Class at the Grocery Store: Analyzing “People Like Us”
While there were many interesting moments in the PBS documentary People Like Us what stood out to me most was the story of the town in Vermont where the community was embattled about what kind of grocery store would serve the community and what kind of food would be available at that grocery store. As the documentary represents the conflict within this community, it becomes clear to the audience how something as simple as what food one chooses to put into one’s grocery cart is influenced by social class, and it really inspires the audience to think about their own choices of what food to eat communicate and reflect their own class status. I think that viewers of this documentary should pay special attention to this moment because it really gets to the heart of how pervasive class distinctions are in contemporary American culture, and it shows that even something as simple as the food one enjoys can mark one as being of a lower or higher class status.
The documentary as a whole really insists on the idea that class is pervasive in our culture and that it permeates every aspect of our daily lives. While it’s true that this becomes most clear for me in the scene about food, we also see the effects of this in other areas. For example, we see it when the plumber from Cincinnati discusses being treated poorly because his work clothes set him apart as working-class, and we see it in the discussion of how class operates in the African-American community. I think that the documentary’s strength does to some extent rest on this continuing insistence on the centrality of social class to everyday American life. First, such insistence significantly contradicts the American cultural mythology that denies social class as a category that distinguishes individuals and on which discrimination can be based. In America, we can feel much more comfortable talking about differences based on race, gender, or sexuality. Conversely, “class” can be seen as a taboo subject in American culture, because the existence of social classes challenges the idea that everyone in America is equal and that every person has equal opportunities to make something of themselves in this country. Second, the insistence on the centrality of class to everyday life throughout the documentary helps with the narrative of the film, and readers can easily follow the different “chapters” of the film from the beginning to the end. By exploring class in this way, readers view representations of many different classes within contemporary American culture, and they are able to compare the similarities and differences between them. Nevertheless, this continuing emphasis on social class as primary to American experience and identity does sometimes elide the way that social class intersects with other identity categories (race, gender, sexuality), and it fails to account for how those other identity categories can influence how social status works in a given community.
When I think about social status and class, I think it is most interesting to look at it in conversation with other identity categories. It seems to me that when we try to separate social class out from other aspects of identity that we are always going to be doomed to fail in getting a true handle on it: ultimately, the default identity position in discussions of class is usually “white, male” and that just doesn’t work for many people in American life. For this reason, I like to think about the ways in which other parts of one’s individual identity can intersect with social class to determine overall identity and status in our culture. For example, take a look at the website Stuff White People Like. This website, as the title indicates, overtly pokes fun at “whiteness” or at certain tendencies that can be associated with “white” racial identity. A careful look at some of the individual posts, however, makes it very clear that the “white” identity being ironically engaged by the site is ultimately upper-middle-class white identity. Working-class whites would not necessarily “like” unpaid internships, study abroad, or knowing what’s best for poor people: those”likes” indicate a certain kind of class privilege that goes unspoken on the site. Some might argue that the site’s appeal - and its audience - is not so much a racially defined audience - both whites and non-whites might enjoy the ironic humor of the site - but instead an audience defined through social class. Most blog readers tend to be middle-to-upper-middle class and college-educated. Reading such a site, one might argue, allows the audience to poke fun at racial privilege while at the same time class privilege is silently reinforced and approved.
Similarly, the show Mad Men tends to highlight the gender disparity between the ad men who work in the office and the secretaries who serve them. For example, consider this clip in which Peggy and Pete meet in the hallway. Pete is recently married to a rich wife, lives in an apartment in Manhattan, and is an account executive at the ad agency. Peggy, conversely, is single, lives in Brooklyn, and comes from a working-class background. Look at the scene.
The cues about the gender disparity between the two are obvious. Pete calls Peggy a busy “beaver,” an off-color sexual reference, and he pursues her through the hallway, attempting to get information out of her while at the same time insisting that she is being “unprofessional” when she tries to put him off. Beneath the surface of this exchange, however, is the even greater disparity between the two characters that relates to their disparate social classes. The working-class Peggy navigates a social world that is unfamiliar to her, and so as much as she experiences some professional success (being promoted from secretary to copywriter), she is always a naive outsider in the world of the office. Moreover, as the rest of the series indicates, a woman’s chance at climbing in social and class status depends on her ability to catch a husband of an equal or higher class status than her own. The “glass ceiling” that limits women’s professional accomplishments also means that the path for a character like Peggy to higher social and class status will likely be through marriage and not her own achievements. In emphasizing the gender disparity between the male and female characters, this show, like the website Stuff White People Like, draws attention to one index of identity that invites discrimination while silently endorsing another.
