Yue Hao: In our daily lives, people with high social status often discriminate against people with low social status, which we are not unfamiliar with this phenomenon of systemic injustice. This phenomenon not only exists in a certain country but also abounds in different countries around the world. Why is there a systemic injustice towards them? I think the difference in educational backgrounds is an important factor that results in discrimination of social status. The level of education is often regional or regional, and people living in cities often receive higher levels of education than people living in rural areas. There are many colleges and universities in the city, and colleges and universities have very rich educational resources, such as excellent teachers and advanced infrastructure. In rural areas, there are very few schools, and many places do not even have high schools and universities. This has resulted in them not being able to get good educational resources and not learning very advanced knowledge. Finally, because they do not have a rich knowledge background, they can only choose to engage in some manual work. In cities, people’s rich knowledge background will bring them very high-quality jobs, such as teachers and government workers. People with different education levels will naturally have different views on things, so they are more likely to quarrel when encountering problems. In this society, mental workers tend to look down on manual workers, while mental workers have a higher social status, and manual workers have a lower social status. I think there is a very typical example of the treatment of famous agricultural workers when they work and live in the city. Migrant workers are manual workers, and they have a lower social status. We often see in the news that they are not allowed to sit in public seats on the subway, and we often see people in the city verbally abuse them. Beaten. This is the discrimination on social status caused by the difference in education level.
Yichen Wang: Yes absolutely, I strongly agree with what you said, and I believe that to some extent, the difference in education background, education level, leads to this kind of discrimination because education background is indirectly correlated to social status and class. Education background, or education level, is valued in most cases. Namely, in a job market and workplace. In a job market, an individual with a better education background, or higher education level, will be more favored by corporations, so the individual will probably have more choices in a job market and an easier way to get work in the market, compared to counterparts who are less qualified. Diploma matters a lot in the job market, and, indeed, people with a lower diploma are often offered menial jobs. The vast majority of companies nowadays view applicants’ resumes to see their educational background at the first step of recruitment. This first step directly filters out applicants with relatively lower education levels.
Education background does not only matter in recruitment, but also a workplace, affecting an individual’s career. When an individual enters a company, he or she will be more valued if with a relatively better education background. At the beginning of this job, most of the senior workers would like to know more about the new guy, and a better education background works, which will deeply impress the seniors. Besides, superior pay more attention to an employee who is with a higher starting point and offers this employee more opportunities. The difference in the educational background leads to the difference in treatment in the workplace later. We all know that a higher starting point in the workplace will lead to a shorter path to success in a career. Undoubtedly, the difference in career will result in different income, distinguish classes and social status, and affect life. Though this might be a bad example and a bit offensive, suppose that you are an employee in a company, how would you think of the cleaning staff, and would you think of them the same as how you think of other employees like you? Let me tell you, it will be completely different. You will probably be kind and polite to the cleaning staff, but this is due to etiquette and what you were taught to treat people. In this case, of course, you know that you have a better educational background, compared to the cleaning staff. This example, though inappropriate, somehow illustrates the reality that how people perceive others when there is a difference in education level, educational background, and class. Applying what we learned about “othering” so far, the difference in social status, class, resulted from different educational background draws a line between you and the cleaning staff. Under this circumstance, you will unconsciously “other” the cleaning staff. I would like to apologize for using this example, but this truly exists in society.
When researching this topic, I found an interesting blog. The author stated that “people with better education background, higher education level, dare not to contempt people with lower education level. They think that people with lower education levels have various prejudice against people with higher education levels. People with lower education level could not understand their complex thoughts, and ‘attack’ them.” Well, this statement implicitly set forth a logic which most of the people with lower education level are vulgar, and they are aggressive to people with higher education level. So though people with better education background do not visibly contempt people with lower education level, the first group implicitly dislike the second group.
Yu Fu: I very much agree with your views. The difference in education level does lead to the division of social classes and the problem of discrimination against others because of social status. In the articles we read before, the word “othering” has always left a very deep impression on me. In one place, people are often divided into two categories. People who live here and those who have the same faith are divided into one group, while those who have migrated to this place and have different beliefs are divided into another group. Such people are called “othering”. “Othering” often refers to a group of people with lower social status. They have no right to speak and they are discriminated against by others. In the example, you are discussing, “othering” refers to manual workers with low levels of education who are discriminated against by another group of people, mental workers with higher levels of education. I think this can explain the meaning of “othering” very well.
Yue Hao: Make sense. It is reasonable that we can have prejudice and stereotypes of “others” we are not familiar with. These low-income people cannot understand the effect that the educational differences brought, which means the “normal” behaviors and thoughts they own are impolite and droll for highly educated people with higher salaries.
Yichen Wang: Thanks Yu for further elaborating on the concept of “othering”. Now, I would like to bring up a question for us. In addition to the difference in education background, education level, is there any other factor that will cause this kind of discrimination? What about the income gap? I would say this also contributes to the phenomenon.
