The American Caste System

OBSERVATION: All human beings need someone they feel superior to.

CASE IN POINT: We are having our home painted and I am finding the hierarchy among the painters so intriguing. What we have here is a microcosm of American society today.

We, the home owners, are middle class, college educated, white, mid-western Americans. The owners of the painting company are African American. The manager of the site and his wife are white, but, if I am being politically correct, I would say they are white Americans, short on education, who are undoubtedly low income. I make this observation through appearance, conversation and a lack of good dental health. If I were not being politically correct and were a very offensive person, they would be labeled "white trash". And, the two other two painters are "The Mexicans"- kind, laughing men with little command of the English language. And, thus falls the hiearchy.

Geez... we are all such elitists in our own way. Craig and I have even struggled as to how to refer to the Latino men. They are in fact, Mexican by birth- but being referred to as Mexican in America has become almost a vulgarity. The site managers refer to them as "The Mexicans", they say this in an insulting, looked-down-upon way. They do not allow "The Mexicans" to use our bathroom. We graciously don't expect the paint crew to drive to a convenience store for this human function. They have been outside our house, daily, for a week. Seriously, use our bathroom.

At times the situation seems laughable, but mostly it's really, really sad. Sad, that we as God's children, despise each other so much. I used to find it crazy that my mom grew up in a country (India) with a caste system. A system so stringent that whole groups of people had no hope of rising out of their caste and those on the lower end could only hope for jobs of servitude. I'd like to think we, as Americans, are different, but, of course, we're not.

I know, I know.. this is the way of the world from the beginning of time. Always there will be those on the top and those on the bottom of the social rung. I also know that there is no one among us who does not have their own prejudices. You can be very open to different ethnicities, income levels, nationalities but really look down upon people who are ignorant and uneducated. You can strive for political correctness, but not want to have anything to do with someone who doesn't share your religious or political beliefs. And so on and so on... our prejudices are endless.

In my heart I believe we are all God's children, but in reality, I understand that we humans don't have the capacity to honor this and probably never will. In the meantime, I sit and observe and find humor in the situation at hand and in our primal need for superiority.

VSL