Transcription
Classism is what people think racism is. Classism is the real giant that is running a lot of operations and a lot of ways that people behave, but it's almost more powerful because people are always so focused on racism, racism, racism. So today I want to talk about what that actually looks like. And of course, I'm a black man. That is the perspective that I'm going to be coming from. Take it or leave it. I'm not going to sit here and go through every ethnicity and every history and and and whatever else. I don't care to do that. Black American, that's the experience that I'm going to discuss.
The key thing to understand about racism is that even if you look at somebody like a Charlie Kirk, this is this is new at the time that I'm filming this. If you look at somebody like a Charlie Kirk, the one person who was really posting an emotional, "Oh my god, this is the life that I shared with this man. Look at all these great memories we had was Amarosa." Uh, not Amomarosa, Candace Owens, or one of them. I don't know. They're they're basically the same to me. But was Candace Owens a black woman? And you would think to yourself, well, now hold on. Didn't Charlie Kirk hate black people? So, how could he have such a relationship with a black woman? And that is the crux of it all because even the most racist of the racist has their exceptions, has their "you're one of the good ones." And that's where classism comes into play.
Because there is a level where classism is always going to trump racism. And you're going to have more in common at at a certain class level. You're going to have more in common with people of your class than people of your race, especially especially when it comes to black people. And so you'll start to see this play out um in a lot of different scenarios. Um, you'll see this play out in corporate spaces. Um, but even in like I was in Europe for example and especially I spent a lot of time in Italy and black people are always, "Italy is so racist, I'm never going to go." A lot of the issues that people say they experience and when I hear people talk about, "Well, I was treated badly in Italy," and I look at their profile. I look at the way that they carry themselves. I'm like, well, I I see I see where I see where they were coming from from a classism lens. And so, you're assuming that it's racism, but actually, it's because you look exactly like what they expect a ghetto person to look. You look exactly like they see, you know, the thugs on TV look. So, of course, if you're going into this nice restaurant, they probably don't want you there.
And it's even beyond looks. So, even if you're like, "Oh, I'm going on vacation, so I'm going to, you know, cosplay basically as the the location that I'm going to." It's in the accent, the the demeanor, the ways of speaking. It's all these things that are deeply related to class. Um, a lot of black people who grew up in suburban areas, even in the same city, sound completely different from the black people who grew up in inner city areas. There's like that accent that that comes with that. So, it doesn't matter what you put on or how much money you've, you know, began to amass or whatever, there's always these subtle indicators of class. And so I think that this is an important discussion to have because it's almost like taboo to say that you actually were not treated poorly because you're black. You were treated poorly because you look poor. But that is often what's happening, especially when it comes to black professionals in corporate spaces. It's like you want to call everything respectability politics, but at what point does it stop being respectability politics and does it just become decorum? And this behemoth rejection of decorum is going to have consequences. And so when you are in a corporate environment and you're so stuck on being "power to the people," that is not the time or the place for that. It's just not. And if you want to be "power to the people," "power to the people." Go start your own business. Go work for yourself or go work somewhere else. That's all "power to the people." But you can't come into spaces that are inherently classist because if you're in corporate America, even if you're on the the bottom ranks of corporate America, corporate America is inherently classist, right? Because that is even a tier of work that a lot of people can't achieve. Um, you might even need a college degree to get those type of roles. Even um, just white collar work in general has some uh class connotations to it. So, you're entering into a classist environment and you're thinking everything is about racism and it's not.
And so, I think there are a lot of other ways in which this manifests itself. Um, especially because black people are not honest. Um, even white people experience classism, by the way. It's not as prevalent. You're not going to see that narrative depicted in the media, but best believe a wealthy white person can tell a white person who grew up in a a trailer park area and they are going to treat them accordingly. I'm not white enough to be able to tell you what white people see in other white people that, you know, indicates these things to them. Um, but I do know all over the internet, especially on TikTok because, you know, that's like a cesspool of people saying what they really think, they have all these terms for, "Oh yeah, you have poor person eyes" and and all these things. So, white people recognize these traits, too. And so, if you're a person who's trying to level up, whether that's in your career or just in your life in general, you have to understand that dynamic and that the things that were cool with the poor people are not going to be cool with the people who are wealthy. And so I understand, you know, black men, it was cool to have this certain haircut or to dress in this certain way in the ghetto. You need to understand that you are a multifaceted person and it is okay to start presenting yourself better and that is not a knock to you. Different environments require different things and if you continue to play in the pool of "well, these are poor aesthetics and that's what I'm going to hold onto," you are going to be treated accordingly.
I think those are all of my primary thoughts on this topic. I'm sure people will have other thoughts on it in the comments and maybe I didn't fully express all the thoughts that I have on it. I don't know. I won't know until I watch it back. But let me know what you think. Um, like, subscribe, share, all that good stuff.