I watched a PBS special on Sunday night called People Like Us: Social Class in America. I taped it and gave it to two of my sons to watch.
One of the reasons I like living here in Northfield is that it has a wide-range of classes for a small town, unlike if we lived in a neighborhood in the Twin Cities where it would be much more homogenous. Yeah, it’s a college town, but it’s not only a college town, unlike many other college towns. The farming and manufacturing sectors hold equal sway.
We have conflicts similar to what was depicted in the show about Burlington VT. “While the Co-op promises that it will accommodate the tastes of the masses, many Burlingtonians are suspicious of a place they consider too expensive and judgmental of those who opt for Wonder Bread, cigarettes, and red meat.” That’s pretty similar to what we had here in the battle when Target proposed moving to town. I was kind of torn on the issue. I didn’t really want a Target, but the arrogance of some of the Target opponents irked me.
We live adjacent to one of the poorer neighborhoods in town, in a big Victorian-style house that was moved there in the mid-sixties when the highway was rerouted. (It’s not an elegant Victorian, so it’s not as much out of place our street as it would otherwise be.) Our street has mostly working class families — I think there’s just three or four college-educated households on our block. But it’s always bugged me some that we’ve not been very connected to most of our neighbors. No block parties, not much socializing. And after watching this show on class, I think I understand it better. I’m probably as unaware of my judgementalness of them as they are of us. I’m not sure what to do about it, though.