Social class prejudice is a negative attitude towards people based on their economic status, education level and access to income. In other words, it's the kind of prejudice regarding the social class of individuals.
This kind of prejudice affects mainly low-income people, who are often classified as less capable.
There is also an exclusion of activities and places, some of them public, but whose access is considered exclusive to the "higher classes".
A common situation within classes is that social status turns out, for the most part, to be hereditary, that is, a person born into a certain social class is a member of that class, at least during their lifetime. initial.
The history of social prejudice
The concept of social class is a historical category that emerged in the 19th century, in the specific context of Western industrialized societies.
The concept has undergone some changes over the years, but it remains fundamental for thinking about current capitalist societies
Social classes started to
represent inequalities with wide differences in opportunities, lifestyles, material standards, working conditions and home environment.Each social class generally maintains a negative stereotype (an oversimplified opinion of others that often justifies negative prejudices) of other social classes.
The working class considers upper class citizens as "not doing real work", like making products with their own hands, for example.
Members of the upper and middle class, on the other hand, saw the working class as coarse, uneducated, and working in unpleasant working conditions.
Social prejudice and Marxism
It is practically impossible to talk about social prejudice without citing Karl Marx. The philosopher said that all societies (with the exception of primitive hunters/gatherers) are divided along class lines.
Instead of defining class by occupation, Marx adopted an economic definition based on the relationship of people to the means of production.
According to Marx, there are two classes:
- The ruling class, who owns the means of production (entrepreneurs);
- The subordinate class, which has only its workforce.
This is known as a dichotomous or two-part view of society.
These two classes are interdependent, but their interests never coincide and are in conflict with each other: the class dominant benefits from society as it is, the subordinate class benefits from the change to no longer be oppressed.
In capitalism, these two classes are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat..
As the ruling class of the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat, class conflict inevitably exists.
social prejudice in Brazil
In a survey conducted in December 2019 by Datasheet, a result was released in which 30% of Brazilians interviewed said they had suffered some kind of prejudice because of their social class and economic condition.
According to this data, it is possible to have an idea of how social prejudice is present in Brazilian society. This is mainly due to the great social inequality in the country.
It is precisely because Brazilian society is very unequal that there is social prejudice, which, as already mentioned, affects mainly the less favored classes.
See too:
- Preconception;
- linguistic prejudice;
- Racial prejudice;
- 6 main types of prejudice;
- The 5 most important moments in the fight against prejudice and racism;
- Social inequality;
- Racism;
- Social issues;
- Social class;
- social stratification;
- social hierarchy;
- Marxism.