Finally, there are the insults working-class students experience in the classroom. “[M]any
of the professors resented having to teach us. One of them once described in class the
mission of the school as ‘teaching the first generation of immigrant children how to eat
with a knife and fork,’” said a class migrant from an immigrant background.^118
Professors typically attended elite institutions, and some feel deflated and resentful when
they end up teaching working-class kids at lower-ranked schools. Professors who would
never let a racist comment pass their lips openly embrace “the stereotype of the southern
redneck as racist, sexist, alcoholic, ignorant, and lazy.... redneck jokes may be the last
acceptable ethnic slurs in ‘polite’ society,” reports a Southern class migrant.^119 “A lot of
my friends who did not make it to college were those who would not stand for that kind
of treatment; they insulted back,” noted another class migrant.^120 Yet another reason
working-class kids don’t go to college or finish it.
Socially, working-class students can also be ostracized. It’s not unusual for college parties
to have a “white trash” or “trailer trash” theme, even as themes that stigmatize other
groups have been banned. How welcome would you feel at a party in which you and your
family were unselfconsciously called garbage?
- Why Doesn’t the Working Class Get with It and Go to College?