This is what I was trying to communicate to Ego in some other thread when I said that it was sooooo boring how all the women shopping in the affluent suburban Whole Foods try to look attractive in exactly the same way. Also, I would note for the record that my friend who is worth over $70 million understands only enough of the above to make decisions related to stock market purchases. He grew up on a hard-scrabble farm with 13 siblings and still behaves like somebody who had to eat on the porch half the time. Whereas, my former lover who was practically the Ideal Ken Doll for the lifestyle described above does not have nearly that net worth and admired me for being such a "beautiful free spirit" (or at least that is what he said to get into my NOT-Whole Foods Shopper Pilates Ideal size 6 pants. )To feel at home in opportunity-rich areas, you’ve got to understand the right barre techniques, sport the right baby carrier, have the right podcast, food truck, tea, wine and Pilates tastes, not to mention possess the right attitudes about David Foster Wallace, child-rearing, gender norms and intersectionality.
The educated class has built an ever more intricate net to cradle us in and ease everyone else out. It’s not really the prices that ensure 80 percent of your co-shoppers at Whole Foods are, comfortingly, also college grads; it’s the cultural codes.
By happenstance (or not???), I recently decided to explore how tutoring in an affluent district would compare with teaching in a low-income district. Verified my previous supposition that there are a good many very bright, low-income kids getting a seriously crap education in America and a good many, not very bright, affluent kids getting an excellent education in America. Since I long ago decided that my core "tribe" was the "IQ over 130 cuckoo-bananas" tribe, I personally think this is a shame and a waste.