I’m an American expat living in the UK’s rural countryside. I am surrounded by mostly farmlands dotted with small villages and tiny market towns. It’s also very monocultural with 80 to 90% of the population being ethnically White English.
As an outsider, it has been very pleasant and the people are very friendly, open and welcoming and I am loving life.
Ok, what I want to address: I have heard about the English class divide before but I didn’t think it was that big of an issue however upon closer inspection these are my observations:
Within this specific population there is a stark line, that becomes clearer the closer that you look into it, between what they call the “Working Class” and the “Middle Class”.
www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/...
The Working Class consists of blue-collar workers and are the vast majority of folks living here. They are your truck drivers, farm workers, cops, office workers, etc. the people that make stuff, fix stuff and make stuff go. This also includes the poorest among the people that require government assistance to get by.
The Middle Class are your wealthier professionals that are university educated and are your doctors, lawyers, owners, brokers, bankers and managers. These people are called “Posh”.
www.theguardian.com/…
The “Middle Class” are called that not because they are middle-income (they are in fact, high-income) but because they are in between the Working Class and the Upper Class. The Upper Class are your nobility class, which the USA has no real concept of. In the US, we call the “Working Class” the “Middle Class”.
The “Posh Middle Class” can be “snobbish” towards the Working Class — more than just turning up their noses to the rabble of the rough workers but almost disdain.
The two groups are vastly different. They look different, they act different, they sound different — they are, in fact, two very different and distinct groups of people.
I would love to see a DNA comparison between the two.
There is no social mobility. If a Working Class man becomes very wealthy, they are still Working Class and if a Middle Class gentleman goes broke, they are still Middle Class. It has more to do with your family’s background than what is currently in your bank account.
What I have gathered is that back in AD 1066 when the outnumbered Normans crossed the English channel from France, invaded and conquered the Anglo Saxons they imposed a strict caste system upon the people in order to maintain power and suppress any rebellions. The descendants of the Normans became your landed gentry and industry owners while the decedents of the Anglo Saxons were suppressed into feudal serfdom and the underpaid workforce. Over the next thousand years, the two groups never really intermarried or socially intermingled with one another.
It was not until the 20th Century that the class system had started to break down and people started ignoring those lines with one another but its long legacy still lingers there.
I have found it to be fascinating and uniquely English condition but it is comparable to what other countries have between different ethnic groups and races. For example, in America, the clear historical dividing line has always been race — specifically white and black America since 1619.
Supposedly one people sharing the same color, language, religion, creed and nationality still can be so divided.
Classism is a real but unseen issue. It exists in all facets of society but is perhaps most apparent in the workplace. The Equality Act 2010 provides protection against discrimination on the grounds of nine protected characteristics including race, sex, disability, age and sexual orientation. There are, however, no provisions for class or socio-economic status despite 60% of the British population identifying as working-class. It is therefore technically legal to discriminate against candidates due to their accents or home address, and for individuals to perpetuate negative stereotypes of working-class people with disparaging and offensive comments.
www.lawgazette.co.uk/…
Monday, Sep 26, 2022 · 7:19:32 AM +00:00 · aaraujo
Good Morning. I did not expect this story to be so popular. I don’t mean to insult any Brit reading this — I really do love living here. I am just trying to wrap my head around the stark societal differences that I have observed in this small little corner of rural England.