Why should I be proud to be working class? Why is the statement of superiority so degrading?
Image source: Everett Collection: This Is England
‘Journalists don’t come from a working-class background’ is what I tell myself, based from what others have told me. When researching for Grafter magazine, the most difficult part of the journey was actually finding working-class journalists. Sure, lots of people talk about class issues, but how many of them are actually from a working-class background? I want to hear from someone who is genuinely working class. Someone who grew up on or near a council estate. A person whose family lived on the breadline. Not someone who went on big fancy holidays, a house in the country and wipes their arse with gold flaked toilet roll. Just a normal person with a lot to say.
It’s ironic that the trade I’m entering into, the one where I aim to write about culture, music and class. It actually has a class issue all in itself. The thing is, a lot of people don’t say they are working class.
Something I constantly return to is this idea of actively saying what class you are. You see, Britain has a class issue and it should be spoken about. However, when someone says, ‘you should be proud to be working class’ it is just as bad as being classist. Look at it this way, I won’t say to some university friends, ‘you should be proud you’re from a privileged background’ because, well, they haven’t done anything! Being proud of where you are from then poses the claim that there is something wrong with it in the beginning!
You should be very happy to be from where you come from. Yet, it’s like putting a banner in front of something that may be worse than it is. Because you have to state it. If you have to actively say that something is good, or you’re working class, then there’s an issue.
It poses the problem; people have an issue with the working classes. ‘Oh, you’re working class and you got this job!? Well done!’ or 'Wow! I didn't know you were working class!' Well, I'm not going to say it as everyone else talks about who they were with the night before. 'Sorry to interrupt your fascinating story of whom you bedded, but did you know, I'm actually working class, and better yet, I'm a Lutonian!'
I’ve been told time and time again that I ‘don’t seem working class’ Hmm… is that meant to be a compliment? How should someone take that? I’m very proud to be working class, but I’m also very proud to say I can eat two large Chinese meals on a Saturday night, along with 3 packs of spring rolls. The point is, why am I proud of something when others consistently put working classes down? I’m proud of it because in societies eyes, I am doing something that they don’t think others do. Or I should be proud because I go against their stereotype? What’s the thing I’m supposed to be proud of?
You're proud that you have actively said something. Something many have said before. If you are proud of it then that should be enough. You should find a solution to problems caused by others not respond with the statement.
Saying ‘you’re proud to be working class’ is ridiculous. Would you hear someone from an Oxford background say it? Maybe. But the whole concept around saying it is absurd. It holds no value. You're simply putting an issue in front of another. You're standing against the authoritative nature surrounding the establishment. And everything within society preventing you from bettering yourself. How can you be proud to be working class want to be middle-class?
Obviously, everyone should try to better themselves. However, it’s quite strange that you want to leave the working-class bracket. Yet, you’re proud to be working class. Which basically means, ‘I’m proud to exist at all.’ When I was speaking to Andy Chesham of Vinyl Revelations, he said, ‘Everyone is working class, if you have to work to live, you’re working class.’ The terms surrounding class aren’t anything to live by. They put you into brackets to fraction everything down.
There’s the idea that being from one type of class leaves you as that type. So, when someone does better themselves, whatever that means in the first place. It isn’t that they are moving up a level, so they are better than you. They simply earn more money. And money is a physicality, so we can live, and so we can measure lives. People have measured the worth of someone via money for years.
The class issue is a mixed debate, on one side there is a class issue, on the other there isn’t. It depends on where you’re from. In my eyes, there’s a class issue. My experience of it though is built upon my location. Where I am from. It’s why I think the class issue is caused by the location of birth. Where you are from causes a problem for the future. Take ‘up-North’. There are amazing creatives past the border of Milton Keynes that go unrecognised. (Because to people I’ve spoken to, the North is past Milton Keynes). Over lockdown I began speaking to a range of people. An in the drive through my research, I found some amazing creatives I had never heard of before!
It’s all because the North of England, basically anywhere that is outside the realms of London, isn’t funded. Councils are not provided enough money to put it into the local areas to fund creatives. It means that the places often go without basic human needs. And because of this the locations then get a bad reputation. Which then leads to people who have never been to the locations putting their own viewpoint on the situation. When, they haven’t got an opinion, because they haven’t been there in the first place. So, the class issue stems from where you are from. It’s not just lower classes, take someone from Cambridge, I automatically think they are all going to be smart arses! When, that’s obviously not true.
So the United Kingdom has a class issue, it's a complicated debate. But what has led to a class issue, like many other things is a location issue. Which has stemmed from local communities not being funded. It's funny that I am proud to be working class. Yet, there's no reason for me to be proud. It doesn't make me better than anyone else. People are proud to be working class because they are told by others that they have come from a tough background. When, it's normal to me. Your different is my normal. In telling someone you are proud of your background, it reinforces the fact there is a class issue.
These issues may never go away, because in order for there to be a fair field that would mean equity over money. And the problem is, there simply are too many problems to deal with them all at once. It leads to normal, everyday people creating their own solutions. Ones that are for much bigger problems.
In the end, I'm annoyed that I am proud to be working class. Because it shows there is a class issue. And in identifying my class it proves that I am probably more annoyed there is a class issue than anyone else. If you have to state something to someone, the high chance is, you're frustrated about the system around it.
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