Westchester's definition of "blue collar" (Rye, Yorktown: fit in, how much)

[diydesign]

As I have been reading through posts on this board, I have been a bit taken back by some of the attitudes regarding certain neighborhoods, because they are "blue collar" with "uneducated whites" and people who are cops, teachers and nurses. I fail to understand how my husband and I, who both have our Masters, and work in two of three of these professions, and make roughly $200k combined income are "uneducated" or somehow unworthy of living in a town like Katonah or most towns in Westchester that have median household incomes well below ours. According to many of these posts, we are not educated enough to live in any of these towns, or even Yorktown Heights and should limit ourselves to Putnam or points North, since we are not Westchester-worthy. Here is a definition of blue collar:
blue-col·lar
adjective
of or relating to manual work or workers, particularly in industry.
"their speech and attitudes mark them as blue-collar guys"

Now I am NOT knocking blue collar workers. I just need to know what makes RNs, PTs and teachers fall into this category on these boards....and what marks us as uneducated?

[reppin_the_847]

Long story short, these people that tell you that are morons. At a 200K combined income, you're better off than the "majority" of Americans, period. You may not be anywhere close to the so-called 1%, but you are doing alright. I think you need to have a 500K+ household income to be considered "wealthy" in an affluent metro area such as the NY Tri-State area. But 200K is "comfortable" for sure and you make WAYYY above the poverty line. 200K in NY doesn't get you a luxury lifestyle, but it gets you the necessities and a bit more I'd say. It also depends on how much debt you carry. Forget all this blue-collar vs. white collar nonsense.

[dr.strangelove]

Originally Posted by diydesign

As I have been reading through posts on this board, I have been a bit taken back by some of the attitudes regarding certain neighborhoods, because they are "blue collar" with "uneducated whites" and people who are cops, teachers and nurses. I fail to understand how my husband and I, who both have our Masters, and work in two of three of these professions, and make roughly $200k combined income are "uneducated" or somehow unworthy of living in a town like Katonah or most towns in Westchester that have median household incomes well below ours. According to many of these posts, we are not educated enough to live in any of these towns, or even Yorktown Heights and should limit ourselves to Putnam or points North, since we are not Westchester-worthy. Here is a definition of blue collar:
blue-col·lar
adjective
of or relating to manual work or workers, particularly in industry.
"their speech and attitudes mark them as blue-collar guys"

Now I am NOT knocking blue collar workers. I just need to know what makes RNs, PTs and teachers fall into this category on these boards....and what marks us as uneducated?

I've been reading these threads for awhile and have never seen any discussing "uneducated whites." If yo are talking about areas where there are in fact a large percentage of white residents, and also a large percentage of adults without college degrees, the statistics speak for themselves, but I fail to see a lot of negative comments for these two joined demographics. Perhaps you are talking about the notion of people referring to other people as "white trash" which is a term I find very objectionable. But I have never heard anyone refer to cops, teachers or nurses as such.

As for blue collar, I think everyone I ever met would refer to a family of cops, teachers or nurses to be blue collar, and I think any nurse, teacher or cop would proudly embrace being a blue collar worker. While I know my fair share of wealthy snobs, I've yet to meet one who would object to a cop, teacher or nurse living near them.

Do you object to a cop, teacher or nurse being called blue collar? I certainly don't. My mom was a nurse, my grandfather and two uncles cops, my other uncles and cousins are mostly cops, firemen and a few plumbers. In my generation of my family, we have a few lawyers and corporate types, but most are still cops, firemen, nurses, teachers, plumbers or electricians. The most successful of all of us owns a pest control company that he started 15 years ago and now has 30 employees and stopped working in the field and is now more white collar than anyone else in the family. but he literally wears a blue collared "chino type" uniform shirt and pants to work every day. Most of my family are what I consider to be blue collar workers. I am amazed that anyone thinks blue collar is a bad thing.

