I’m privileged, a statement that sounds adventitious. My privilege feels more like chance rather than by design. A somewhat isolated journey that, years prior, I was unaware of the considerable energy it takes to enjoy living as a Middle-Class minority. Unsuspecting to me, I’d been creating the foundation of stability and opportunity to live comfortably in unimaginable spaces. The entanglements of education, income, and professional experiences create complex feelings toward resources and lack thereof. It’s raising myself towards brave opportunity while healing from past statements of not amounting to much.

As time drifted, my upbringing felt further unconnected to new circumstances; I’d questioned if revisiting earlier experiences would materialize. I’d wordlessly yearned to embrace my past but couldn’t brave what felt like a raw exploration of whom I’d become. I buried deep within the wounds of trauma, racism, and classism experienced in a low-socioeconomic status. Climbing (what often felt like infiltrating) middle-class environments, in effect, amplified what I was unknowingly trying to dismiss.

With an added identity, new anxieties emerged. I was questioning every aspect of a new social status. Unintentionally asking, how long will it last? As a middle-class minority, I worked, lived, and consumed primarily in white spaces. Spaces composed of unaccustomed ways of life, attitudes, and society. I understand the world differently because of my upbringing and see the systemic problems that plague many work environments.

Social-Class Origins and the Workplace

Submerged by societal and institutional norms that benefit some and not others, magnified absent components towards equality. As a work culture, we don’t discuss economic life changes — the ability to exhibit how past experiences influence our current existence. An omitted opportunity to appreciate, recognize, and adequately utilize talents, skills, and lived experiences of people from lower-class origins.

Our past is rarely a point of conversation, yet an influencer of barriers towards opportunity. As a First Generation Professional (FGP), I write to you with a reflective (and growing) capacity to advise on the many intersecting identities that louden workplace equality. The opportunity to understand the relationship between socioeconomic status and workplace discrimination.

Existing Barriers

Individuals from lower social-class origins have underdone conditions encompassing less access to money, fewer upward mobility networks, and uncharted cultural know-how to advance. Additionally, identifying as low-socioeconomic presents intersecting identities of “Latino/Latina,” “African-American,” “disabled,” “at risk,” and “minority.” Individuals within this group are unnoticed as managers and not included in the fabric of programs and policies. Contrary to individualistic beliefs, low-socioeconomic individuals possess leadership abilities that are more considerate and equalitarian.

Besides the rationalized discrimination experienced by people of color in the workplace, social class origins influence bias within white-collar environments. How soon depends on the color of our skin, speaking a language other than English, and exhibiting lower class upbringings. Generally known as covert discrimination but also referenced as subtle racism.

Socioeconomic Status is Diversity

In spaces largely controlled by middle-class environments, it’s easier to ignore the unequal distribution of power that covertly disbars others. To pull through, we put our energy into expressing our abilities and inadvertently enter the white boundaries of acceptance. As a result, the unnoticed effects of trauma, racism, and classism of past and present experiences contribute to the “emotional stress, physical harm, and/or fear” often hidden by minorities. Inclusion is not a ‘one size’ fits all. The creation of workplace inclusion needs to encompass social and political identities that discontinue discrimination and privilege. Inclusion programs should not be interventions but interconnected components that guide workplace policies. Although minor changes to a more significant issue, including Socioeconomic Status, leads to understanding employee economic life transitions and connected adverse effects.

Socioeconomic status is often overlooked in workplace equity and diversity initiatives, where it is assumed that there are no barriers related to this form of discrimination because the class is not mentioned in the protected classes outlined by civil rights statutes. However, people’s circumstances and opportunities differ based on their socioeconomic status. When an important group is underrepresented in the workplace, we have work to do.