{"id":133,"date":"2020-05-11T15:19:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T19:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/?page_id=133"},"modified":"2020-05-12T04:25:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T08:25:14","slug":"student-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/student-interviews\/student-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Student 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is composed of highlighted quotes from an interview with an anonymous Bowdoin student. It is a detailed look into one Bowdoin student\u2019s thoughts on wealth and its impact on their lives. It is color-coded by theme. <\/span>Blue<\/b><\/span> represents the development of the wealth stigma based on one\u2019s previous and current friend groups and environments. <\/span>Red <\/b><\/span>represents the perception of material goods and actions as symbols of wealth and the conclusions drawn from that information. <\/span>Purple <\/b><\/span>represents the notion that wealth is a challenging and uncomfortable topic that people avoid, due to its stigmatization.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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 \u2018hey, we should talk about the fact that this is happening.\u2019 My [less affluent] floormate and some other people were very willing to call people out and be like, \u2018yo, do you understand that?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is somebody who said that their family had generational wealth, basically: \u2018I could just drop out right now; it wouldn’t even matter.\u2019 And it was a joke… But at the same time, this person is a white male. My one friend was mad: \u2018I can’t do that; I\u2019m 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.\u2019 And the fact that this other person was saying, \u2018Oh, I could just drop out\u2019 and \u2018I have so much cushion,\u2019 it made my friend really really mad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think generally people [on my floor] were really open to talk about [wealth]. My floor got along great and I love them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[When our one wealthy floormate said] \u2018I could just drop out,\u2019 everybody was [sympathetic since it was finals week], saying \u2018I hate this. I don’t want to work anymore.\u2019 And then we kind of just moved on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Symbols of wealth are] Bean Boots and AirPods. A couple of my friends wanted to buy bluetooth headphones, and we said \u2018I don’t know which ones are best\u2019 because they’re more expensive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is walking around with AirPods, then sometimes you just kind of think, \u2018oh, they’re rich\u2019 or whatever, even if that person, maybe, doesn’t spend their money on anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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 \u2013 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know of any examples of people purposely trying to hide having wealth, but [this one boy] was just \u2013 he was more wealthy than I had thought because he didn’t go around buying all the expensive things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mostly hear people say things that are sort of more markers of wealth, and I just usually will end up [thinking], \u2018have I ever said something like that?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[I think hiding wealth] might be a defense of like, \u2018I 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.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think about this kind of thing a lot. And I’ve talked to a lot of my friends about it, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is composed of highlighted quotes from an interview with an anonymous Bowdoin student. It is a detailed look into one Bowdoin student\u2019s 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\u2019s previous and current friend groups and … Continue reading “Student 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":0,"parent":114,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-133","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018-tgreene\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}