[VA Yankee]

OP someone on this board once said "you really can't find a decent house for under one million" they were discussing buying a home in Rye. That is the mind-set and if you don't shop in that price range then I guess they won't consider you in the same league as them. Your both professionals with good education and careers who cares, perhaps the fact that you actually have to work makes you blue collar in their minds....

Besides my family came from Port Chester so I guess we would be considered white trash....

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by dr.strangelove

I've been reading these threads for awhile and have never seen any discussing "uneducated whites." If yo are talking about areas where there are in fact a large percentage of white residents, and also a large percentage of adults without college degrees, the statistics speak for themselves, but I fail to see a lot of negative comments for these two joined demographics. Perhaps you are talking about the notion of people referring to other people as "white trash" which is a term I find very objectionable. But I have never heard anyone refer to cops, teachers or nurses as such.

As for blue collar, I think everyone I ever met would refer to a family of cops, teachers or nurses to be blue collar, and I think any nurse, teacher or cop would proudly embrace being a blue collar worker. While I know my fair share of wealthy snobs, I've yet to meet one who would object to a cop, teacher or nurse living near them.

Do you object to a cop, teacher or nurse being called blue collar? I certainly don't. My mom was a nurse, my grandfather and two uncles cops, my other uncles and cousins are mostly cops, firemen and a few plumbers. In my generation of my family, we have a few lawyers and corporate types, but most are still cops, firemen, nurses, teachers, plumbers or electricians. The most successful of all of us owns a pest control company that he started 15 years ago and now has 30 employees and stopped working in the field and is now more white collar than anyone else in the family. but he literally wears a blue collared "chino type" uniform shirt and pants to work every day. Most of my family are what I consider to be blue collar workers. I am amazed that anyone thinks blue collar is a bad thing.

While I pretty much agree, I think it's more nuanced than that. There's much prejudice here, for example, against certain specific accents, what those accents are presumed to imply and the associated behaviors. In the NY region the blue collar ranks (which should also include all kinds of service workers, retail, etc) happen to be heavily populated by Jersey Shore and "urban" types. When I was a kids we just called them greaseballs. The Swarthmore-educated SAHM living in Rye might well look down her nose at those folks for obvious social reasons. Greaseball behavior is generally quite different from cops, teachers or nurses. And the teachers and nurses do have a college degree anyway.

At the end of the day my observation has been that if you can afford Katonah then you'll be accepted in Katonah unless you act like you don't.

[BD1978]

I grew up in what I would definitely consider a "blue collar" neighborhood in one of the 5 boroughs. Many of my friends' parents were police officers, firefighters, mechanics, bus drivers, etc. My parents were teachers, and considering that they have masters degrees I would never consider them blue collar, although their income was very much in line with professions not requiring a college degree.

For what it's worth I loved growing up there and I definitely don't look down on blue collar workers, and nor do I think that "blue collar" should be considered a derogatory term. However, given our educational backgrounds, professions and income level as adults, my wife and I probably have a lot more in common with white collar professionals than we do with blue collar workers. And the neighborhood we chose to live in reflects that.

So while I certainly think it's wrong to look down on blue collar workers, I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to fit into a neighborhood, and education and profession is a big part of that. So I completely understand why folks would ask about the type of professions held by people living in certain towns to get a sense of whether they might fit in.

[neil1973]

I have always considered teaching to be a white collar profession, same with nursing.

[reppin_the_847]

I agree. Now certainly a professor with a PhD teaching at a university is about as white collar as it gets in academia. Many of these folks easily pull in as much as doctors, lawyers or executives & probably receive far more vacation time!

Originally Posted by neil1973

I have always considered teaching to be a white collar profession, same with nursing.

[streetsmart]

Since when are nurses and teachers blue collar? People with at least a Bachelor degree and more likely a Masters are NOT blue collar. At least in my world.

Weird.

[STEVEN 1]

All the rescue workers who died on September 11th were blue-collar, do you find brave men and women uneducated?