Those of us who work with lower income people on a regular basis try not to do it. When you don't know many people of lower income, you tend to generalize and sterotype - just like they do to us. Our social spheres are pretty separated from one another.
Hey - are we talking classism here? Impossible to avoid!
April 15, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
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