Yo, is this classist?!
Before we take a look at some of the specific examples of classism in our society, lets define it. Classism also can be referred to as class discrimination, which is the prejudice or favoring of people belonging to a certain social class. Class discrimination can be shown through individual attitudes, behaviors, or systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit a social class. Typically, beneficial to the upper class at the expenses of the lower classes.
This political cartoon can help show visual as to what classism is and the effects it has on different people. The 3 different tiers represent the different classes: upper, middle, and lower class. The upper class depicts a couple living lavishly in their wealth and power. The middle class is living comfortably; they have some technology and material objects, but much less than the upper class. And finally, the lower class. Living with less money, dirty, and more crowded. This cartoon does more than just providing visual to the different social classes, it also shows the difficulty of social mobility, the movement between social classes. Take a look at the guy falling from the ladder on the left; although many people try to improve their social standing, it proves very difficult due to the way our society is built.
Social mobility is becoming increasing more difficult. From research done by Michael D. Carr and Emily E. Wiemers, two economists at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, their findings state the class mobility has declined as inequality has increased.
“It is increasingly the case that no matter what your educational background is, where you start has become increasingly important for where you end. The probability of ending where you start has gone up, and the probability of moving up from where you start has gone down. In the presence of increasing inequality, falling mobility implies that as the rungs of the ladder have moved farther apart, moving between them has become more difficult.” – Michael D. Carr and Emily E. Wiemers
Now let’s take a look at where classism comes into play in our society. There are educational inequalities, healthcare inequalities, disparities in the judicial system, and environmental injustices. Each of these effect each class differently, but there is a common theme between them all: the upper class is always at a major advantage compared to the lower class. The upper class has more money to pay for food, has better access to health care, can afford to pay for lawyers in court, and the list goes on and on.
But one specific issue I want to focus on is the classism involved within the college admissions process. Most people are aware of the college admissions scandal that happened in 2019; a scandal over a criminal conspiracy to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities. Netflix has created a documentary called Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, using real conversations recreated from FBI wiretaps. The link for the trailer of the documentary is linked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFHj8e7mU_I&ab_channel=Netflix. Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the whole scandal, took the idea of classism to an extreme level of using money to guarantee access into top universities. But wealth, and class status, has effects on most students and families working on college admissions.
The college admissions process is becoming increasingly more difficult every year. Looking at your GPA, your SAT or ACT score, your essays, and overall application. The better each part is, the better your chances are for an acceptance letter, but to improve your GPA, test score, or essay, it often comes with spending money to hire a tutor.
According to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, with data collected from the College Board, “Students from the wealthiest families outscored those from the poorest by just shy of 400 points.” – Josh Zumbrun, Wall Street Journal
This correlation is due to the access to better educators and tutors that the wealthier families have. It makes sense, if you have the money to spend, spend it on helping your child succeed in these college prep tests. And if you do not have the money, then your child will have to prepare on their own. This relates to both school classes which affects GPA, and the college board tests.
Take a look at this graph, these are the results from a study conducted by Mark Kantrowitz who looked at SAT test scores and family income. It is obvious that there is correlation; the more money your family has, the better you will score on you SAT.
Another idea to think about relating to college admissions, separate from the scores and documents the students submits, is that these universities are businesses as well. These school need money to keep their school going and growing, and that unfortunately results in inequality among applicants as colleges are looking for individuals they can make the most money off of. This idea of colleges as businesses is one reason why there are legacies. A legacy student is a child whose parents attended and/or graduated from the institution to which they are applying to. The issue that legacy students brings up relating to financials’, is that parents are more likely to donate money to their university if it will increase the chances of their child being accepted. Like a legal way of bribery in the college admissions world.
Now that we have fully looked at what the college admissions process is unjust, let’s try and think about how we can fix this issue. What is currently in place to limit this class discrimination?
Many schools and universities have gone test optional, meaning it is up to the student if they want to take, or send their SAT or ACT score to the university. The main reason for this significant change in college admissions was Covid-19. When the world was in lockdown, it was very difficult for many students to find locations to take the proctored test due to covid restrictions. Many testing sites were shut down for months. Although this change was not intended to help “even the playing field” economically, it may just have. Without the pressure of spending money on tutors and test prep classes, the test score is one less way for there to be class discrimination during the admissions review.
Looking at the entire college admissions process, you end up realizing the intersectionality behind it all.
“We have to think about who candidates are when they’re presenting themselves as an entire cake, rather than the bits and the parts.” – Dr. Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, University of Southern Carolina, college admissions representative
“How do we build communities rather than how do we admit students?” – Kedra Ishop, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at University of Michigan
These quotes from college admission representatives from different universities focus their applicant review on the “holistic review.” That is to look at the student as a whole person and not just a score or number. And to think about what can that student bring to their university, what is special about that student, what qualities do they have, not just looking at how much money their family has.
Bringing this back to the idea of classism, classism is almost purely based off of money and income. Whoever has more money will be better off in life, in every category. And the challenging thing is that whatever class you are born in, it is very difficult to move up. Despite this though, let’s make an effort to change that. It may be starting small
with making standardized tests optional for college admissions, but that is a step in the right direction.
Citations:
https://opnlttr.com/letter/problem-classism
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/social-mobility-america/491240/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-28270
https://blog.kiratalent.com/how-to-consider-intersectionality-in-the-admissions-process/