Reading Classes: On Culture and Classism in America

by Barbara Jensen

Seeing one’s parents as an embarrassment and a liability is not only painful and confusing, it also can result in the worst kind of separation from family: a separation of meaning and a loss of respect for the family. Moreover, internalized classism can mean a loss of one’s own self, at least all the parts that preceded the new, improved self. Psychologically, this is dangerous. Something inside resists the new successes: if “those people” are too stupid or lazy or whatever to do this, and I was—am—one of those people, sooner or later someone will find out. This may give rise to an internal hypervigilance, in which one constantly edits and corrects oneself. Some of the most contemptuous and hateful classism toward working class folks comes from people who long ago chose to side with the middle class part of themselves and to annihilate the working class part. Dissociation, a psychological defense that separates conflicting parts of the self and buries unwanted ones, results in a compartmentalized inner life that can backfire when least expected.