Have you ever encountered snobbery, class discrimination?

[Bags159]

I've never experienced receiving or giving class discrimination.

 

[marurder]

I have encountered it. It's petty and petulant. I put the person in their place by exceeding their (for whatever reason) low expectations and told them I didn't want their new-found friendship and to piss off.

 

[imperialreign]

In a way, yes - but not so much class discrimination, but that brought on by my line of work.

I'm a mechanic, I work on vehicles for a living . . . all types, domestic, european and asian imports and hybrids; heavy and light duty trucks, school and commuter buses, and sometimes industrial equipment. It's hard work, for sure.

Because of my profession, I've had customers in the past make snide comments that we're nothing but high school drop-outs; that anyone can work on a vehicle and we're simply ripping them off with our pricing.

To be honest - no, that's no the case. I myself went have formal education, which only covered the broad theory and implimentation of various systems. I have an associate's degree in Automotive Technology. I spent countless hours in classroom and beside other techs learning new technology as it enters the market. I'm an ASE certified Master Technician, and am currently working on Master Tech status in Light/Heavy truck repair, and buses.

The knowledge we're required to know and put into practice is easily on par with what you'd expect from a doctor, dentist, engineer, or any other white-collar professional. I could easily bore the hell out of any of these types of professionals going into great depth on how each individual system within a vehicle operates . . . from the brake/ABS system to operation of an automatic or constant variable transmission; steering and suspension, gasoline and diesel engines, fuel and emissions, air bag, traction control, etc., etc. To be able to quickly and accurately diagnose problems on these systems, it's near about mandatory to have a concise understanding of how said system operates . . .

. . . and to make matters even more complex - every vehicle manufacturer insists on doing things "their way." All systems operate under the same basic pricinples, but how they go about it can be drastically different at times.

Anyhow, to cease my ramblings - our field is much more in-depth and technical than most people realize, and we're still affixed with an out-dated stereotype that people are too ignorant to look past.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I live in close to a major city, so there's some rich people. The only time I think I ever felt it was when some rich kid said he was too rich to play hockey with us.

I was so glad when I fired a puck at the back of his privledged little head.

 

[t3h br0th3r]

The few times i've had to deal with classism was when I spent some time with my cousins who live in a rough part of time. while i was there i got looked at funny for dressing plainly and speaking with decent grammar.

its as if they think that you can't be black and middle class without being a snob or a republican (the later being much worse.)

 

[DesiPrinceX09]

Nope, never really had problems with class discrimination; people cant seem to look pass my race and religion.

 

[Kinguendo]

Yes; financially, I'm considered upper class, and all people see is that rich guy who has what they want. It doesn't matter that we started out dirt poor, oh no. Just that we've done well (even though my dad now pays 50p for every single pound he earns to pay for these arrogant fuckers, and, no less, earned that money from providing a valuable service to the country) is enough to make them biased.

On top of this, since I've moved house thirteen times in my life, following my dad's jobs around the country, I don't have an accent other than one which can be described as 'English'. This means that I actually pronounce things correctly, which again is considered posh. Don't get me wrong, I don't speak like a stereotypical Victorian, but I do speak properly.

Hey, my accent must be similar to yours... I live in West Yorkshire but I dont sound anything like most of the other Yorkshire folk. I think thats where our similarities stop though, my dad wasnt rich although he did do a very important job in that he helped provide the nation with power and my grandfather was a soldier... of course doing such a high-stress, high-danger, low-pay job meant that my father died young and most certainly not rich and you couldnt really get rich as a soldier in my grandfathers time because... well, who wasnt a soldier right?

And even though I went to a school filled with mostly lower class people money still seemed to matter, I guess its because all of the "cool" people were middle class-ish and the only difference between most of us and the "cool" kids was what they had so I guess everyone was trying to be "cool" like them.

Although I guess my family and I fall into the "arrogant fuckers" category, I dont quite understand where being poor equals arrogance but I will have to take your word for it.

Arrogant fuckers =/= poor people. Arrogant fuckers = people, usually poor (or at least, poorer than me) who judge me based on what they see at exactly this moment in time, i.e a nice house and no debt.

Y'see, there in lies the problem... none of that screams "arrogance" to me. However there is a stench of snobbery coming from you, saying arrogant fuckers are usually poor and they are arrogant fuckers because you have a nice house and no debt.

 

[SirDoom]

I have no desire to go into my biases if it can be avoided, although I will say two things.

1- I have never experienced classism directed towards me.

2- With one exception, I don't hate anyone. That one exception is a group can't be classified as a race, a class, a gender, or any one other term, even if was primarily made up of only a certain type of people. It was witnessing this group being rude/violent/constantly troublesome with no regard for others that drove me to the point of hatred, not their income or their appearance.

Other than them, every person I've ever met is judged on an individual basis. I tolerate almost anyone, and it takes a lot for me to use the word hate.

 

[ultrachicken]

I'm upper-middle class, I hang out with a lot of rich people, but I've never encountered this sort of snobbery.

