This article titled “Coding White Trash in Academia” made me want to vomit. People read this kind of ridiculous, self-pitying garbage and actually believe it. And it’s all lies invented by a manipulative, dishonest, entitled prick.
Half of academics are immigrants. Another 40% come from humble roots. All of my favorite, superstar professors came from such poverty that even my Soviet origins felt like royalty. Hey, at least my parents could read and write.
Curiously, my colleagues and mentors who grew up in poverty, misery, dictatorships, war zones, areas with no schools, religious cults, etc never come out with self-congratulating rants like the linked piece.
It’s ok to be a repellent, judgmental asshole, like the linked author is. But everything comes at a price, and repellent assholes need to accept that the price of their assholery is that people shun them. This has nothing to do with their class, gender, sexual orientation, or immigration status. All it has to do with is their nasty personality.
But it’s easier to blame non-existent class condescension in academia than to accept that people can’t stand you because you are a nasty character.
Clarissa's Blog 
Different experiences. I read her article and didn’t see it as odd. There are several statements in the article that are quite credible:
(1) People from affluent families are more confident — why not since they feel they are entitled to whatever they want. People from less affluent American families struggle with this. (I know I did. The culture in which you grew up is different and perhaps healthier.)
(2) A lot of academics and business people are blinded by degree. I was told years ago that places like McKinsey or Deloitte only hire grads from Ivy League or one or two select liberal arts colleges (e.g., Bucknell). Its easier for someone with an Ivy PhD to get hired anyplace than it is for a non Ivy-PhD to get hired by an Ivy school.
(3) People do look down on people from low income areas. Growing up in Kentucky, one of my high school teachers (female) said that when she was introduced to others at conferences, on hearing she was from Kentucky, they would look down to see if she were wearing shoes. Country music and NASCAR (both of which I enjoy) are not politically correct in a lot of areas.
So, I totally get what she’s saying.
Most people in the US compartmentalize life, keeping work and private life entirely separate. The common problem is balance, how to keep one compartment from overwhelming the other. That seems to be an issue with which the writer is still struggling. So are a lot of others.
Lyn and I are the odd ones, in that we have friends who range from carpenters, butchers and nurses to doctors, professors and entrepreneurs. We’re cool with virtually anyone and can transition from one environment to another seamlessly. Arrogance and dishonesty can exist in any economic or social bracket, and we don’t have time for that. However, there have been times in my life when I felt like an outsider — and I’ve come to the conclusion, unlike the author, that being an outsider isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
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There is absolutely no link between confidence and money. Look at Trump who’s the definition of extreme insecurity. Just like his mega rich buddy Putin.
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Number 2 is an absolute myth – I have friends and business associates who work (and some made partner) at McKinsey and Deloitte & had graduated from fairly mediocre schools.
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One of my students who was very poor and is now a famous professor cannot face those of us who knew him when in person. He emails but says he has jumped classes and fears falling back, and that seeing us face to face reminds him of who he was…
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Clarissa, maybe the colleagues you mention don’t write these kinds of articles because they know going in there’s going to be a culture they need to adjust to?
I do not know how she can say
There were no concrete or tangible disadvantages to having a working-class background, or for being from towns that elicited an “ew” from anyone in the know.
or In college, the micro-aggressions weren’t so noticeable
or I have bad teeth, (Visibly bad teeth is a real noticeable U.S. class marker that impedes employment. I worked with someone who made their own teen daughter pay for her braces because she felt the way the girl said, “I have extra money now” from her retail job was snotty.)
in an article going on about her working class background and being “white trash”.
If that’s a real feature of your life you encounter tangible disadvantages earlier than “graduate school” and you’re aware of it much earlier. There are conventions around talking to professors and administrators and other students that I’ve seen people stumble over. For example, I had a high school classmate whose parents hired tutors to meet with her several times a week even though she didn’t “need” them and had excellent grades. Her parents were living on inherited wealth and did not need to work. To my parents, tutors for school were only for people who were failing.
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I went to school with people who had teeth, tutors, trust funds, and chalets. But when I speak, everybody shuts up because the beauty of academia is precisely that teeth and chalets are useless. You either have it or you don’t. And by a bizarre coincidence, 100% of times it’s people without trust funds who have it.
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Without teeth, it can be hard to make yourself understood when speaking.
You really should check your teethly privilege.
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And here is another interesting observation: those who are preoccupied with teeth and chalets or with the brand of coffee their mamma drinks never amount to anything intellectually because their minds are occupied with the wrong stuff.
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