The sheriff's deputies in the Deep South states in the 1960s, fighting against the civil rights movement = SA stormtroopers.
Fraternity "bros" beating on a black man or gay man = SS members.
It's a matter of class.
Please keep this is mind as I work on a post on the worthlessness of s0cial/economic classes in the United States.
Showing posts with label social-economic class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social-economic class. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Saturday, February 11, 2012
A Few Notes On The Lower Middle Class
...that, I must admit, I despise more than the ignorant and belligerent working class -- that is, white trash/rednecks.
One
It's basically white-collar people with a blue-collar attitude. They're trapped economically between the middle/upper-middle classes and the working class. Its members usually don't rise to the middle class or higher, no matter how much they bow and scrape to them, and are scared to death of dropping into the blue collar working class and the loss of social status that comes from that.
Two
They often lack a certain class or style. They are often uncultured and boast about that. They tend to be rude, hostile, and belligerent against the arts and artists.
Three
They are often strongly bigoted against women, minorities and gays. But in secret. They don't have the courage of their convictions, no matter how terrible.
Opposed to them is the upper class, whose members often are just as bigoted but don't hide their opinions because they won't be punished in any way for them. Also opposed to them are the lower classes, who are often just as bigoted but don't care about the consequences from their bigotry.
Four
They rarely openly defy authority, but burn with anger and sometimes hatred of it. It was why so many of them back in the 1960s hated the radicals like Students for a Democratic Society in its more militant phase or apolitical hippies who often went their own way.
Five
They tend to be anti-Semitic. Just as many blacks believe THE MAN -- that is, whites -- keep them down, the white lower middle class blames THE JEW for their misfortunes.
Six
Looking back, I had an uncle who had that attitude, even though he was an executive for a telephone company. He was transferred from the Indianapolis office to the New York office. His children/my cousins halfway jokingly called him Archie Bunker.
I also worked for an editor who had those attitudes; he was the first anti-Semite I ever knew personally.
Infamous people with that outlook include Richard Nixon and ... Adolf Hitler.
The Republican party has courted those types of people for the last 40-plus years. Often, that has bit its members in the ass.
Seven
I've been writing around these people in this blog. As the year passes, I hope I have the tenacity ... and the courage ... to deal with them and to expand my notes into a more formal post.
One
It's basically white-collar people with a blue-collar attitude. They're trapped economically between the middle/upper-middle classes and the working class. Its members usually don't rise to the middle class or higher, no matter how much they bow and scrape to them, and are scared to death of dropping into the blue collar working class and the loss of social status that comes from that.
Two
They often lack a certain class or style. They are often uncultured and boast about that. They tend to be rude, hostile, and belligerent against the arts and artists.
Three
They are often strongly bigoted against women, minorities and gays. But in secret. They don't have the courage of their convictions, no matter how terrible.
Opposed to them is the upper class, whose members often are just as bigoted but don't hide their opinions because they won't be punished in any way for them. Also opposed to them are the lower classes, who are often just as bigoted but don't care about the consequences from their bigotry.
Four
They rarely openly defy authority, but burn with anger and sometimes hatred of it. It was why so many of them back in the 1960s hated the radicals like Students for a Democratic Society in its more militant phase or apolitical hippies who often went their own way.
Five
They tend to be anti-Semitic. Just as many blacks believe THE MAN -- that is, whites -- keep them down, the white lower middle class blames THE JEW for their misfortunes.
Six
Looking back, I had an uncle who had that attitude, even though he was an executive for a telephone company. He was transferred from the Indianapolis office to the New York office. His children/my cousins halfway jokingly called him Archie Bunker.
I also worked for an editor who had those attitudes; he was the first anti-Semite I ever knew personally.
Infamous people with that outlook include Richard Nixon and ... Adolf Hitler.
The Republican party has courted those types of people for the last 40-plus years. Often, that has bit its members in the ass.
Seven
I've been writing around these people in this blog. As the year passes, I hope I have the tenacity ... and the courage ... to deal with them and to expand my notes into a more formal post.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Some Notes On Race And Class
Last week. I jotted a few notes bout race and social/economic class in the United States. Please consider them just notes that I might expand for a later essay.
White rednecks and black original gangsters have some things in similiar. An exaggerated sense of honor and respect due to them, a quickness to anger and attendant violence with it are two things.
But there is one big thing that separate these two groups: Most of the times, blacks dress better than whites.
There is a hierarchy of dress among three social/economic groups.
The one which dresses better is black, whether white collar or blue-collar, whether middle class and working class.
After them are white-collar, middle-class whites.
At the bottom is working-class, blue-collar whites.
As for the blue-collar whites, their way of dress might be a way to say, I'm not a middle-management tool like you, dependent on the approval of those above you for work and respect. I'm free to dress how I want.
White rednecks and black original gangsters have some things in similiar. An exaggerated sense of honor and respect due to them, a quickness to anger and attendant violence with it are two things.
But there is one big thing that separate these two groups: Most of the times, blacks dress better than whites.
There is a hierarchy of dress among three social/economic groups.
The one which dresses better is black, whether white collar or blue-collar, whether middle class and working class.
After them are white-collar, middle-class whites.
At the bottom is working-class, blue-collar whites.
As for the blue-collar whites, their way of dress might be a way to say, I'm not a middle-management tool like you, dependent on the approval of those above you for work and respect. I'm free to dress how I want.
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