This weekend, I had the opportunity to work at a charity benefit with a couple of friends. The benefit was for the purpose of raising money for a private school downtown that caters to many families below the poverty line with scholarships and opportunities that they might not get otherwise. We've been talking about social class and the devision between lower and upper classes in class for the past month, and I was able to make many observations about characteristics of social class at the benefit.
For one, almost everyone who attended the benefit was wearing extremely expensive and formal attire. The venue was also very formal, and gave off the impression of wealth. I think it would be a safe assumption to say that most of the people attending would be considered upper class. In fact, the only people who may not be considered upper class were a handful of grade school kids from the school we were raising money for. The kids stuck out because they were wearing their school uniforms in order to ask for donations from people attending.
The contrast between how people reacted to those kids and how they reacted to me and my friends was very evident. My friends and I were wearing the same formal attire as everyone else, even though we were doing generally the same jobs as the kids, and we were often engaged in conversation as if we were part of the party or "one of them". On the other hand, when someone attending the party was approached by a child in a school uniform, they were often very polite and generous, but did not react as if the child were a part of their circle, and generally left the conversation after they had made their transaction. It is true that some of this might be because we were older than a lot of the kids, but it still seemed as though there was a difference in the reactions of the people.
Once people found out we were from New Trier, this only intensified. A woman inquired about where I was thinking about going to college when she learned I was a junior. It was interesting that she just assumed that I was going to attend college because of where I go to school, when she never would have mentioned college when talking to a student from the school we were raising money for.
Wow- this sounds exactly like what we've been talking about in class! I think that people often make judgements on one's class based on their physical appearance, what they're wearing etc. It is always curious to me how benefits attract upper class people who are undoubtedly doing somehting charitable by donating money to people less fortunate. However, these same charitable people can't help but separate themselves from those "below them" by acting differently even at a benefit like the one you were at.
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