I read a very interesting quote the other day, one I’ve never really put much thought into. It read: “People ask what you do for a living so they can calculate the level of respect they give you.” If you think about it, the quote can be interpreted in many different ways including but not limited to: How do you earn a salary? How much do you make? What is your social status? Are you richer than I am? Is my job title above or below you? Is this person worth my attention?
Now let me break it down for you into plain and simple terms. We live in an extremely classist country, more classism than the entirety of what I’ve seen in my earthly existence. And mind you, I’ve been moving countries every three years since the day I was born. People respect you and treat you differently according to where you live, what school and university you attended, what car you drive, the clothes you wear, bags and shoes, watches, summer homes, the whole damn shebang!
So, what exactly is respect, you ask? Well, in simple words, it’s the sense of worth or personal value that you attach to someone. Respect is the overall assessment you give to someone based on many factors such as how they treat you and others. Whether they are honest or not and if they seem to consistently do good things, big or small, for other people. In short, respect is a positive view that you form of how someone is living their life. So what part of this context predetermines how people treat you based on the materialistic things you own? I cant seem to find an a proper answer. Can you?
I’ve always battled with the idea of classism, very loosely and generically in my head. I was very fortunate growing up, thanks to my family and absolutely no thanks to me. My father taught me at a very young age that it doesn’t give me the right to stick my nose in the air and think I’m better than anyone else because I literally contribute to zero percent of his wealth factor. I was also very fortunate to understand this growing up and knowing very well that I needed to prove myself and work extra hard to not be judged as a little spoilt brat who had things ‘easy’.
What I realized, is that people generally treat you with more respect, the wealthier you are and the fancier your job title sounds. It’s a sick cycle that I despise and what I hate most about living in this country. From my own personal experience, I was given better treatment and respect simply because of my background, or that I spoke better English than someone else and a bunch of ridiculous other reasons. I don’t understand it, I hate it and I still can’t seem to find any logical reasoning behind it except that we’re shallow.
Let’s start judging people on their kindness, their compassion, honesty, love, their good deeds and encouraging words. Your Valentino bag won’t spread love, your BMW won’t comfort a depressed person, your high ranking position won’t cheer your child up when they’ve been bullied. I hope you get where I’m coming from at this point and I hope you take my words to heart and start being nicer to people.
