Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Last night I had my first class in Social Inequality. That opening sounds as though I'm about to impart some life lesson through use of anecdote about me coming face to face with inequality and the crime that is privilege, but nope.
Within the first 20 minutes of my class over a dozen people had dropped it. I tried to figure out whether they were chumps or if they knew something I didn't thus making me a chump.
We watched a 2 hour documentary called People Like Us. It dealt primarily with class and social inequality in the United States and its causes and effects. Most of it was pretty stereotypical; a visit to the Hamptons, a visit to Kentucky, a visit to Rodeo Drive etc. Each segment dealt with varying classes and how those people saw themselves, their class, and other classes. It was rough and depressing, but not anything that I wasn't expecting.
One segment dealt with 'Dive Bar Crawls' in Baltimore. It was about upper middle Class twentysomethings from the suburbs of Baltimore who 'slum' on the weekends by hanging out in dive bars. They believed that they were getting a feel for the real side of Baltimore, it was obvious that the regular patrons of the bar didn't look too kindly on that (for the most part). The participants in the 'Dive Bar Crawls' sincerely believed that they weren't being jerks and that they had respect for the neighbourhood, the bar, and the people who frequented the bar. The patrons of the bar felt entirely different, believing that they were yuppies who came to the local dive bars so they could act out in ways that were inappropriate in their regular social/class circles.
What struck me as odd about the whole film was they way in which everyone referred to everyone else as 'them'.
And they weren't talkin' 'bout this film neither
The documentary visited a 'Hon Festival' which was essentially a tribute to the sort of women who refer to others as 'hon'. It was sort of a weird event and reminded me to some extent of movies like 'FUBAR'. Irony is an odd thing. Are you being patronizing or are you celebrating? How much do we think we can get away with?
Maybe it doesn't matter, but I get stick to my stomach when I start thinking that it does.
There's a pretty decent discussion on People Like Us with the filmmakers here.
Within the first 20 minutes of my class over a dozen people had dropped it. I tried to figure out whether they were chumps or if they knew something I didn't thus making me a chump.
We watched a 2 hour documentary called People Like Us. It dealt primarily with class and social inequality in the United States and its causes and effects. Most of it was pretty stereotypical; a visit to the Hamptons, a visit to Kentucky, a visit to Rodeo Drive etc. Each segment dealt with varying classes and how those people saw themselves, their class, and other classes. It was rough and depressing, but not anything that I wasn't expecting.
One segment dealt with 'Dive Bar Crawls' in Baltimore. It was about upper middle Class twentysomethings from the suburbs of Baltimore who 'slum' on the weekends by hanging out in dive bars. They believed that they were getting a feel for the real side of Baltimore, it was obvious that the regular patrons of the bar didn't look too kindly on that (for the most part). The participants in the 'Dive Bar Crawls' sincerely believed that they weren't being jerks and that they had respect for the neighbourhood, the bar, and the people who frequented the bar. The patrons of the bar felt entirely different, believing that they were yuppies who came to the local dive bars so they could act out in ways that were inappropriate in their regular social/class circles.
What struck me as odd about the whole film was they way in which everyone referred to everyone else as 'them'.
And they weren't talkin' 'bout this film neither
The documentary visited a 'Hon Festival' which was essentially a tribute to the sort of women who refer to others as 'hon'. It was sort of a weird event and reminded me to some extent of movies like 'FUBAR'. Irony is an odd thing. Are you being patronizing or are you celebrating? How much do we think we can get away with?
Maybe it doesn't matter, but I get stick to my stomach when I start thinking that it does.
There's a pretty decent discussion on People Like Us with the filmmakers here.
