Full Transcript
16:26:42 Hello everybody, welcome back. This is Dean.
16:26:49 This is Ray, This is Cia.
16:26:53 And this week, we’re discussing classism, so let’s begin.
16:26:57 In 2020 actress Lori Laughlin was among one of the many high profile persons of interest after it was discovered that she and many other parents had paid over $500,000 towards officials at the University of South Carolina in order to have her two children fall
16:27:21 portrayed as rowing recruits so that their academic applications, would be under less scrutiny. She was, again, not the only person to do this but was among several parents, all discovered to have paid off officials at the school.
16:27:32 Now let’s get down to the real question, is this classist?
16:27:36 What are your guys’ thoughts?. She’s like the actress I’m like full house, right?
16:27:45 Yeah, she’s the one from full house I think I remember, I remember growing up watching. Oh, well, in real life she got into that. But yeah, I definitely do think this is a form of classism, because she’s obviously using like a lot of the wealth that she
16:28:00 has to help her children, try to get into better education stuff.
16:28:06 Many people don’t have that opportunity.
16:28:10 Yeah. And while she was among the lot of people that do that while she was one of them.
16:28:17 She did get off like it seems that she got off a lot easier than a lot of the other parents involved, like she did pay her bail. So she wasn’t really charged with very much.
16:28:32 So I think that shows that that’s classism. Well she definitely did get tried for it. That’s the thing, yeah, that I look at, but you can also argue.
16:28:41 She was just the one who got caught, if you really look at the situation, you can sit down and I can guarantee you that this is not something that has only occurred, just then.
16:28:59 I could almost guarantee that you could find this at almost any university. It’s probably happening right now.
16:29:01 Oh, I guarantee it’s happening right now.
16:29:06 Um, let’s start talking a little more about classes, what really is, how do we define classism. yeah so what is classism, Do you guys have any definitions that you apply to classism?.
16:29:25 I’ve always kind of seen it as like unequal treatment of people based on their social standing is how I’ve always defined it.
16:29:28 Yeah, that’s what the dictionary says, So it basically started in ancient India with the pyramid of hierarchy.
16:29:38 And with their caste system. So from top to bottom, it would rank the people based on their status. So from the top it is priests and academics, like the important and smart people.
16:29:51 And then after that, they’ll go to warriors and kings, the well respected. And then after that, for the third layer, was merchants and landowners.
16:30:01 And then the fourth was commoners, peasants and servants. And then at the very bottom like not even on the pyramid, It’s like a step below the pyramid was The Untouchables.
16:30:12 And a lot of this carried on to America whenever America started. Like in the 18th century it basically became whoever was more literate, is the people on top of the pyramid, and whoever is born into more wealthy families
16:30:30 So, social classes began to be decided through noticeable traits such as race and professions.
16:30:38 Back then we didn’t really have that many professions to choose from so it’s basically like the merchants versus the peasants so it was very clear who was on which side of the social hierarchy, and there wasn’t really anything in the middle, like today
16:30:50 we have the upper class, the middle class and the lower class, and like even divisions within that, but back then there were just two.
16:30:59 What’s interesting to me is that it seems like even today you still hear a lot about the caste system in India, it’s a system that’s been around for so long now.
16:31:10 Yeah, it basically started everything like the whole.
16:31:16 It’s also cool, because like this stuff it all ties in with lots of like the class themes that we talked about, like, one on the other, and then all these things because it’s just like everything’s just kind of divided into, like, Oh, this is the high group,
16:31:30 and then this is like the low group, and there’s all the stuff in between.
16:31:34 Yeah, it’s like that for everything.
16:31:39 It’s totally agree.
16:31:40 I one hundred percent agree. I think that the idea of class really is also sort of intertwined with the idea of race because if you look even if you look at, India in the caste system and whatnot, their, their definition of race, isn’t quite the same as ours.
16:31:58 If you look at like the state of the united in the us right now.
16:32:04 There is a massive
16:32:08 difference between though, the 1% and, and the lower classes but what’s what’s really horrible is how closely it is intertwined with racism.
16:32:35 On average, African American families have found to make one 20th of the wealth certain white families made. On top of that,
16:32:31 systematically African American communities are not privy to a lot of the same things that white communities get.
16:32:40 For example, a lot of schools there are underfunded or like they don’t have the same access to housing. It’s, it’s definitely an issue that ties in not only with, with race but with class and the people who are there to keep them in such a position, it’s
16:32:58 it’s not any.
16:33:00 It’s not a coincidence that 90% of congressmen right now are old, rich white men, because how is that completely fair if these are representative, then why is it fair that a population that makes up less than 20% of the United States govern everything,
16:33:21 it’s because they are the upper class they have an unfair advantage over almost everyone, including people of different ethnicities and races and whatnot.
