Societal Class and Privilege

  For the past few years, the word privilege has become a part of common vocabulary more than it ever has been. This week I learned a lot about privilege and how it can affect some people’s lives. 

    We started out by talking about what we think of when we think of the word class in society. The main thing mentioned was social class. This includes money, location, education, career, religion, caste system, race, language, appearance, family structure, and different connections a person might have. At the time, I didn’t realize that all of these things play a big part in how you fit in society. In most cases, a person can know what social class someone else is in just based on what they look like and how they present themselves. 

    A lot of you may not know what a caste system is because when I heard that phrase I didn’t know what it meant. In other countries, if you grow up in a certain class with a certain amount of money, that is the class you will be in for the rest of your life with your future family. In America, if you grow up poor and not with a lot of privileges, you can still make something of yourself. That is why so many people from other countries move here because they want a better life for their children.  A lot of people, however, think there is a form of caste system in the United States. There are so many people that think no matter what they do, they will end up like their parents whether that be a drug addict or an alcoholic. This is the wrong mindset to have. My dad constantly says that if you think something will happen it will and reminds us to not fall into the negative “self-fulfilling prophecy” way of thinking. 

Let’s look at a few examples of some cases that privilege plays a role in people’s lives. If there is a single mom with children and no father in the picture, the mom has to provide for that family. In some cases, the mom doesn’t have some magnificent job so she works a lot and doesn’t get to spend time with her children while barely getting by with what she is earning. Her kids don’t have the privilege of going to college like a lot of other kids do or even getting the clothes they want. Those kids also don’t have the privilege of having both a good mother and father examples in the home. I know if I grew up without a dad, I wouldn’t know how a man should treat his wife or mother. My parents have always taught me that if I like someone, to look at how he treats his mother and that is how he will treat you. The same goes for if there is both a mother and father but there is abuse going on in the home. As a result, this gives the children bad childhood experiences and makes them think that when they get into a relationship, it is ok to be toxic because they have never known anything different. 

I am so glad that I am able to learn these things each week and share them with whoever may find them. All of these new understandings of the family and what happens in the family have really opened my eyes to the importance of how the family should be that I didn’t realize before.