Basically, my view here has been that everyone here seems to be in the same class. Talking to to people that's not entirely true. Generally people associate lower class folks with British names like (example given was Kevin). I have a few ideas why the class difference isn't so apparent.
1. Many of the minorities here are often still white Europeans and so to me they look German. It's possible that all the russian immigrants are poor for example but I just can't see it. The varying skin color in America makes it easier to quickly categorize groups of people and make assumptions at to what class they are in, regardless of how accurate it is.
2. It seems that everyone here has basically the same sense of style. Sure some people are more stylish than others but you don't have goth, emo, prep, hippie, lumberjack, as well as the style sets that tend to come with african americans. That means everyone looks the same still further. Once again it is harder to categorize groups of people by appearance.
3. Where do poor people live? Maybe they are all out in the country, or maybe just in the big cities? Anyways, I have seen no particularly rough, or rundown areas. Yes it's a small town (160,000) but it's definitely not like America.
So we should never stereotype people by appearance but I know in America we do it all the time. It's just peculiar here how much of a non issue it is. I'm taking a class called "Race and Equality in America." The prof and I are the only Americans. I think it will be difficult to convey to the class what America and racism is like because of what they are used to living in.
k later
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