Are people more divided by class or culture?

I don't think the two are entirely separate things. Each class does have its own culture, and each culture has different definitions of class, to some extent. They're inextricably linked in quite a few ways.

Anyway, I get along with Indian friends who are from the same class as I am more than I get along with Australians of a different class. Not because of any conscious effort, but I share interests with people of my own class.

Another thought is that the lesser your socio-economic status, the more you have to cling to your culture to have a sense identity and power. The richer you are, the more likely you are to be "cosmopolitan", which tends to be a polite way of saying spoiled, rich brat who mostly travels to relieve boredom, and usually has massive aspects of cultural appropriation. But poor people can't financially afford this, and they can't in all aspects afford to lose their culture when it's all they have.

While cultural divisions are often the excuse to let off steam (wars with no meaning sparked by nationalism), the real anger and division is when revolution comes to a country.

Divides such as the Shi'ite/Sunni hostility is related to both culture and class; the culture of whichever has power is imposed as much as possible at the expense of the other in a lot of countries, resulting in one culture becoming lower in class.

Culture results in class being imposed, and class results in culture for the purpose of gaining or maintaining power.

 

Well that's a tricky question because technically social class is part of culture. You can have culture without class but you can't really have class without culture. Because of this, I think that people are more divided by culture than class. In some cultures money is less significant to them compared to others. People have different beliefs, speak different languages, and have different customs that make up their culture. I can tell you that if I were to go to Japan, i'd feel more divided about not knowing about their language and customs than the amount of money I have.

 

Class systems systems are usually fundamentally the same. The rich, the comfortable, the average, the struggling, and the poor. (Caste systems? Whole other bucket of worms.)
But your cultural background helps determine your values, your beliefs, your outlook on life... The list goes on.
Either way, they both have a profound effect on you. Both are essential to society. The difference is that class can usually fluctuate, but your background stays with you.
Culture has the more permanent impact, but your money can allow you to use Life Hacks.

 

I'm middle class. I often hang out with my friend who is poor and my 2 other friends who are rich.

My poor friend and I get along just fine. I go over his house and we just sit on the couch and either talk or play video games. He also likes to drink, so sometimes I go over and join him then sleep over his house on the couch in his living room.

My rich friends and I get along just as well. I have gone bowling with them, played board games in their kitchens, and walked around the mall with them for mindless fun.

I don't recall having friends of this nature that were from a different culture. I had acquaintances in school that were Asian or from the Middle East, but I didn't go over their houses and hang out. I had dinner with my teacher from Turkey twice at his apartment. It was interesting. His wife cooked the food while the teacher and my family talked in the living room. Then she served everyone and was last to join the table. When ever I asked to get up and get some water, he motioned to her and she ran to fill my glass. When the next course was ready, she cleaned the table and served everyone's food leaving herself for last. I don't have an issue with this if that is how the culture dictates. I was fairly uncomfortable being waited on and behaving in such a formal manner. I was forced by my mother to go back for the second time. I had wanted to politely decline, but she thought it would be good to go back again.

So from my experience, culture is more dividing to me. I would party with rich and poor in the same room. What I have trouble with is totally changing the WAY I party or hang out. That's difficult.

 

I'm inclined to say class is more of a divider than culture, because it engenders a certain culture in people depending on their class. It's class that forces people together in geographical groups, class that dictates what interests people can and can't afford, class that often plays a key role in level of education and a host of other things which you could say play a big part in someone's culture. Class can cause difference in culture.

However you shouldn't dismiss other things like nationality or traditions as part of culture. Class is pivotal in deciding someone's culture but it isn't the only input. Class can decide sub-cultures and counter-cultures in different places and, yes, many of these cultures are similar in different places depending on class. But you can't say that for instance Britain's working class culture is the same as India's working class culture, because as well as class-based cultures there is also wider national cultures that people have which lead to different languages, customs etc.

But yes, back to the question. I'm actually still thinking this through... but for now I will say that class is more of a divider than culture because it creates cultural divides within communities in every developed nation, but it's also ideas of nationality (which are often wider than class culture in a community) that play a big part in dividing people, almost as much as class.

 

Class is linked to but isn't measured by your income.

I'm English but I can't actually name another English person in Glasgow who I'd class as a friend, although there are plenty of us here so I could be cliquey if I wanted to be. But I have friends from Scotland/Ireland/Sweden/Romania/Bulgaria/Germany Luxembourg/Kosovo/Lithuania/Estonia Hungary/Italy/Slovakia/Canada/France/Norway Denmark/Austria/The Netherlands/Spain. You get the picture. Admittedly, culture in Europe isn't too broad and despite meeting, say, Chinese people all the time, it can often be difficult to connect. But for me I don't find culture too dividing. I definitely don't mind being the 'only English guy' or anything.

 

They are divided by money.

A person with a lot of class, and intelligence, may not have that much money and will not be able to easily mingle with those who do.

A person who has no class, and no intelligence, can have a lot of money and find lots moneyed friends because moneyed people can spend money easily in search of the high life.

If of a different culture, and either a VIP (famous researcher) or assimilated (Bobby Jindal), and have money, those folks can tap the moneyed crowd too, irrespective of their culture.

What I've seen.

 

I think they're so intertwined that it's hard to tell

 

We have many privileged students at my school (myself included), a majority of middle class, and some lower class students as well. And, overall, many people mix just fine. My friend group is pretty much that; a couple of rich kids and some middle class kids and we get a long swimmingly. Yet, with culture, many of the foreigners that I've met, they don't seem to be pushed out of the way at all. So, I guess I'll just agree with biwinning when he says,

 

I appreciate your thoughts. However, I am a little bit worried to try and pin down whether I really think it's class or culture. I think that asking the question might be a little dividing in itself. The reason is, when we ask a question like "what divides us the most?" we're asking a question about "what single thing can we improve upon in the world to make it the most just?" And I think that's not the best question to ask because it invites us to prioritize whose well-being we care about the most.

A person impoverished in the United States working two or even three minimum wage jobs and a Muslim immigrant in France may suffer from comparable levels of oppression, but I don't think we should look at both of their struggles and wonder whether a "class analysis" or a "cultural analysis" would solve everyone's problems better in the long run.

Class and capitalist domination affects almost all cultures, but of course, almost all cultures have their boundaries where people are "in or out" of the tribe and therefore you have the same kind of worries around racism, xenophobia and assimilationist pressures. They are both profoundly complicated issues with tendrils all over the place.

I am not saying it's not worth wondering about; on the contrary, I think culture and class should both be discussed as issues that divide us so that we can synthesize that into a comprehensive, liberatory politics.

To make my point, I feel like I should provide some historical background. If you look at both the feminist movement and the union movement in the United States, you'll find that racism were present in both of those movements. That tells us, among other things, that a totalized ideology or analysis around a single dimension of human oppression can cause us to ignore and alienate others who could be working with us. Racism forced many women of color out, and feminism is battling to this very day against a perception of being for the benefit of white, able-bodied, middle class women. Similarly, the union movement alienated a lot of black workers and therefore made itself that much weaker. In fact, in the case of the union movement, it was argued, in response to claims of racism within the movement, that we needed to "unify" around a "class analysis" and that racism "couldn't be dealt with" at that particular time.