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 know I come from a very privileged background as far as money goes.”
“I try to be sensitive to people who I know aren’t so comfortable with discussing issues like wealth distribution.”
“It’s hard to have a high level of privilege and also always try to be aware of it and be very sensitive to people who [don’t have privilege.]”
“[It would hurt] if I was the only person who didn’t have a laptop and everybody said, ‘oh, why don’t you have a laptop?’ You know, I think it’s more of an issue of overlooking and lack of sensitivity.”
“When somebody who doesn’t need financial aid says, ‘oh my god, textbooks are so expensive,’ [it can be really frustrating.]”
“[When people are uncomfortable when wealth is brought up,] they start to withdraw from the conversation, or you can see their facial expressions change. You can definitely tell just by the way another person’s body language changes or their face changes, or they start not really engaging in the conversation as much.”
“I’m in an education class and we took a survey about who went to public versus private and charter school. It was interesting because it was more of a 50 / 50 split than I expected.”
“We have two chunks and we don’t really have much of an inbetween. It seems like there’s a large portion of us who are very well off and then there’s sort of other people who get drowned out.”
“I generally know whether my roommates are on financial aid. But other than that, I don’t know any statistics about what percentage of our students are in the 1% or 10% of wealth distribution in America.”
“[On campus, there were] fewer people having gone to boarding or private school than I expected based on our campus atmosphere. It’s very common for wealthy people to have a larger voice in systems and social systems. It was the same at my other school, we always heard from the rich, preppy girls.”
“[Wealth symbols are the] newest MacBook Pros, AirPods, jackets, technology.”
“[Giveaways of wealth include when people are] completely clueless when somebody initiates a discussion about low income students and they just have no concept of what that means, or, you know, any specifics about the struggles that they can face getting winter clothing or textbooks, or anything about culture, differences, that sort of thing.”
“Sometimes somebody will wear all branded clothing, [and that’s an indicator, too.]”
“I went to an all girls private school in Richmond, Virginia, in the West End.”
“[Sometimes] people who are super well off won’t wear their best outfit or clothes; they wear raggy sweatshirts because they’re comfortable or something, [which can distort signs of their wealth.]”
“So my high school was basically all super rich white girls because I went to an all girls private school in Richmond, Virginia. The signals there were either you were in the wealthy zone, or you were very obviously out of it because it was very easy to pick out students who weren’t part of that community since they would be the ones without a MacBook and with an off brand backpack. Bowdoin, comparatively, is very diverse but at the same time, I do pick up on some of the same social grouping like backpack or jacket type. However, there’s a lot more individuality in how people present themselves so the signals get a little more distorted because even people who are super well off won’t always wear their best outfit or clothes. They wear rowdy sweatshirts because they’re comfortable and it’s college so nobody really cares that much.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone directly confronted for being obviously ignorant; the most I think I’ve seen is eyes being rolled out and general airs of like, ‘dude, how could you say something like that?’”
“It can also be phrases talking about how annoying it is to spend money, ironically.”
“Summer vacation is a huge trope.”
“I’ve met more people who treat wealth not as a defining part of themselves.”
“There are a ton of social signals where I live. If you’re not part of one of the two country clubs, you’re not ‘up there.’ Joining a country club was 100% something my parents were very stressed about when moving to Richmond. Wealth indicators are if you don’t play tennis or don’t know the certain names and areas around town, which is also silly because anybody who lives in Richmond would know that. But, there’s a very specific format of wealth where I come from.”
“It’s easier to approach people while hiding what you truly are [with your wealth] when you’re trying to work about an issue. Because as soon as you identify yourself under one of those labels, it’s a lot easier for people to start getting mad or say, ‘Oh, you’re saying that because this,’ or ‘you’re just saying that because you feel guilty that you have this,’ ‘you don’t actually care,’ etc. It’s really easy for people to categorize: ‘Oh, that’s the rich kid.’ I think it’s easier to hide wealth so that you will be perceived for who you are via your own merits rather than labels.”
“It shouldn’t be up to low income students to teach high income students what to do.”
“I think it’s more on the college to bring in people who are able to facilitate discussion, not just student-led, because I feel like a professional would be better at teaching everybody about being kind during discussions and making sure everybody actually has equity and not equality during these discussions.”
“I just want to make sure I’m being sensitive and that’s really where any anxiety comes from [when discussing wealth]. It’s not really me feeling anxious about how much money my family has; it’s me being anxious that I’m going to say something that’s going to hurt somebody else.”