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PEOPLE LIKE US: SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA (TV)

Summary

A documentary exploring issues of social class in America, divided into four parts, each containing one or more stories of Americans experiencing and observing class divisiveness. Additional commentary is provided throughout the film by authors and social critics, including David Patrick Columbia, R. Curtis Hay, Barbara Ehrenreich, Joe Queenan, Dan Rodricks, Paul Fussell, Benilde Little, Laurence Otis Graham, and Stanley Crouch. Part one, "Bud or Bordeaux: Choices Reveal Class," looks at non-verbal declarations of class affiliation, in three chapters: "Joe Queenan's Balsamic Vinegar Tour," in which the author quips on the middle-class drive to display avant-garde tastes through trendy purchases; "The Trouble with Tofu," a look at social divisions in a small town exposed by the proposal to fill a vacancy left by a chain supermarket with a cooperative store; and "How to Marry the Rich," in which museum staffer Vessa Rinehart is given lessons in passing as upper class by a fellow interloper, self-help consultant, and millionaire's wife Ginie Polo-Sayles. Part two, "High and Low: A Tour of the Landscape of Class," explores perceptions of the upper, middle, and working classes from within and without.

Highlights include the following: "WASP Lessons," in which author Thomas Langhorne Phipps deconstructs the pretensions of the upper crust; "Bourgeois Blues," a discussion of social strains between African Americans of the working, middle, and upper-middle classes; a visit to the Redneck Games in East Dublin, Georgia where self-described rednecks flaunt the low status bestowed upon them by society; and "Tammy's Story," the hard-knock story of Tammy Crabtree who barely scrapes together a life for her family in a social strata that her teenage son Matt desperately wants to escape. Part three, "The Salt of the Earth: Blue-Collar Life in a White-Collar World," contains the following stories of the working class in America: "Gnomes R US," in which the owner of a garden decoration shop explains the working class love of concrete garden sculpture; "Friends in Low Places," which looks at two pastimes -- the "Hon Festival" and "dive bar crawls" -- in which the middle classes try to evoke the nostalgia of a "lost" working class; and "Don't Get Above Your Raisin," in which Dana Felty, a rural Kentuckian who moved to Washington D.C., talks about being a rural girl in an urban world, her family's perceptions of her move to Washington D.C., and her feelings as the odd one out in both environments.

Part four, "Belonging: Understanding the Rules of the Game," contains "All You Need is Cash," a visit to the WASPs of the East Hamptons, and "Most Likely to Succeed," a look at class divisions at their most visible -- in an American high school -- where "cliques," "intruders," "outsiders," and "insiders" form a microcosm of society at large. The program concludes with "Hopes and Fears," in which commentators reflect on the effects their own class experiences had on their attempts to maintain or change their class identifications Additional commentary is interspersed through the end credits.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 2003.

Details

  • NETWORK: PBS
  • DATE: September 23, 2001 Sunday 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:56:51
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:78557
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Social classes - United States; U S - Social life and customs
  • SERIES RUN: PBS - TV, 2001
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Richard Thomas … Executive Producer
  • Georgia Manukas … Coordinating Producer
  • Louis Alvarez … Producer, Director
  • Andrew Kolker … Producer, Director
  • Peter Odabashian … Co-Producer
  • Rachel Boynton … Associate Producer
  • Christine Connor … Associate Producer
  • Lisa Wood Shapiro … Associate Producer
  • Rudy Cheeks … Narrator
  • David Patrick Columbia
  • Stanley Crouch
  • Matt Crabtree
  • Tammy Crabtree
  • Barbara Ehrenreich
  • Dana Felty
  • Paul Fussell
  • Laurence Otis Graham
  • R. Curtis Hay
  • Benilde Little
  • Thomas Langhorne Phipps
  • Ginie Polo-Sayles
  • Joe Queenan
  • Vessa Rinehart
  • Dan Rodricks