| Summary: | A growing literature highlights the experiences of first-generation, low-income (FGLI) students on college campuses. However, these studies often conflate the positions of middle- and upper-class students. Using interviews with undergraduates at one elite institution, the author shows how upper-middle-class students responded to upward and downward cross-class encounters. Perceiving a status threat from above, students responded to interactions with rich peers through stereotypical denigration. Yet prolonged exposure to the rich resulted in another tactic, selective legitimation, which maintained that wealthy individuals who performed “awareness” could be morally rehabilitated. Encounters with FGLI classmates led respondents to view themselves as lucky or “privileged” for having escaped hardship, leading to rituals of deference aimed at muting the salience of class difference. Finally, despite their heightened recognition of class inequality, respondents drew equivalences between the problems of rich and poor students, ultimately denying the relevance of privilege in determining individual worth.
|
|---|