 

[Lexodus]

Yes; financially, I'm considered upper class, and all people see is that rich guy who has what they want. It doesn't matter that we started out dirt poor, oh no. Just that we've done well (even though my dad now pays 50p for every single pound he earns to pay for these arrogant fuckers, and, no less, earned that money from providing a valuable service to the country) is enough to make them biased.

On top of this, since I've moved house thirteen times in my life, following my dad's jobs around the country, I don't have an accent other than one which can be described as 'English'. This means that I actually pronounce things correctly, which again is considered posh. Don't get me wrong, I don't speak like a stereotypical Victorian, but I do speak properly.

Hey, my accent must be similar to yours... I live in West Yorkshire but I dont sound anything like most of the other Yorkshire folk. I think thats where our similarities stop though, my dad wasnt rich although he did do a very important job in that he helped provide the nation with power and my grandfather was a soldier... of course doing such a high-stress, high-danger, low-pay job meant that my father died young and most certainly not rich and you couldnt really get rich as a soldier in my grandfathers time because... well, who wasnt a soldier right?

And even though I went to a school filled with mostly lower class people money still seemed to matter, I guess its because all of the "cool" people were middle class-ish and the only difference between most of us and the "cool" kids was what they had so I guess everyone was trying to be "cool" like them.

Although I guess my family and I fall into the "arrogant fuckers" category, I dont quite understand where being poor equals arrogance but I will have to take your word for it.

Arrogant fuckers =/= poor people. Arrogant fuckers = people, usually poor (or at least, poorer than me) who judge me based on what they see at exactly this moment in time, i.e a nice house and no debt.

Y'see, there in lies the problem... none of that screams "arrogance" to me. However there is a stench of snobbery coming from you, saying arrogant fuckers are usually poor and they are arrogant fuckers because you have a nice house and no debt.

Somebody judging you on what they see is arrogance. So is calling somebody a posh **** and telling them to fuck off because they're doing well for themselves now and use the English language correctly.
And of course they're poor, or at least POORER THAN ME, which is what I said. It's not like I'm going to get the same from somebody RICHER than me, now is it? Think things through before you attack me.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I haven't really ever run into class discrimination. Maybe it's because there isn't as much over here in the States. I know that we have different classes, but it isn't as important as over in Europe I guess (perhaps because class has been around for you guys for a long time). Over here it seems your race or religion is a bit more important. Of course I'm sure there is some snobbery from the upper class, but I've never really run into it, being of low-middle/middle class background myself.

 

[Kinguendo]

Yes; financially, I'm considered upper class, and all people see is that rich guy who has what they want. It doesn't matter that we started out dirt poor, oh no. Just that we've done well (even though my dad now pays 50p for every single pound he earns to pay for these arrogant fuckers, and, no less, earned that money from providing a valuable service to the country) is enough to make them biased.

On top of this, since I've moved house thirteen times in my life, following my dad's jobs around the country, I don't have an accent other than one which can be described as 'English'. This means that I actually pronounce things correctly, which again is considered posh. Don't get me wrong, I don't speak like a stereotypical Victorian, but I do speak properly.

Hey, my accent must be similar to yours... I live in West Yorkshire but I dont sound anything like most of the other Yorkshire folk. I think thats where our similarities stop though, my dad wasnt rich although he did do a very important job in that he helped provide the nation with power and my grandfather was a soldier... of course doing such a high-stress, high-danger, low-pay job meant that my father died young and most certainly not rich and you couldnt really get rich as a soldier in my grandfathers time because... well, who wasnt a soldier right?

And even though I went to a school filled with mostly lower class people money still seemed to matter, I guess its because all of the "cool" people were middle class-ish and the only difference between most of us and the "cool" kids was what they had so I guess everyone was trying to be "cool" like them.

Although I guess my family and I fall into the "arrogant fuckers" category, I dont quite understand where being poor equals arrogance but I will have to take your word for it.

Arrogant fuckers =/= poor people. Arrogant fuckers = people, usually poor (or at least, poorer than me) who judge me based on what they see at exactly this moment in time, i.e a nice house and no debt.

Y'see, there in lies the problem... none of that screams "arrogance" to me. However there is a stench of snobbery coming from you, saying arrogant fuckers are usually poor and they are arrogant fuckers because you have a nice house and no debt.

Somebody judging you on what they see is arrogance. So is calling somebody a posh **** and telling them to fuck off because they're doing well for themselves now and use the English language correctly.
And of course they're poor, or at least POORER THAN ME, which is what I said. It's not like I'm going to get the same from somebody RICHER than me, now is it? Think things through before you attack me.

I was going to go easy on you but then you edited your comment and added that last sentence so I went and traded in my "nice" attitude for the delux "schooling this dullard" edition... That REALLY isnt arrogance, pick up a dictionary. It wont burn or bite you, its an innanimate object and that feeling you get in your head is called "learning".