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We don't all have the same experience of life, so I preface this by saying that this is just my experience. UK life can be somewhat tribal, like anywhere, but
by mprev 4y ago
We don't all have the same experience of life, so I preface this by saying that this is just my experience.
UK life can be somewhat tribal, like anywhere, but I don't recognise your framing of the UK as "deeply classist" nor do I think any classism is as one way as you paint. I grew up lower middle class/working class in very working class areas (council estates, ex-mining villages/towns, that sort of thing). Two of the worst things you could be in those areas was "posh" or from outside the area. So called inverse snobbery was a big thing. If anything, though, not being local was a bigger cause for feeling like an outsider.
- quickthrower2 4y agoI think you disproved your own point
- mprev 4y agoMy point was that it's too simplistic to paint classism as a one-way street somehow used to keep the "hoi polloi" down.
- quickthrower2 4y agoFair enough: I read “classism” as cutting both ways. But given your starting point it makes sense.
- cal85 4y agoPlease elaborate?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- smcl 4y agoThe fact is, you've got a widely-understood marker that is used to distinguish which class you belong to and a common understanding that a member of one class does not belong among members of another. The direction of hostility in your example doesn't really change things. Think about it - it's fairly common for members of the working class to resent those in the upper classes who rule them. But as kids you probably weren't thinking about what class you belonged to, or about any tensions between different classes and their origins. You just knew "the posh boy doesn't belong here" - and you picked all those things up without being explicitly told them because the UK deeply classist The resentment may go both ways, but the effect is completely different. Some children in a mining town making fun of some visiting kid’s posh accent is probably unpleasant for the kid. Adults from that mining town being on the receiving end of class-based discrimination (whether conscious or subconscious) when being evaluated for university applications, job interviews, salary reviews or promotions is something else entirely.
- MattPalmer1086 4y agoYep, I experienced this growing up in Yorkshire with a posh accent. Inverse snobbery was rampant. I was made to feel extremely unwelcome.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]