16:33:37 I definitely see your point there like we do see this like a lot of specially like living in America, like, that’s what you usually see all the time like presidential candidates that’s like a common one, or just any government official really senate,
16:33:50 the house,
16:33:52 It really is just a bunch of rich old, men white men now.
16:33:56 It’s all about who can raise enough money and a lot of those guys already have the money.
16:34:02 It really is a shame.
16:34:04 How do you think we got there considering America is like quote on quote the melting pot of America, are we going to like keep continuing with the old white men in power?
16:34:25 Or like how do we change that.
16:34:27 we change that. Well there’s got to be a recognition of what’s happening I feel, I feel like a lot of people on on a lot of different sites aren’t willing to address the issue of classism as it is that these people can pay their way into these positions
16:34:42 of power because they have the wealth to control that kind of stuff, you know, you got to start there and even even there it’s a difficult thing to start tackling.
16:34:53 But definitely a thing, it’s like, it’s been getting better as like, like you could just tell right through like time it definitely has like there’s been a lot more changes and stuff, but these kinds of trends will probably still see for quite a while
16:35:05 though because they have just kind of been hard set there.
16:35:10 But, yeah, go ahead.
16:35:12 I definitely agree i think i think it perpetrates like almost every aspect of our life like even being here.
16:35:20 Speaking from like those classes like us, we’re seeing like now from my like personal experience, um, so I don’t know if you guys know this but so I work a part of like dining services and I love the people dining services, and like working there sometimes
16:35:37 but the people controlling Dining Services, they kind of make it the best place to work at.
16:35:44 I think the prime issue that comes with like a lot of jobs is like pay. So students there they get paid about 10 to $11 and the issue right now is dying place because a coven is it’s really understaffed.
16:36:01 But the one thing is even though we’re understaffed, and we’re really getting underpaid here, like dining services they don’t actually try and push for anything.
16:36:08 They just kind of look at this and keep everything the same.
16:36:13 They always pressure hiring.
16:36:15 They’re always like sending us stuff like oh take these shifts and but they don’t do anything to raise pay or include any sort of incentive.
16:36:24 The other day, they gave some surveys out that they wanted people working in dining to complete. But it was really only to reach a quota, so they don’t really care so much about the feedback, which kind of shows how much they actually care about us.
16:36:39 It’s kind of like a creeping bureaucratic system they have where the higher chairs of dining services they just sit down and make sure that people are working, and just kind of leave it at that.
16:36:51 And I definitely.
16:36:53 Yeah, go ahead, guys.
16:37:02 Why do you think that they’re not like raising the salary from 10 to 11 if they’re so understaffed, like, you know, I think it has to do just kind of a lot with just like like I said it’s like it’s like a bureaucratic system and they’re probably just
16:37:10 honestly thinking like, since we’re in college, like, Okay, once we leave, it’s like problem’s done. It’s like they’re just kind of sitting there waiting and I think it also kind of has to do with like, President Johnson isn’t really taking the best advancements
16:37:24 to try and help us out either.
16:37:29 I definitely, I definitely think there’s a lot of merit to that I worked in dining services too, and it’s difficult.
16:37:36 And, and I especially now with how understaffed everything is now there’s like a fundamental refusal on the, on the part of people who are in power to pay workers more.
16:37:50 And we’re example was working through a pandemic you know let’s keep that in mind too. It’s not we’re just making a note that’s during a pandemic.
16:38:00 Exactly. Now Yeah, I definitely agree, and it’s it’s funny that you bring up University again because it actually brings us like full circle back.
16:38:11 I think that there’s actually a lot of classes and universities, I think that your example and I think the Loughlin family example is another good example.
16:38:23 A lot of institutions can be fundamentally cheated.
16:38:28 If you have money if you have that kind of power classism is a real issue in the US and they can use it to skirt the system, they can use it to win votes in Congress to get their kids into any institution they been fed, it’s, it really is a complete travesty.
16:38:52 Okay. I think that’s all the time we kind of have for this week.
16:38:57 Unless you guys have any more input to add.
16:39:00 Yeah, I think that’s about it for this week. All right, well, tune in next time if you want to hear us talk about sexism.
16:39:07 Thanks guys. Have a good one.
16:39:09 You too.
Sources
Burke. NBC News. October 28, 2021. “Lori Loughlin pays $500K for college tuition of 2 students after admissions scandal”. Accessed November 14, 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/lori-loughlin-pays-500k-college-tuition-2-students-after-admissions-n1282644
Huffman. Courthouse News. November 15, 2021. “Feds Say Evidence Delays in College-Bribe Case Won’t Help Loughlin”. Accessed November 14, 2021. https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-say-evidence-delays-in-college-bribe-case-wont-help-loughlin/
Frontiers For Public Health. November 11, 2021. “Poverty, racism and the public health crisis in America”. Accessed November 14, 2021. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/934650