Reading Classes: On Culture and Classism in America

by Barbara Jensen

Central to the crossover’s experience is an existential dilemma, problems and decisions about how to best live one’s life (literally problems of existence). Existential issues most often surface at times of change in our lives: having a child, choosing a life partner, dealing with the death of a loved one or the decline of an aging parent. An existential dilemma can stem from anything that alters one’s usual life so much that previous assumptions are no longer enough to explain the present. In crossing classes, previous assumptions can include one’s entire former worldview, the basement upon which the house of personal psychology is built. For working class people who travel across the class divide, there are stories and sacrifices that have precious little voice and find no ear to listen.