Reading Classes: On Culture and Classism in America

by Barbara Jensen

Even in the “counterculture,” I assimilated middle class attitudes and values, such as educated people are smarter, reading is better than television, and we only find life’s meaning within our individual selves on our long individual journey or path in life, where it is our responsibility to keep growing, improving, and evolving. In short—I made it through accidental cultural capital. Only much later did I decide to apply this learning to pursue and gain, through higher education, meaningful and well-paid work. Once I realized that my new friends believed they deserved a meaningful work life, I wanted one, too. Indeed, in the middle class, you are somewhat suspect if you have not achieved something considered valuable, suspected not of being working class but of having failed to achieve. Yes, I worked hard in higher education; I got that precious 4.0 grade point average, but it was not nearly as hard as I had worked as a waitress, or as a fry cook, or in a ceramics factory, or in bakeries for far less reward.