The documentary People Like Us can influence our interpretation of these other cultural texts because it allows us to concentrate our gaze on the ways that social class inflects all identity categories. While race and gender may be more visible in our analyses of social disparity between people, class contributes to how both gender and race “work” in contemporary American culture.
Although the sterotypes and social classes are going on all around us at all times, I don’t pay too much attention to them. I know I unconsciously put people in classes and sterotype them just like everyone else. I do believe Americans have equal opportunities to better themselves. No one person is better than another for any reason (money, clothing, race, etc.). People find their comfort zones in things that are familiar to them and it is hard to step out of that comfort zone.
I did like the grocery part a lot also. Especially now that the “go green” is so popular and more people are switching to organic foods. Personally, my family is “middle class” and when my mom would grocery shop she would always buy wheat bread, but it would be the wheat bread on sale. My sister and I have jumped on the organic food ban wagon but to eat it we have to go to the store and buy it ourselves. I don’t buy to be in a higher class, I buy it for the health benefits. And I do not only eat organic foods. But that is my personal preference.
I feel that as long as people are happy and living how they feel is right then no one should judge them or put them into a certain class. We are all trying to live the American Dream and some people’s dreams are different than others. All we can do is accept people for who they are and where they come from.
Comment by behrensa1 — January 18, 2010 @ 2:37 pm
I find that class has always been part of my life. I was the outsider. I was a “jock” but was unaccepted by that group because I was a “Nerd” and vice versa. I was poor but played classical music and while in High School I played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. I was not accepted by the poor because I wore a tux and attended high social functions. I was not accepted by the rich because I was poor. I got use to being a loner but I never really liked it until I became retirement age. I now find it to be a satisfying way of life.
Comment by mathesj1 — January 18, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
Paul Fussell said, “Nobody knows for sure what the word class means,” but we all classify people unknowingly, by the way they dress, their car, and their house etc. I know when I was in high school six years ago my classmates use to stereotype me. I was one of the kids in school who drove a nice car and I lived in an upper middle class neighborhood so I was labeled “rich girl.”
I personally do not care about class, and I didn’t realize how people classify others. I was shocked when the man who was a “wasp” was talking about a couple who was having fun and dancing the night away as a fat ugly couple who didn’t have any business being there. I couldn’t believe that a person who sees themselves as “nicer” than everyone else would talk down about someone that they didn’t even know.
I also found it interesting when the documentary brought us to Appalachia, and how they tell their children, you’re “getting above your raisin.” I thought that it was every parents dream to have their children to do better than they did, but in Appalachia that is not the case. They say that, “they ain’t going to be as good to you as we are here.”
I personally think that most people are living their version of the American Dream. They are trying to be the best person that they are capable of being, and doing the best that they can do. I don’t feel that it is our job to judge others, but I’m also aware that people are judging each other every day.
Comment by dunnm1 — January 18, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
When I think of social class I always think of the caste system. I never really thought about there being class differences in America until I watched this film. In the caste system each different class had a name like peasants or aristocrats and the people were very different and there was a very large gap in the amount of wealth in the classes. In America we try to hide the fact that there is still social classes. There are no formal boundaries for what class you fall into and the wealth is more spread out.
I come from a middle class family and I never thought about class before because everyone I know is middle class as well. I grew up in Taylor Mill (suburbs) in a nice neighborhood and all of my friends were from the same type of area or nicer. Until college, where I met new people and got out of my suburbian bubble, it was like poor or rich people didn’t exist. I only had contact with people of my own class. In the movie they mentioned how it is common that people only associate with members of their own class so they don’t think about other classes, and I experienced this growing up.
The part of the movie about how white bread can show class was most interesting to me. I have always ate wheat bread. It is healthy and taste better (in my opinion) but I don’t think that makes me better than someone who likes white bread. I still live at home with my dad and he does the grocery shopping, but even if I lived alone I would spend the extra money for a better product. It is crazy how they couldn’t even give the good bread away to the poor people.
