Now, when I say "classism" I don't mean it the way most people do. Most of the time when you accuse someone of being classist, you mean they look down on poor folks. When I say it, I mean that I have a rather deep and abiding disdain for people who have never been poor. If someone cannot grasp that I cannot go out this weekend because I can either afford cover at a bar, or gas to hopefully last the week, I have a hard time relating to them.
I fight this on a daily basis at work. I work in a dental school, and many of our students are legacies. And by legacy I mean Dad was a dentist (sometimes Mom, but usually Dad, and Mom was nearly always a Dental Assistant or Hygienist), frequently Grandpa was a dentist as well. The ones who aren't direct legacies have parents who are doctors or lawyers, maybe they're a big corporate muckety-muck. Now, there are a few kids who come from fairly humble roots and work their way through school, and somehow those usually wind up hanging out in my office a lot.
But the others, the children of privilege... At least once a year I find myself having this conversation, usually after someone has done their first rotation through the sliding scale dental clinic at a local hospital:
Student: "I can't believe the state of people's mouths. I mean, I guess some people just have different priorities."
Me: "Yeah, rent and food."
And then we get into the discussion about the fact that my white, college-educated ass saw a dentist exactly once before I was 19: my pre-kindergarten medical requirements included a fluoride treatment, subsidized by the school district. I didn't go again until I was 19 and my wisdom teeth had impacted and gotten so infected I couldn't open my mouth because of the swelling in my jaw.
Even now, with a job that pays ok and dental insurance, I can't afford to get the dental work done that I need. I have at least three teeth that should be crowned. I got one done a few years ago, because I volunteered to be a patient in an elective course where I got the crown for the cost of a filling. The others are still twinging occasionally, and shedding little bits of filling if I brush too aggressively. I'm hoping that I can scrape up the money before root canals become a necessity, and put the cost still further out of reach. Bear in mind, this is with dental insurance.
But, back to the original topic. I have a real hard time taking seriously anyone who grew up with money. And I'm not the only one. Sometimes the people who speak for Feminism on the major blogs or in the news say shit that makes my head explode, not through any sense of mean-ness, but mostly because they just don't get it. It doesn't make me quit being a Feminist, but it does occasionally make me wish I could reach through the computer screen and slap people.
I get the disconnect between a lot of mainstream Feminism and poorer folks. Upper middle class people have the TIME and the freedom from economic anxiety to "fight the good fight," that's why they are the ones doing a lot of the political "fighting." However, those same qualities which allow them to fight the good fight, also blind them to some fundamental issues. I get that someone who has never had to choose between never seeing your kids because you're pulling extra shifts at McDonald's to pay the rent or stripping three nights a week while they're sleeping at the sitter's for the same amount of money, and it will cost you less for childcare, doesn't understand the appeal of stripping those three nights a week instead of coming home exhausted and smelling of fast food grease six nights a week.
And while I know that the answer is for poorer Feminists to get more involved, to be more vocal, that's hard when you're working 8+ hours a day, and have an hour or more commute, and somewhere in there you still have to fit laundry, dishes, meals, grocery store trips, car maintenance (if you're lucky enough to have a car) and the million other tasks that need doing. And that's with only having one job. Many are working two or more jobs to make ends meet. When exactly are they supposed to make the time for activism?
In this, I think the internet is a great equalizer. Computers are getting cheaper. Places like Recycle PC are opening up and selling used but functional machines, libraries have free internet access (again, the time thing) and at least in Seattle there are coffee shops with terminals where you can log in for a fairly reasonable price. Some cities or school districts subsidize computers for low income students, a buddy of mine used to work for one of these programs, building functional machines out of the donated PCs they got. With the internet it no longer takes an hour ride each way to get to a rally or demonstration. It takes five minutes to set up a blog, in which you can write as much or little as you want. You can tell the world your realities, or you can reach out to others who share your hardships.
Computers are no longer the province of the well-off, white, middle class world. And this rocks. There are lots more voices that need hearing out there, and the internet is one hell of a bullhorn.
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