One must, occasionally, stand in front of a mirror and delve beyond the surface of his being. One must see through the nature of one’s house and car and apparel to give oneself a thinking moment. “Who am I but my culture, what is my culture but an intolerable classist regime, at least primarily.”
Classism is defined as ‘the prejudice against a particular social class’. Though our country’s literacy rate does indicate the incognizance of the word among the people, we are quite skilled with the practice. In our positions of power, we are all lusting after authority, we are all megalomaniacs addicted to power and classism is a brilliant outlet of this poison we harvest. To err is human, but a society truly begins to fail when it ceases to even recognize, much less try to eradicate its vices. We have arrived at this unfortunate destination.
Just like all of us, the law in this country fails the people it is supposed to shelter. Every day, in the loud districts of Pakistan, people fall victim to all sorts of crimes; some better known, others not so much. May it be cases of mass child abuse, the well-known case of 7-year-old Zainab being gang-raped, the cold-blooded murder of 19-year-old bus hostess Mahwish Arshad or the hundreds and thousands of victims who go unnoticed and leave us forgotten; it is impossible for their underprivileged households to spend money on what, to them, is lost, love.
This is why harassment in a multi-story bank headquarters is taken to court but ‘employers’ emotionally and, more often, sexually harassing maids and cooks at home does not qualify as ‘workplace harassment’.
Here, justice is not served, it is bought. The truth is that justice here is expensive and the truth prevails.
In unity with the law, the economic system of the state does no more good for those whom it is designed for. So, in an agro-based country, there are still farmers who are not registered under the economy, in the elite class there are still servants who go unnoticed, there are still cooks and maids who are not recognized as workers.
This lessens respect for them and their work, removing the shelter of workplace law and policy from above their heads. In addition to that, it is this undocumented economy that is being generated but not recorded that damages the GDP of the state.
What the state does is part of our favorite blame game. The other end of this panorama is the privileged class of society and its classic case of classism.
The thirst for power is so deeply ingrained in us that when we find ourselves in a position of privilege, we tend to exploit it. Maybe, for that reason, our tongues never fail us when we send off a pauper knocking on our air conditioned car windows. We never stop to smile or nod at a stranger who isn’t at least as expensively dressed as us.
We do not dare to ask for a second consecutive leave from work but we do not have to think twice to vociferate across a room and put our maid ‘right back in her place’, to remind her that she is being paid and that somehow her salary is a favor so she does not deserve the holiday privileges we are blessed with. Such is the behavior we have learned from our parents and it is only this inhumane attitude that we pass on to our children.
Read Also
When we take a closer look at the disgusting classism that prevails in this society, it becomes binding upon us to analyze the very nature of the jobs that are given to those residing below the poverty line. Even in this time and age, it is necessary to state in words for us to realize that an individual’s respect does not diminish with his nature of work. So foremost, a janitor is doing the job we couldn’t do for ourselves and the nature of his help does not make him any less of a helper.
Secondly, if a worker is hired solely to pull up the socks of a millionaire’s school-going son, that job must not reside in the market, for, with its minimal wages, it totters on the brink of slavery.
This, however, is still not the full extent of our animalism. Underprivileged individuals; men, women, and children; are often taken advantage of by the deep-rooted, powerful mafia in urban cities to supply for their never-ending need for beggars and criminals.
Together, the locals and the government are indulged in designing a perfect circle of poverty and crime to keep those who are below us right where they are. We are all sinners, different in the sins we perform, but sinners nevertheless