Comment by vlasisv1 — January 19, 2010 @ 1:24 am
I grew up in a lower class family in a rural area where many other families were the same. We ate white bread, but simply because it was affordable for our household of seven and we liked it. Now I eat wheat but only because it is healthier, I still love the taste of white bread. However, there were some separation in social class but it did not affect who our friends were in school. We all got along and all were friends, if there was someone that I did not associate with it was simply because I did not like their personality. I never knew that it was extreme until I got older. I see that people are always going to be separated into social classes, but we do not have to alienate them and treat them different.
I work in a restaurant where many of the employees judge people by the way they look. It is expected that the cooks hired all do drugs and have criminal records and the servers to either be in college or can’t possibly get a job anywhere else. But that is not always true about people not all cooks do drugs and many older women that serve just have come accustom to earning quick cash. My co-workers also judge the people they wait on. Some of the stereo types are that young couples, and older couples do not tip (unless they too have/or do work in the service). The better-dressed or upper middle class or upper class guest tip well and they lower and working classes do not. These are not true. They may not tip because it was not in their budget or they just honestly do not know any better. It is not my place to judge, but it happens every day. I do not see social class, I see people as if they have class or not. Someone with class is someone that is doing their best to live their life to the fullest that makes them happy. It is also someone that treats all others with the respect that they would like others to treat them.
Comment by griffithap — January 19, 2010 @ 6:11 pm
I believe class can hurt you or be to an advantage to you in the United States. Everyone puts others into diffferent categories, whether its because of race, social background, or how you dress. It seems to be overlooked because everyone is so acustomed to dividing others up because of how they act. Who cares what kind of bread you eat, its whatever you feel is best and it is not anyone else’s business. I believe no one should be judged by making decisions that suite them the best. After all its their life let them live it.
Comment by johnsond7 — January 20, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
As I continue to age, I become more aware of the issues surrounding our society. As a child I never realized the division between classes. But as I get older, it is hard to not notice the separation. We have no room to judge another person based on any aspect of their lives including (but not limited to) their clothes, income, and food preference. As I watched the documentary, I really empathized with Maggie’s story. She was from Ohio, living in a trailer with her four children. All she wanted was to be accepted as a person not judged because of her class status. She was doing the best she could, making a living and providing for her family working at Burger King. She had enough determination to walk ten miles to her job and never complained. Yet, she was frowned upon, even by her own son, because of the way she presented herself physically. America is supposed to be the place where equal opportunity thrives, however we are constantly put into classes, which limit our success.
Comment by Leah Kelly — January 20, 2010 @ 11:39 pm
After watching “People like us” I really thought about how I view the people around me and if I put people into classes consciously and unconsciously. I have to say I do. I work at a bank in Covington, and I know I make judgment calls about the people I am waiting on daily just by looking at their dress and the way they talk. I determine if they know their account numbers, if they have their deposit slip filled out, do they get SSI, all before they ever reach the counter.
In the movie, it was said that class is hard to see, but I disagree. I feel there is definitely a class system in America and people don’t see it because they don’t want to. If you look around, it seems to me there is an obvious lower class, and upper class, it’s just the extremely large middle class that grays the picture. I think that by acknowledging the class system in America it is the first step to getting rid of it. The myth of the “America Dream”, that everyone has an equal opportunity, and all you have to do is pull yourself up by your bootstraps, work hard and you can have everything you want, is just that, a myth. I think that it is this belief, hearing those “jail to Yale” stories, that makes people feel like we’re all equal and therefore we can’t possibly have a class system. Just hearing the different stories from the man who referred to himself as a “wasp” and the woman who walked ten miles to work at Burger King every day really solidified that view for me. I feel that with the economic down turn there will be more people becoming a part of the lower class. As the saying goes, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. I think the middle class will slowly disappear to one extreme or the other. When you’re on the bottom looking up, then you really see what’s going on and get a clear view of the world. As the documentary said, to be at the bottom of the class system means you are reminded day in and day out you have no political and economic power. And that might just be what it takes to make a change. Enough people who start to really see the class system and fight against it.
