02 May 2005

Classism and Language - UU Online Discussions

Some very interesting blog discussions on classism and dialects can be found online here:

need advice on UU classism

classism, intellectualism, and dialects

Class isn't just a matter of how much money you have ... it's also a fetish with having the "correct" trappings. To better understand this, you should take this quiz:

THE LIVING-ROOM SCALE (With minor revisions by Robert Keel, 1999) -- From: Paul Fussell, Class: A Guide Through the American Class System, 1983, Summit Books, pp. 194-197

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am a student and I am currently taking a Diversity Class. For this class, we are supposed to get in groups and pick a topic out of the book to research and give a presentation on. The topics include racism, anti-semitism, heterosexism, sexism, ableism, and classism. My group picked classism. I tried to find a test that I could give to the class that would show which class they were in. I searched and searched and found the Living-Room Scale. I had such a great time taking the test myself, I wanted to give the test to a few co-workers from my co-op job. My major is Construction management and most of the people I work with are project managers. I found that the best way to give people this test is to make a copy after you have covered up the points and score. I noticed that some people were offended at the way the points were distributed and some people tried to "tweek" the points. Most of the people I worked with were in the middle class, and the one that tried to tweek the points, ended up having less points than me. The funny thing is, this person assumed that everyone would end up in the middle class except for me. So for people who want to give this test to others, the best to get an honest result is to cover up the points ahead of time.