The Global Citizen: Not First Class? Move On Back!

Those are magic words to my ears.

I finally got out of my seat, gathered by overstuffed carry-ons, and shuffled through my papers to get out my boarding pass. But I should have stayed seated, because first class, business class, frequent fliers and all other genres of priority seating were called to board first. It takes American Airlines quite a long time to deign us regular shmos with the privilege of boarding.

One of these days we’re going to find ourselves paying for the luxury of a seat so as not to be stowed away with the baggage. And funnily enough, those are paid spaces too, hence the reason for my overstuffed carry-ons.

While waiting for my flight to take off, I was made well aware that had I paid for first class, I would be getting a meal, but since I didn’t, I could pay for a cookie.

With all this holiday traveling in the atmosphere, I began ruminating over my most recent travels. Flights, and airline procedures in particular (with a few exceptions), seem to me to be one of the last strong bastions of overt classism in American society. Sure, subtly its still everywhere, but the general avoidance of even talking about class gets thrown out the window at airports where people are called to board by their classes.

Money talks. Wealth is power. These adages probably sound familiar to us all. But when did we begin accepting the value that money should determine how people are treated? Maybe that’s a dumb question, as money has talked for centuries, but I still can’t help but grapple with it.

Upwardly mobile folks have probably found that the biggest difference money makes in their lives is not in materials gains, but rather in service and life treatment gains. If you are a big tipper, everyone from cabbies to waitresses to garbage men will give you their tiptop service. If you fly often, you’ll board first and wait in a private lounge. The list goes on and on, but the point it that there are very few problems that can’t be solved fast and easily with some money and a reputation for having money.

And my own class as part of the ranks of the developed world allows me this freedom of mobility to board that plane, car, or train at all. While living in Ramogi, Uganda, our group would travel the 20 to 30 minutes by van into the town of Tororo, while people within the community had never been there. It cost much more to get a ride on a boda-boda (motorcycle) into town than it did to give someone the money to pick things up. It’s crazy to think I had been to that town numerous times, and a 50-year-old woman living in Ramogi for her entire life had never been there at all.

I know y’all may be sick of hearing the opening “This holiday season, be sure to (fill in the blank)” but here I go with my own plug. This holiday season, be sure to treat people well no matter their ‘tipping potential.’ I know this may be something we think we all do already, but the values of classism sneaks its way into all our consciousness in one way or another. Allow class stratification domestically and abroad to take on more of a primary role in your cognition. Some suggestions: 1)As we are entering the time of the most poultry consumption in the States, make sure to buy meat from companies with unions and workers paid at least minimum wage, and 2)Consider making donations to charities as gifts to friends and family. That’s all I’ve got for now, but if you think of more, feel free to share it right here in the comments.

Here’s a little secret, its not really money that talks, its us that gives it its voice.