Comment by toebbej2 — January 21, 2010 @ 11:34 pm
I have never really payed attention to different social classes that are represent in our society. I grew up in a middle class area and went to a decent school. I consider my parents to be middle class because they are by no means rich or poor. My father actually grew up in a very poor community and his parents did not have money. They struggled just to get by while my father was growing up. My dad never had nice clothes, never had a car, his parents barely had any money to pay for the house and put food on their table. After my father’s experience growing up in lower class, he wanted to do everything he could to give myself and my brother all nice things and a wonderful childhood because he did not have any of that. My dad got out of the lower class community he grew up in and made more of himself and for his family. When the video said that you are stuck in a class forever, I disagree.
I feel that the ending of the video, interviewing the high school about different cliques is very important. I agree that people are always being judged on what clothes you wear, what kind of car you have, what things you have etc. It is pretty sad that our society judges people so often on the type of car you have or clothes you wear and automatically put you in a social class. You can really see class systems in high schools by the differrent cliques there are.
Everyone wants to become better for themselves. Everyone is different and if someone from a lower class wants to better themselves and strive to become middle or upper class, than more power to them!
Comment by gibsonj2 — January 23, 2010 @ 2:32 pm
It was very interesting to watch the video and see how all the people describe members of other social groups. I thought the division between the people was most evident in the section covering the high school. Although the people in my high school were not nearly as wealthy as those in the video, the division between the social groups seemed very familiar. Sadly, I do not believe that we will ever rise above placing one another in different class status in America. This is a shame because a class or social group does not even begin to define who a person truly is or what they aspire to become in life.
Comment by backd — January 23, 2010 @ 2:36 pm
I have never really payed attention to different social classes that are represent in our society. I grew up in a middle class area and went to a decent school. I consider my parents to be middle class because they are by no means rich or poor. My father actually grew up in a very poor community and his parents did not have money. They struggled just to get by while my father was growing up. My dad never had nice clothes, never had a car, his parents barely had any money to pay for the house and put food on their table. After my father’s experience growing up in lower class, he wanted to do everything he could to give myself and my brother all nice things and a wonderful childhood because he did not have any of that. My dad got out of the lower class community he grew up in and made more of himself and for his family. When the video said that you are stuck in a class forever, I disagree.
I feel that the ending of the video, interviewing the high school about different cliques is very important. I agree that people are always being judged on what clothes you wear, what kind of car you have, what things you have etc. It is pretty sad that our society judges people so often on the type of car you have or clothes you wear and automatically put you in a social class. You can really see class systems in high schools by the differrent cliques there are.
Everyone wants to become better for themselves. Everyone is different and if someone from a lower class wants to better themselves and strive to become middle or upper class, than more power to them!
Comment by gibsonj2 — January 23, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
I watch the same scene as everyone else but saw something different. This was not a class event so much a a culture one. It appears that one food consuming culture was imposing it’s will on one that was less able to protect itself. In the present day rush to good health commonsense as well as rights of others seemed to have forgotten at the door. The poor of the culture what a store that gave them more consumables for their money and the better off in the same culture forced the health store upon them to prove they were better off. Two ideas concerning culture not class.
Comment by mathesj1 — January 23, 2010 @ 7:55 pm
This was actually the second time I had viewed this film, and found it just as fasinating as the first, if not more. I am truley amazed at some of the poeple’s responses and views, granted they were just trying to be honest. This is a great example of how the majority of Americans are extremely too judgemental over others.
I was particularly struck by the upper white class woman who made the comment that she drives a Volvo and “certainly wouldn’t drive a Ford.” I also couldn’t belive the women who made a career out of helping those of a lower class appear to have it all with a few tips, a makeover and new set of clothes. Who is she kidding and why would that women want to act like someone she isn’t? Unfortunately, there are many people who feel the need to impress others, stressing to “keep up with the Joneses”.
I found it interesting that there are well over a thousand different social distinctions from hair, school, morals, house, clothes, and race to name a few. We are, in a matter of minutes, subconsciously able to size someone up and get a pretty good idea of that person’s class. The film also touched on the idea that this is in a sense high school again for the town trying to come to an agreement on a grocery store.
