Race vs. Class

(Swiped from Racialicious)

Maybe you've seen this checklist around the blogosphere, and maybe you haven't. With all this talk about race, gender and class around election time I thought this would be more than relevant. I'm pretty good at checking my own racism and rooting it out from my core, but my classism is a little more ingrained and harder to eradicate. It's that old shuck and jivin' self hating side of us that says, 'Pssst. pssst! You know if someone is poor it's because, their lazy or willfully ignorant or just plain (wait for it) G-H-E-T-T-O'.

Here's how it works:

The instructions are simple. While in the classroom, you would take a step forward for each item that is in your experience. In the blogosphere, you simply bold the item. (I have given my answers below. Part two of this series will explore the events around many of these items, as these widely depend on circumstance and location.)

When you were in college:

If your father went to college, take a step forward.
If your father finished college
If your mother went to college
If your mother finished college
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
If you were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
If you had a computer at home
If you had your own computer at home
If you had more than 50 books at home
If you had more than 500 books at home
If were read children’s books by a parent
If you ever had lessons of any kind
If you had more than two kinds of lessons
If the people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
If you had a credit card with your name on it
If you have less than $5000 in student loans
If you have no student loans
If you went to a private high school
If you went to summer camp
If you had a private tutor
If you have been to Europe
If your family vacations involved staying at hotels
If all of your clothing has been new and bought at the mall
If your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
If there was original art in your house
If you had a phone in your room
If you lived in a single family house
If your parent own their own house or apartment
If you had your own room
If you participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
If you had your own cell phone in High School
If you had your own TV in your room in High School
If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline
If you ever went on a cruise with your family
If your parents took you to museums and art galleries
If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.


Now, I'm always surprised at how I fall in the class sector, because like most people a bad illness or significant loss of wages would put me much lower, but while I'm not at the front of the class, I'm also not at the back. There are also a few questions missing like, Did you grow up with married parents? Has a close family member been to prison or overdosed on drugs? Did your parents have health insurance? Now those are some real questions about class.

I'm also sure that the addition of bankruptcies and used cars would have me stepping back a line or two as well, but when you factor in race in this little experiment the question becomes a little about 'How Black Are You?', as if poverty is a requirement of authentic blackness.

So, am I less black because I took tap, ballet, and cello lessons? Should I vote Republican now?