My Life in the Categories of Class, Gender, Race

Being classified according to human-designed categories (Ferrante, 2013) I am a White female, 19 years of age, a student who grew up in a middle-class home.

“It is clear that social class hierarchy makes assumptions about the relative importance of the ownership of wealth.” (Bilton, 2002) In my life being a white South African means that the assumptions of being in a high-income class are made very often. In my life race, class and gender have played a big role.

Where you geographically come from often plays a role in your social class. I was brought up on a farm which meant that we had rough times. I didn’t have the best education and resources were limited e.g. Internet, a laptop, books, etc. I was more underprivileged than someone who was example raised in the city and went to a private school. “Poverty in relative terms one thinks not just about to an inability to met basic needs, but about a lack of relative access to goods and services that people living in particular time and place have come to expect as necessities” (Ferrante, 2013). I example of this may be a new smartphone, expensive clothing, and takeaway food.

Bilton talks about “social classes being survived over generations”. This statement has been real in my life. My grandparents were in the struggle, on the farm. I grew up in the struggle, on the farm. The skills I have made it possible for me to get a schooling fund and to be the first one to study. I was not privileged enough for my parents to be in a financial position to pay for my tuition. My social class has been passed down to me. I decided to make a change in my own life.

Being in the class I am I don’t have as many opportunities to experience things most people my age gets to experience because of factors as finances and so forth. For example, parties, festivals, cool clothes, and so forth.

If it was in the fate of my family, I would’ve been trained to keep the house going and pts cooking on the farm, me not getting further education and not bringing in as much income as with a degree. The family will always have an impact on our lives, present, and future. For example, the student will end up with a degree and most likely the highest income rate in the family. It would be my job to provide and support my family through the class that they are in.

My family’s class position has an impact on my life, present, and future. I was raised in the middle class. I know of no better standard; thus I will strive to keep the habits my family thought me like buying basic needs first and then investing in other luxuries.