Comment by wagnerla22 — January 25, 2010 @ 3:22 am
Growing up in a small town with three stop lights combined, there were a lot of poorer families and the housing was majority trailors or what is called double wides. I have lived in both. Thats why the story that touched my heart was the one with the woman from Ohio with four boys living in a trailor. Her son Matt explained the fact that he does not like to introduce his friends to his mom based on her appearance and where he lives. His mom said that he thinks he is from a higher class but in reality he is from the same social class as she is. He talked bad about her and his own brother. I guess it is different for everyone depending on where they live or grow up. Yes, I lived in a trailor but never was I embarrassed of my family, but I will admit I have been embarrassed by my living situation. My mom was a single mother with three girls who worked all day and we still felt like we had everything. People do judge others based on appearance and what they do but no matter where you are you will have that. The woman in the video had to walk 10 miles because she had no car and she said that soemtimes she has people yell at her and call her names and she is just simply walking to work to provide for her family.
This documentary is very touching and opens your eyes to a lot of issues that goes on with our society and how important social class is. Many people base their opinion on others by the way they look, act, or what job position they hold. In the end everyone is trying the best they can, at least I like to think in that positive mind. Some people do take advantage of welfare and governtment help but a lot of times people come from poor families to begin with and never have the encouragement to know that they can strive for better things. The woman in the video did however, she had hope, she stated that she wanted to someday still go to college to be a school teacher. Thats what it all comes down to…hope. To have people look at you like you are equal to them.
Comment by barnesk1 — January 25, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
I grew up in an African American middle class family of 6. My two sisters and I went to Finneytown High school. It’s in a suburb in Cincinnati. It’s a decent school, not really rich or poor and pretty diverse. My brother went to Seven Hills, a rich private school. He was one of three black students in his class.
(He later graduated from Yale and is now in Harvard Law School!)
He just got lucky with scholarships. We were not rich at all. In high school my brother had a harder time fitting in because all of his rich, white friends had cars and designer clothes. We only had the basics but the basics were perfectly fine for my sisters and I.
I can identify with the part of the video with the high school students talking about their different groups of friends, because there were definitely the different social groups at finneytown separated by class.
We grew up eating both white and wheat bread. It just depended on how much money we had at the time to spend on bread, and which parent bought it. My mom always got wheat, and my dad always got white.
Comment by davism3 — January 26, 2010 @ 9:54 pm
As the video described, we really are a nation of tribes. Most of us don’t see how hard it would be to leave our tribe, or class, to enter a new one. The American Dream is and always has been an illusion. Rags to riches, homeless to Harvard, and jail to Yale stories are all exceptions, not the rule.
We are not the land of equal opportunity. People of upper classes have the “accumulated advantage” of wealth from higher incomes. We of lower classes can see what is up, but we can’t get there. Just as the video, and another student said, to be at the bottom is to be reminded everyday that you don’t have political or economic power.
We just let ourselves think that the American Dream is attainable so that class distinctions won’t bother us. As another student said, we don’t see class because we don’t want to. Only upper class and lower class see it for what it is. The middle class is so large that we think that when we have moved from lower-middle to upper-middle that we’ve really done something. But it is still middle class. Lower class people will rarely reach middle class status. Lower and middle class people will almost never meet upper class status.
Let’s take for example: Someone working full-time at two jobs for minimum wage, straight through and out of high school. They have kids and must support everyone for rent, utilities, childcare, clothes, food, etc. With this sort of life, they cannot save money. They will probably never own a home. How can they move up? Furthermore, the food poorer people can afford is of lower quality and nutrition. So, the poor become sick easier because of poor diet. So, think of the list of bills earlier and then add medical costs. And with that, consider that because (let’s hope) this person knew they would have medical problems they got health insurance through one employer. That will be nearly a 4th of their small paycheck gone to insurance. Don’t even think about the dental issues their children will have from the poor diet. Or vision problems. Those are separate from health insurance. Getting from lower to middle to upper class cannot be done on hope alone. Only surviving can.
Getting from one class to another isn’t just determined by income either, as the video describes. Socioeconomic status is determined by education level, prestige of schools, mortgage/rent, income, location of residence, etc. As we are all so separated from each other, it is easy to see what class you belong to. We of a particular class all live around each other so we often have the same sense of humor, the same speech patterns, hair, morals, clothes, food preferences, etc. Even if we do attain a different status, these preferences we were raised with stay with us and it shows. We are never more than an outsider. It’s not about impressing anyone. It’s about being accepted as a part of the tribe.
Comment by drodas — January 28, 2010 @ 12:00 pm