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Broadly speaking, people's racial/ethnic background has no impact on whether 2 people will get on, but their class background does. Two people who are middle class will have more in common and get on better irrespective of their race/ethnicity/nationality/other factors than two people who share a race but are from different class backgrounds.
I have always thought this in essence, but as I have aged and seen the 'real' world, this becomes ever more apparent. Class interests are absolute - rich folks have the same interests across the globe (to preserve their dominance), the middle classes share perceptions of what's desirable and perceptions of cultural capital and the working classes everywhere have the same basic concerns.
This belief does not make me a Marxist as one can accept his systemic analysis without adhering to his conclusions.
To illustrate, an industrialist from Nigeria (to pick a random example) will see the world more akin to a US industrialist than he will to a poor Nigerian. Other examples across the different class groups abound - essentially the middle classes care about upwards mobility and the workers care about securing their basic economic needs.
I think that there is a marked difference between class vs race issues in the U.S. and class vs race issues in the U.K. My man is British and, when I'm over in England visiting friends and family or dining out, I've witnessed this difference firsthand.
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else here who has spent time in both the U.K. and the U.S. and has seen a difference between the two countries in how people are generally accepted or viewed. Or whether you see no difference at all.
An interesting topic of debate -- with one caveat: Race-bashing will not be acceptable.
Last edited by Rachel NewYork; 08-24-2020 at 02:18 AM..
It is not a different skin color or race that causes us to avoid or reject relationships with others, it’s whether or not they have been raised with similar backgrounds, experiences, and values. I wouldn’t call it a class distinction in the way it is in the UK. Here, anyone with brains and determination can overcome their circumstances.
I doubt that people of the same race would associate with each other if one went to private school and had parents who were doctors, and the other was a dropout and a single mom on welfare.
It is not a different skin color or race that causes us to avoid or reject relationships with others, it’s whether or not they have been raised with similar backgrounds, experiences, and values. I wouldn’t call it a class distinction in the way it is in the UK. Here, anyone with brains and determination can overcome their circumstances.
I doubt that people of the same race would associate with each other if one went to private school and had parents who were doctors, and the other was a dropout and a single mom on welfare.
Yes! Most people do not get this. I grew up in MI in a county where there the Underground Railroad brought in many of the slaves coming from the south. I actually was not aware of all these "race" issues as 1/3 of the people in our town and schools were black. They were farmers, factory workers, retail workers, etc. just like everyone in the community. They weren't segregated in areas of the town or county. There was interracial dating that no one thought that much about. So, I really didn't know about "segregation", as it just wasn't a thing where I came from in the 1960s. I thank God that I grew up in this area and that I raised my kids in a similar area. I didn't really think anymore of a difference in skin color than a difference in hair color. People raised with similar values in similar economic conditions are much more alike than different.
Yes! Most people do not get this. I grew up in MI in a county where there the Underground Railroad brought in many of the slaves coming from the south. I actually was not aware of all these "race" issues as 1/3 of the people in our town and schools were black. They were farmers, factory workers, retail workers, etc. just like everyone in the community. They weren't segregated in areas of the town or county. There was interracial dating that no one thought that much about. So, I really didn't know about "segregation", as it just wasn't a thing where I came from in the 1960s. I thank God that I grew up in this area and that I raised my kids in a similar area. I didn't really think anymore of a difference in skin color than a difference in hair color. People raised with similar values in similar economic conditions are much more alike than different.
^This.
I grew up in an all-white town in New Jersey. My parents taught us that racism was stupid, but we really didn't have to put that into practice because there were very few people of different races in our lives at the time.
Then at 20, I got a job in Manhattan, so that was the end of living in that cocoon for me.
Now forty years later, I live in a very mixed race neighborhood, also in New Jersey. I am white, and I have black neighbors on one side, Malaysian neighbors on the other, a mixed-race white/ABC couple next to them, a Brazilian woman on the other side of them...we are all similar economically. A nurse, a teacher, a chef, a mailman, a couple of us who worked in the public sector in admin and management, a paralegal.
There was an Army fort nearby that closed a few years ago as part of the consolidation program, and many of my neighbors grew up around here as members of military families. They never knew anything different from diversity, and again, everyone was more or less on the same page economically.
I don't get along so well with my socio-economic peers. I would rather hang out with starving artists or stealth wealthy people. Middle class and upper middle in US is typically white bread, regardless of race.
I do think that many whites immediately stereotype some blacks regardless of their appearance, or how they are dressed or how they present themselves. I’ve actually seen a post on C-D which asserted that black people were so different culturally they would “never assimilate.” Utter nonsense.
I also think that such things as family origin, religious upbringing, common birth language, and common cultural heritage create affinities among people. Race and class are powerful classifiers, but they are not the only ones.
I heard two men speaking to each other animatedly in their common language recently. I think their common language in an English speaking world, was a unifier between them. There might also be family ties.
My first introduction to diversity was as a military wife and that was an excellent place to make a learning start.
I want to add, although I suppose it goes without saying, that less than class it is behavior that delineates the line for me in how I chose my closer friends. It is easy to assume that economic class does influence behavior but not always and sometimes people of different economic classes have compatible interests and behavior.
How much economic value my friends have is and always has been of little interest to me. What their social values are is my main connecting point.
I have always been of the opinion that it's "class" rather than race. Race probably plays a part but mostly people associate with other people of their own socio economic class. If you went to college, you have more in common with someone else who went to college than with a drop out. If you only had four years of college you won't have as much in common with someone who earned a PhD.
If you're a teacher, you'll understand and relate to other teachers. If you're a nurse, an office clerk, a house painter, a truck driver, whatever you are, you get along better with those with whom you have more in common, usually that means your level of education and what you do for a living.
That doesn't necessarily equate to money. Money is definitely not class. (Kardashians, anyone?)
I even worked in a black school and there was division between two types of teachers. All were black but the ones who came from the Caribbean didn't get along with and tended to look down upon some of the American black teachers. I'll come right out and say that the black teachers from the Caribbean tended to be more polite and reserved and that's why they would make comments about the behavior of SOME of the American blacks. There was even one American black teacher who would take kids aside in a separate classroom and teach them to hate white people! The black teachers came from two separate cultures and in general, they had different values.
Many of the American black teachers were wonderful and the Caribbean black teachers had no problem getting along with them. I am white and I got along with both of these groups but none of us got along that well with the black teachers who seemed to have a chip on their shoulders and acted "ghetto" (for lack of a better term.)
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