This article is composed of highlighted quotes from an interview with an anonymous Bowdoin student. It is a detailed look into one Bowdoin student’s thoughts on wealth and its impact on their lives. It is color-coded by theme. Blue represents the development of the wealth stigma based on one’s previous and current friend groups and environments. Red represents the perception of material goods and actions as symbols of wealth and the conclusions drawn from that information. Purple represents the notion that wealth is a challenging and uncomfortable topic that people avoid, due to its stigmatization.
“I think it’s hard for us to talk about [wealth] because people don’t want to be insensitive. But I think that, for me, it’s been easier now [to talk about wealth after coming to Bowdoin] because I’ve learned more about other people and also about myself. I’ve lived in the same place my whole life with a lot of people who come from similar economic backgrounds as me. Being able to talk to other people about [wealth] helps me realize my own privilege.”
“In order to know about Bowdoin and know how to apply to be on Bowdoin’s campus, you have to have a certain socioeconomic background to some extent.”
“I think people sort of self segregate pretty easily on campus. I definitely think that coming from a certain economic background might influence the people that you relate to, and make it harder for people to talk to different people of different backgrounds.”
“I do think that my [socioeconomically-diverse] floor would be an example where [the topic of wealth] did come up, not a lot; people were afraid to bring it up and say ‘hey, we should talk about the fact that this is happening.’ My [less affluent] floormate and some other people were very willing to call people out and be like, ‘yo, do you understand that?’”
“There is somebody who said that their family had generational wealth, basically: ‘I could just drop out right now; it wouldn’t even matter.’ And it was a joke… But at the same time, this person is a white male. My one friend was mad: ‘I can’t do that; I’m the first person in my family to go to college and I need to get good grades and I need to do well here so that I can make money.’ And the fact that this other person was saying, ‘Oh, I could just drop out’ and ‘I have so much cushion,’ it made my friend really really mad.
“I think generally people [on my floor] were really open to talk about [wealth]. My floor got along great and I love them.”
“[When our one wealthy floormate said] ‘I could just drop out,’ everybody was [sympathetic since it was finals week], saying ‘I hate this. I don’t want to work anymore.’ And then we kind of just moved on.”
“I think talking in [smaller] groups where you feel like other people are listening to you and you’re actually listening to other people definitely is how I would feel most comfortable talking about these kinds of things.”
“I can talk to my friends, from pretty much the same economic background as me, about stuff like this from home. But, it’s hard sometimes for me to feel comfortable talking about it with people from the same background because I don’t want to be speaking for other people.”
“If you’re able to afford mostly the same stuff, it doesn’t come up, but if you can talk to other people that can afford more than you or can afford less than you, you realize what you have or don’t have.”
“[Symbols of wealth are] Bean Boots and AirPods. A couple of my friends wanted to buy bluetooth headphones, and we said ‘I don’t know which ones are best’ because they’re more expensive.”
“If someone is walking around with AirPods, then sometimes you just kind of think, ‘oh, they’re rich’ or whatever, even if that person, maybe, doesn’t spend their money on anything.”
“In my town, a big symbol is your car. There was also a phase where everyone at graduation in middle school bought [an expensive] Lilly Pulitzer dress. I remember looking on Instagram or something and every single girl was wearing a dress. At Bowdoin it’s maybe more like LL Bean boots, a fancy backpack, or a winter coat.”
“I feel that [the College’s decision to make all of our classes pass fail this semester] is a really interesting example about how people might have different perspectives based on class. Because if you’re from a higher class – I’m so privileged that both of my parents are still working, and I don’t have to worry about not being able to feed myself. Whereas [with] another person, if that’s not the case that they have financial stability, then it makes sense to have pass fail class universally because I know a lot of people have optional pass fail, but I feel like that doesn’t really help.”
“I just wear sweatpants and sweatshirts every single day, so I very much was not paying attention to what I was wearing or what other people were wearing. But, I don’t think there’s much of a difference between clothing symbols as symbols of wealth between my hometown and Bowdoin.”
“And my dad was very much saying if kids work hard, then they should be rewarded for that. And I don’t think that that’s incorrect. I think if you do work hard, you should be rewarded. But I think we kind of weren’t addressing the fact that there are other kids who are also working hard, but they’re working hard in different areas of their lives and can’t work hard, not not work hard, but they can’t dedicate as much time to school as other people can.”
“I don’t know of any examples of people purposely trying to hide having wealth, but [this one boy] was just – he was more wealthy than I had thought because he didn’t go around buying all the expensive things.”
“I mostly hear people say things that are sort of more markers of wealth, and I just usually will end up [thinking], ‘have I ever said something like that?’”
“I think that people don’t want to come across as entitled. Maybe they’re afraid of people thinking that they think they’re better than other people? I think showing wealth is showing that you have more power. And so I think that people might feel bad about that.”
“[I think hiding wealth] might be a defense of like, ‘I still have to work hard. Even though I am more wealthy, I still have to work hard. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t do anything.’”
“I think it’s not any one groups responsibility to fix. I don’t think you can, quote unquote, fix the stigma around wealth, and I don’t think it’s just the [responsibility of] students or the administration because I think so much of this stigmatized wealth is so far beyond Bowdoin. This is a larger infrastructural thing that is kind of a basis for society. And so I’m not saying that it will never change. But I do think the way to improve it is to keep having these conversations and helping people become more aware of the other people around them.”
“I think about this kind of thing a lot. And I’ve talked to a lot of my friends about it, too.”