United Against Classism
Classism is the belief in or support for a policy or idea that denies value, dignity, liberties, and opportunities to people based on their perceived membership in a socioeconomic group. The creation, implementation, and perpetuation of bigoted laws, policies, practices, and narratives serves to consolidate power in the hands of the ruling group.
Just like all bigotry categories, classism intersects with almost every other marginalization in America, particularly racism. We invite you to use the resources below to learn more about classism and the impact on the world around us.
Anti-Classism Resources
America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume II: Wealth and Racial Stratification
Wealth signifies a control of financial resources that, when combined with income, provides the means and the opportunity to secure the “good life” in whatever form is needed—education, business, training, justice, health, material comfort, and so on. Read more about how wealth further social stratification.
Diversity for Social Impact: What is Classism?
Classism has a long history, dating back centuries. It is a form of discrimination that is based on social class or economic status, and it involves treating people differently based on their background or the amount of money they have. Just like racism and sexism, classism can have serious negative effects on people’s lives.
Discrimination as a crucial stressor damages the mental health of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals through increased ruminative thinking. A “stress-is-enhancing” mindset may protect the mental health of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals under the pressures of perceived discrimination and rumination. This study examined the mediating role of rumination and the moderating role of stress mindset in the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological symptoms among socioeconomically disadvantaged college students.
Relative to middle‐class counterparts, lower/working‐class individuals are less likely to define themselves in terms of their socioeconomic status and are more likely to have interdependent self‐concepts; they are also more inclined to explain social events in situational terms, as a result of having a lower sense of personal control.
Pressbooks @ Howard Community College
Most sociologists define social class as a grouping based on similar social factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. These factors affect how much power and prestige a person has. Social stratification reflects an unequal distribution of resources. In most cases, having more money means having more power or more opportunities. There is a surprising amount of disagreement among sociologists on the number of social classes in the United States and even on how to measure social class membership.
Stanford University: Taking Care of Ourselves & Each Other: Classism
Classism (or class discrimination) is the institutional, cultural and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value to people according to their socioeconomic class; and an economic system that creates excessive inequality and causes basic human needs to go unmet. Learn more about what is happening, why it's happening, and what you can do.
The Activist Class Cultures Kit
To research the book Missing Class, Betsy Leondar-Wright observed meetings of 25 varied social justice groups in 5 states, surveyed 362 diverse members and interviewed 67 of them. The class cultures patterns that are a part of The Activist Class Cultures Kit, and the learnings explored, are the outcome of analysis of those meetings and interviews.
United States Youth Forum: Social Class Discrimination
Classism is a form of systemic oppression that subordinates groups based on social class or perceived social class. Classism is enabled by the dominant classes, like the middle or ruling classes, when they discriminate against subordinate classes, like the poor or working classes. Learn more about this divisive practice, and what you can do about it.