Yue Hao: The gap between the rich and the poor can lead to discrimination on social status. Due to the difference in income, people’s living environment and living conditions will be different. Therefore, it also makes a difference in their behavior and image. People living under different conditions often neglect to think from each other’s environment, so discrimination and confrontation arise. Some people may discriminate against low-income workers because they do not pay attention to personal hygiene. They may think that these low-income workers are dirty and may carry germs. Many low-income workers do not care about hygiene, but they cannot allocate sufficient time and money to personal hygiene. For example, they need to spend some of their income this month to support their children and family, which also means that they cannot spend enough money on laundry and bathing. They may not be able to bathe and change new clothes every day, so they may have an unpleasant smell or dirt on their bodies. For a person with a high salary, washing and bathing is a basic thing, they have enough money to maintain personal hygiene. People living in noisy environments need to amplify their speaking volume so that the other person can hear them. Therefore, many low-income people speak more voice than normal people. People with high incomes tend to discriminate against people with low incomes. In this society, people with high incomes often have higher social status, while low-income people have a lower social status.
Yu Fu: I think your point is very correct. The gap between the rich and the poor is the most important factor leading to this type of discrimination. People with high incomes often discriminate against people with low incomes, not only because their lower incomes are not valued by this society, but also because of differences in living conditions and living environments caused by low incomes. In Chinese society, the distinction between high-income earners and low-income earners is very obvious. Low-income people often work as waiters, construction workers, etc., while high-income people often work as white-collar workers and teachers. I have personally seen an example of discrimination based on social status. On the subway, a company white-collar worker did not allow a construction worker to sit in a public seat, simply because the construction worker’s clothes were covered with dust. White-collar workers in the company believe that construction workers do not pay attention to personal hygiene and may carry germs. This is because of the discrimination caused by the living environment and living conditions. It’s not that construction workers don’t want to wash their clothes, but they don’t have the time or money to take care of their appearance, and their salary may only be enough to meet their daily needs. High-income earners have enough time and money to dress up. They think that appearance is the most basic requirement. This leads to conflicts of ideas and discrimination. According to Miller’s statement in a report, we can also know that many people working on farms in the United States will also be discriminated against in many ways because they have lower incomes or other problems caused by lower incomes. We can define people with higher incomes as one type of person, people with lower incomes as another type of person, and this type of person can be defined as “othering”. “Othering” is often a type of people who are discriminated against and excluded. They are not valued in this society and do not have any power. I think people should change this wrong idea. We should establish the concept of equality for everyone. Regardless of the level of income, we should judge a person based on his own and his contributions. Everyone has a unique value.
Yichen Wang: Yes, exactly. In most cases, income decides an individual’s wealth, and wealth decides an individual’s livelihood. Quality of livelihood and environment heavily influence an individual, shaping one’s mind and behavior. And yes, personal hygiene is an outstanding problem of people doing menial, low-level, works. This problem is always criticized by people in public places. Under this circumstance, a public area, where all kinds of people exist, there is probably going to have the phenomenon of “othering”. As you guys said, we can tell the difference from appearance. After this simple identification, people then start to frame out groups in their minds. As we know, after the groups are constructed, the superior group will “oppress” the relatively inferior one. You provided a solution to this issue, which I strongly agree with. Never deny a person from first sight, when you do not even know about the person. What’s important is that appearance is never the only qualification of an individual.
Yue Hao: It is the fact that the low-income groups are not able to pay for a better livelihood. They have worse conditions of housing, cleaning, eating and, etc. Because of lacking money, they are often looked at as “dirty”. However, people with higher incomes are taught that they must keep their appearance clean to show respect to other people. Therefore, discrimination appears, which results in a large systemic injustice.
Yu Fu: According to the situation we discussed above, discrimination on social status is very common in our lives, and many different factors can lead to discrimination on social status. I think the essence of this kind of discrimination is that people with higher social status want to show their superiority and suppress people with a lower social status to protect their interests. I think this is related to the concepts of “One” and “Other” we learned earlier. As Beauvoir said in the article, when a foreign tourist travels to a neighboring country, he will find himself treated as a stranger. Local people belong to “One”, and this foreign tourist belongs to “Other”. Similarly, people with higher social status will be regarded as “One”, and people with lower social status will be regarded as “Other”. “Other” often has no rights and is not valued in this society. People’s misconceptions have caused the development of this society to slow down. With the development of the times, this misconception has been deeply rooted in people’s minds. People need to overcome this erroneous concept, establish the concept of equality for all, and eliminate the concepts of “One” and “Other”. Society will develop more rapidly and this phenomenon of discrimination will disappear.
Yichen Wang: I think your summary is very accurate, it sums up the problems people have in this society very well. I think we can start a discussion on how to help people solve this problem later.
Yu Fu, Yichen Wang, Yue Hao: Thank you for listening. Have a good day!
Reference:
Beauvoir, Simone de. “The Second Sex” 2019
Miller, Marjorie S. Farmworkers’ Perceived Discrimination Affects Work … 8 Nov. 2020, news.psu.edu/story/448556/2017/02/01/research/farmworkers’-perceived-discrimination-affects-work-experience.
User. “Will people with high education spontaneously despise people with low education?” Zhihu, https://www.zhihu.com/question/28472556/answer/1416021418
Images references:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/impact-of-poverty-social-class-on-families-society.html
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2014/02/01/mobility-measured