Race-based Assumptions of Social Class Identity and Their Consequences at a Predominantly White Institution

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Abstract

In this paper I detail the extent to which social class intersects with race and ethnicity to affect student experiences in a sample of liberal arts college students. I draw upon in-depth, semi-structured interview data collected from 16 students who had expressed interest or were active in a student-led group for low-income, first-generation, and/or working-class identified students at a selective liberal arts college. I asked students to reflect upon how social class affected their experiences on a predominantly wealthy and White campus, as well as how their race and ethnicity intersected with their class locations. Using an inductive approach to coding the data, I identified emergent themes related to intersectionality and campus experiences. Students with multiple marginalized identities tended to more openly identify with an identity that was not class-based on campus and this was particularly true for Students of Color. White students, however, identified more strongly with their social class identities and felt stigmatized and silenced on a campus that lacked a venue for open dialoguing around class inequality and privilege. While, for White students, embracing a marginalized class identity appeared to be a choice, Students of Color expressed that they were often assumed to lack class privilege by virtue of their race and/or ethnicity. Most Students of Color who participated in the study shared that they were often assumed to be members of a “special opportunity program,” which recruited students based upon “circumstances of academic and economic disadvantage.” For those students who were part of this program, they identified a community of support and shared experience largely based upon race and ethnicity rather than class, although socioeconomic background was one of the official criteria for membership and race and ethnicity was not. I conclude the paper with a discussion of institutional policy changes proposed by the student participants.

Author

• Debbie Warnock, Bennington College