- Related Topics:
- social class
- womanism
- discrimination
- prejudice
classism
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What is classism?
Classism is prejudice or discrimination based on socioeconomic class, typically directed against those with lower status. It can manifest as individual attitudes or institutional practices.
Some view classism as a social problem that can be reduced through activism and leadership, while others see it as deeply embedded in society, requiring structural change. It is manifested through subtle discrimination, like condescending tones, and overt actions, such as denying resources.
The concept is viewed differently depending on how it is applied. Some radically inclined activists invoke classism to address discriminatory practices and reject the traditional Marxist idea of a hierarchy of oppressive practices.
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What does it mean to be in a social class?
To be in a social class means belonging to a group within society that shares a similar socioeconomic status. Social scientists generally identify three classes: upper, middle, and working.
Class is often determined by factors such as inherited wealth, occupation, education, and income. A person's social class influences their lifestyle, access to resources, and opportunities.
Classism is prejudice and discrimination based on social class, typically directed at those with lower socioeconomic status. It can manifest as individual attitudes, systemic practices, or institutional structures.
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How does classism lead to discrimination?
Classism, a form of discrimination based on socioeconomic status, leads to differential treatment and harm to targeted groups. It manifests through individual attitudes and behaviors, as well as systemic practices within institutions or societies.
Classism can result in subtle acts of discrimination, such as condescending behavior toward individuals with a "lowly" appearance, and more overt actions, like denying access to healthcare. It can also be ingrained in systems, laws, and policies that perpetuate inequitable treatment and oppression. Such practices create and reinforce inequalities in wealth, education, healthcare, and civil rights.
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What are examples of class divisions in society?
Class divisions in society are characterized by unequal distributions of resources, opportunities, and social status. Social scientists generally identify three main classes: upper, middle, and working.
Examples of class divisions:
* Upper Class This class often possesses inherited wealth, allowing for a distinctive lifestyle, influence on economic policy, and superior education for their children.
* Working Class This class typically lacks property, depends on wages, and has limited access to higher education and decision-making processes.
* Middle Class This class includes clerical workers, professionals, managers, and small business owners. The upper levels merge into the upper class, while the bottom merges into the working class.Classism, like other forms of discrimination, is manifested in both obvious and subtle ways, including micro-aggressions and unequal access to resources. Income inequality is a major dimension of social stratification, affecting health, well-being, and overall quality of life.
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How can classism affect people's opportunities and daily lives?
Classism, a form of discrimination based on socioeconomic status, significantly affects opportunities and daily life. It can manifest as personal prejudice or institutional bias directed toward those in lower socioeconomic classes.
Classism affects access to education, which research has found to be the strongest determinant of individuals’ occupational status and chances of success in adult life. The negative effects of classism can include subtle discrimination, such as condescending treatment, and more overt actions, like denying lower-class citizens access to healthcare.
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What are some ways people and communities work to reduce or challenge classism?
People and communities address classism through activism, political leadership, and striving for equality. Some methods include promoting equal social and political rights, regardless of socioeconomic differences, and advocating for structural changes to escape unequal dynamics. Additionally, increasing access to education, as emphasized by UNESCO and international agreements, can expand social and economic opportunities. Grassroots efforts such as the sit-in movement have also been effective in challenging discrimination and advocating for equal rights.
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classism, a form of personal bias or prejudice or a pattern of institutional discrimination based on social class and typically directed against persons or groups of a lower socioeconomic status. In keeping with its different senses, the term can be used to characterize the attitudes and behavior of individuals toward others or the structure and systemic practices of institutions or whole societies.
As with other forms of discrimination or oppression, such as racism and sexism, classism can be viewed either as a social ill that can be reduced or even eliminated through effective civic activism and political leadership or as a constitutive feature of society that can be remedied only through fundamental structural changes. The concept of classism is often applied in ways that are consistent with the possibility of nonclassist individual relationships and social arrangements or that are at least suggestive of a moral imperative to strive toward such equality (as in denunciations of a person or an institution as “classist”). The social ideal invoked in such applications is based upon a liberal understanding of social and political rights as inherent in and equal between all individuals, regardless of any socioeconomic or other differences they may have.
In contrast, Marxism conceives of classism as not primarily a morally problematic disregard of individual rights but as a core feature of all precommunist societies. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels denounced the systemic oppression of the proletariat in works such as The Communist Manifesto (1848) but regarded the entire history of human society as largely a function of class struggles. For Marx, the only means of escaping classism is through the dialectical evolution of history and the eventual abolition of all classes through a proletarian revolution (see also dictatorship of the proletariat). Whereas the liberal-inspired concept of classism is used to call out and rectify a moral wrong, the Marxist understanding emphasizes the impossibility of escaping the relevant unequal dynamics without radical political change.
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Nevertheless, some radically inclined activists and scholars have adopted a liberal-like concept of classism while still calling for the overthrow of capitalism. Their invocation of classism allows them to reject the traditional Marxist idea of an existing hierarchy of discriminatory or oppressive practices—which would entail that the fight against racism and sexism, for example, should be subordinated to the struggle against class-based society—and instead to address the ways in which such practices are effectively integrated or experienced simultaneously and cumulatively by their victims. Since the 1990s many social scientists have explored the overlapping impact of race, gender, and socioeconomic class on human experience. Their theoretical approach, which emphasizes interrelated systems of oppression and denies the primacy of any one of them, is known as intersectionality.
Like racism and sexism, classism is manifested and perpetuated in both patent and more subtle ways. According to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, individuals experience their social class through what he called “habitus,” a set of internalized perceptions, ideas, or modes of action shared with other members of the same social group. As Bourdieu pointed out, social classes are maintained not merely through the intra-class transmission of economic capital or financial resources but also through the transmission of “social capital,” such as acquired social skills and shared cultural references. Accordingly, the negative human impact of classism can take the form of subtle acts of discrimination (what some social theorists have called “micro-oppressions”), such as using a condescending tone to address a person with a “lowly” appearance, in addition to more-dramatic encroachments on people’s rights or dignity, such as denying access to health care to lower-class citizens. It is important to note that, even under constitutional regimes that forbid sex-based or race-based discrimination, there is generally no legal protection against discrimination based on socioeconomic class.