Woman: One of the things that determines class in my book is how people treat other people. It doesn’t matter your race or where you come from or what your past was, it’s how you are to people and if you treat people the way you want to be treated.

Woman: Most people would say income. Maybe educational level would fit in too.

Man: It’s sort of like disposable income. Where you can afford to live, where you can afford to shop. What you can afford to drive.

Woman: I think it is a matter of how active you are. Like, if your kids are in sports and if you go to their sports and do things. I don’t think money makes you, you know, any better or any worse.

Man: I would have to say it is a non-descript social division among people, either through merit or money, either old or new money, or birth.

Woman: Sometimes I think it is a touchy subject because people don’t want to admit that it exists. We like to think that we are all equal and to talk about class is to recognize that we’re not.

Chyatte: Class—a group of people who share certain economic, social, or cultural characteristics—yet many associate class simply with money. Most sociologists agree money is an element of class but it is not the single most important indicator. If that were the case, even the nouveau riche, like Jennifer Lopez would be considered high class.

“Jenny From the Block...” (Music clip)

Used to have a little now I have a lot
No matter where I go I know where I came from
Don’t be fooled by the rocks that I got
I'm still, I'm still Jenny from the block
Used to have a little now I have a lot
No matter where I go I know where I came from
I’m down to earth like this...

Chyatte: The lyrics of J. Lo’s song remind her fans that no matter how rich or popular she becomes, she will always stay true to her middle-class upbringing. Akron community leader John Frank says money alone cannot lift anyone from the middle class to the upper class.

Frank: Some people can strike it rich and have a lot of money, spend a lot of money, but never in what we consider the class structure, have increased their position. For example, Larry Flynt.

Chyatte: Despite the J. Los and the Larry Flynts of society, most Americans find comfort in identifying themselves as middle-class. Laurie Gilles is the assistant curator at Stan Hywet hall in Akron and is a self-professed, happy middle-class woman.

Gilles: I don’t aspire to be more than that because I’m comfortable at my age in my life, but I think for many individuals, especially the younger people that intern here at Stan Hywet, for instance, and my own children, aspire to a higher class.

Chyatte: But the middle-class today is a hazy shade of gray—where it starts and where it ends depends on whom you ask. At the beginning of the 20th century, Akron was the place to live with the explosion of the rubber industry. Only a few families dominated the social and political scene. The Firestones, the Knights, the Thomas’, and the Sieberlings set social standards and constantly made the social pages. Few of these families remain in Northeast Ohio today, but a lasting reminder of the way the upper class used to live can be found at Stan Hywet, built by the Sieberlings. Curator Mark Heppner says the Sieberling’s, who started Goodyear Tire, epitomized high class on multiple levels, including the parties they threw.

Heppner: They actually had this huge Shakespearean ball, over 300 guests, friends and family throughout Akron, and of course, all prominent families were on that guest registry. And this party was outside/inside. Mr. Sieberling hired a New York theatrical costume company. Everybody was hand-delivered an invitation, hand-written in Olde English script to invite them this Shakespearean ball and everyone was assigned a role.

Chyatte: The Sieberlings, like most of the prominent families, also knew there were certain community obligations expected of them or noblesse oblige.

Heppner: I think there was much more pride of community, of civic pride, try to make your immediate surroundings better for everyone. And yes, it is going to be better for you, but it is also going to make it better for everyone, for families. And I just don’t think you see that anymore. I think that’s a big difference. And I think there was a real social belief in the responsibility of making your society better. I think that was a creed they really believed.

Chyatte: Education was an integral part of the upbringing of the Sieberling children. All the children were educated on the East Coast at various Ivy League colleges and private prep schools. John Frank says today’s emphasis on education is not what it used to be when he attended Millbrook School in New York.

Frank: Here in Akron, a lot of people in the old days sent their children at high school level away. A lot of people went to Western Reserve Academy up in Hudson, but a lot of people went East in order to get an education. And having basically the Eastern educational experience is considered a class issue, it is considered snobbish, but it also proved very valuable for so many people. And that kind of sets some people apart.

Chyatte: The old image of the New England prep school is exemplified by movies like “The Emperor’s Club,” “School Ties,” and “Dead Poet’s Society” and Frank says very much presented him with opportunities that today’s students don’t have. Just as education became an important indicator of class, so has a person’s manners. Frank says manners are no longer taught.

Frank: You’re not really considered in the upper levels of the class, unless you have manners. Period. And manners, and how you treat people, is important. You’re not going to be accepted as you move up through the class, if you’re going to be crude and rude.

Chyatte: Etiquette consultant Catherine Holloway agrees—she says society has become transient and parents no longer stress manners.

Halloway: There was a generation that was raised with it and there were standards and expectations and people did and met those. And then all of a sudden, that generation got married, and they assumed, which a lot of times we do as parents, that by us doing something, our child is going to pick up on it. But they’re not actually taking the time to teach it to their child. Parents are sort of, in a way, forgetting to be parents.

Chyatte: Holloway says it is possible to learn manners as people rise in class. The story of moving from one class to another is portrayed in many rags to riches movies particularly where a woman moves up in society by marrying a handsome, and rich man.

Halloway: And the problem with economics and manners is that you can acquire manners and you can acquire money and you can find yourself in new social situations, but when you get in those situations, you want to be able to stay there.

Chyatte: Class is a complex issue without a clear-cut definition. It tends to be an uncomfortable subject for people to talk about at least in defining their own class. But delving deeper into class reveals a number of indicators of a person’s class including: giving back to society, education, economics, and manners.

—Michelle Chyatte
WKSU News

Where can I go for more information?

Learn about the history of the Sieberling family and the city of Akron as mentioned in this story.
http://www.stanhywet.org

Related articles on class found at The University of Chicago.
http://www.src.uchicago.edu/SocialClass/

Article about the shriking middle class of America found on consciouschoice.com.
http://www.consciouschoice.com/issues/cc095/classwarfare.html