The Deep Story

At the 2017 National Council for the Social Studies annual conference, I had the privilege of helping to facilitate a three session symposium on the teaching of high school sociology.  Our keynote speaker was Arlie Russell Hochschild.  Dr. Hochschild is a professor Emeritus of sociology at UC Berkley.  She is a renowned ethnographer.  At NCSS 2017, she spoke about her most recent work, Strangers In Their Own Land; Anger and Mourning on the American Right.

What I found most intriguing in her book was the concept of the "deep story", or a story that shapes the way people feel.  It doesn't matter if the story is real or true or not.  What matters is that the story is believed to be true so people shape their feelings and actions as if it were real.  

Dr. Hochschild's idea is explained on NPR's Hidden Brain, 

In her new book, Strangers in Their Own Land, sociologist Arlie Hochschild tackles this paradox. She says that while people might vote against their economic needs, they're actually voting to serve their emotional needs.Hochschild says that both conservative and liberals have "deep stories" — about who they are, and what their values are. Deep stories don't need to be completely accurate, but they have to feel true. They're the stories we tell ourselves to capture our hopes, pride, disappointments, fears, and anxieties.

People Like Us Day 3

People Like Us Day 3

Salituro’s DuC Soc; Ways of Thinking

Unit 4: Deviance/Social Class

Day 3:  Don't Get Above Your Raisin 121:00-2:04:10

Dana's Story

1. How does social class make life difficult for Dana Felty?



2.  What are some of the obstacles to moving up in class described in this segment?

High School

"Well, your CD collection looks shiny and costly.
How much did you pay for your bad Moto Guzi?
And how much did you spend on your black leather jacket?
Is it you or your parents in this income tax bracket?"
- Cake

3. How does class play itself out at our high school, or in high school in general? Does high school reinforce or prepare you for fitting into a social class? If so, how? Give some examples from our high school. Additionally, how do you think moving up or down would affect you? Which would be tougher? What if you married/dated someone who was very low income or someone rich? What difficulty would this cause in your family and friends?

People Like Us Part 2: how Tammy, Appalachia and poverty

People Like Us Day 2:  High and Low; A Tour Through the Landscape of Class  33:01-102:33

WASP Lessons
The upperclass old money caste is featured in the first part of this segment.  For background, here is an article about the social club in the video.
1.  What defines this group?  What  does it take to get into their group? 



Bourgeousie Blues
This segment is about a group of people in the middle class who are not always comfortable with being middle class. 
2.  Who is this group?  Why would they be uncomfortable moving up into the middle class?


Tammy's Story
This segment details life at the bottom of the social class ladder. 
3.  What is life like for them?

4.  How does Tammy's son react to being at the bottom?  What do you think about his chances of obtaining what he talks about in the video?

-----PAUSE--------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER YOU ANSWER #4 ABOVE, YOU MAY CONTINUE



In the movie People Like Us we met Tammy and her sons from Pike County, Ohio. (Watch the video on youtube here or watch it on mediacast here.) They live in poverty. Tammy was from a family of 22 kids and she grew up in poverty. She wants to be a teacher. Her son wants to be an architect or a lawyer. Will they be able to achieve these goals? What are the factors that will hold them back? What will their life chances be? One of the ways that Tammy’s son copes with his situation is by trying to dress preppy and act preppy. He cleans the house so it looks better and he tries in school, winning awards and succeeding in sports. Can these actions move him up to a higher class or is he kidding himself? What are the chances he succeeds in the "American Dream"?

Fourteen years after the original filming of Tammy, the producers of the show caught up with her and recorded this update.  What do you think it might show?

5.  Brainstorm some ways that social class may have shaped Tammy and her son.


Tammy is just one of thousands of Americans living in poverty. Her story highlights many of the difficulties of life in poverty: poor health, few jobs, inadequate education, stressful family dynamics, all limit the chances of those living in poverty ever getting out of it. Diane Sawyer did a special report on Appalachia that highlighted the children affected by poverty. I think there is a tendency for us to blame the adults for their impoverished situation, but we forget that these adults were once children born into a world of difficulties and obstacles that led to an adulthood of poverty. You can hear Diane Sawyer talk about it here. Can you use your sociological imagination to see all of the social forces that limit those who are in poverty in America? Watch the excerpt below from 20/20 to see the complicated life of the rural impoverished American or watch the whole video on mediacast here.

People Like Us - Part 1 Class Matters; Class influence and interaction

People Like Us Part 1:  Beginning to 33:09

Class Matters

In part 1, the authors make the case that class matter in our everyday lives.  First, it matters because it shapes us in more ways than simply income.  Here's one example of how we are shaped:
Why would someone pay $100 for wooden utensils that you can get much cheaper?
From William and Sonoma:

It is a set of wooden utensils - but not just any wooden utensils, "Canadian inventor and designer Tom Littledeer is known for his beautifully carved kitchen tools with fluid shapes inspired by canoe paddles. Each of the tools in this set is handcrafted from a single piece of North American maple..." $99.99 for a set of 5.

1.  What are all the ways that the documentary shows that people are influenced by social class?


Second, a few of the interviewees say that people from different social classes do not interact much on a daily basis. One person says that the last time he saw people from a different class was in high school and they didn’t get along much because the working class people felt that the upper middle class people were always looking down on them. He also said that the lower classes feel “invisible.” David Brooks said that people from different classes might interact at a baseball game, but they don’t really understand each other.  Visit the following marketing website to see what kind of people live near you.  The following website provides evidence for one small way that classes tend to separate themselves. What do you think of it? Click on the link below and then visit the visitors section:  Ivy League Dating
2.  On a daily basis, when do you get to interact with people from different classes? Why do lower class people feel “invisible?” Do you think this is true?  How are we encouraged to not let others into our class? Do you think that our parents encourage us to mix with people from a certain class?


If there is time, here is a game called Chintz or Shag where you pick decorations for your living room and based on the choices, they will tell you what class your preferences line up with.