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Coffee, Reflections, and Music

Still part of the (great) unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed (thank you, David)

If this is the level of aspiration, does it mean one is middle-class, on the way to becoming middle-class, or a middle-class wannabe? Photo by Christian Mackie on Unsplash

I was recently having dinner with friends when the topic of class arose. One of them insisted on putting me in the category “middle-class”. When I asked her why she couldn’t give me a straight answer which left me pondering about the way some of us see ourselves in relation to how others see us.

I have always considered myself to be working class regardless of my profession. A member of “the great unwashed”, if you like. Although I have never done the sort of job that belongs in blue-collar worker territory, I was brought up with an ethic that had more in common with the working class than with the middle-class.

Remnants of a class system are still part of Cuban life. True, they are not as conspicuous as they are in other countries, but they do exist. They manifest themselves differently and yet they still retain features that non-Cuban readers will easily recognise as elements they come across in their own backyards. Amongst these traits is the very definition of “middle-class”.

It was not until I moved to the UK that I began to think seriously about class. Not so much in terms of which class I belonged to but more…