People Like Us
People Like Us
People Like Us
Answer the following questions while watch People Like Us. Please make all answers either bold, set
off by a space (below and above), or highlighted.
16. How does People Like Us depict “rednecks”? Do you think it is an accurate description?
It shows them as country and dirty. I think it is mostly accurate.
17. What does it mean to feel "invisible" in the United States? In what ways is Tammy
Crabtree invisible, and to whom?
People don’t focus on you because you aren’t rich or popular. She’s invisible because no one
notices her and it’s to the upper classes.
18. Based on Ms. Crabtree’s, how has her family history and the impact of her social class
on her aspirations, opportunities, and achievements (or lack of) in life.
Her family was poor, but hardworking and she is also the same way.
19. Why is she considered "trash" by her neighbors? What is her own view of her life and
her future?
She doesn’t have a lot of money and she isn’t very presentable a lot. She feels like she is fine
because she is trying.
20. What is the conflict between Tammy and Matt?
They beef because she’s poor and he doesn’t want to be poor.
24. What does DiIulio, the segment commentator, mean by his statement? How is the
working class romanticized in American culture? Demonized?
They don’t know if they want them to be in higher classes or to keep them lower than
everybody else.
25. What prompts one group to try to enter the world of another? Are the minglers in this
sequence celebrating class differences -- or making fun of them? Or both? How do the
people being discussed in the Hon Fest and dive-bar feel about the Hon Fest
participants and the dive-bar crawlers?
I think they’re doing both because they might make fun of it because they find it funny,
but they also celebrate the differences by wanting to be like them and attract the same
attention they do.
26. In what ways and for what reasons do people in higher income groups try to transform
the working classes? Is that transformation necessary? Why do you think so?
They want them to go up in class so they themselves can go up in class.
27. What is meant by the phrase, “Don’t get above your raisin’?”
You are acting and behaving out of your class that you may have been in.
28. Why does Dana Felty feel conflicted about her life? What are the positive and negative
aspects of her upward mobility? What has she gained and what has she lost by leaving
her hometown and her Appalachian culture?
She has moved up in her life class wise. She can live her life better, but she feels like she can’t
really be with the people who were in the lower class with her. She has gained new interests in
her life since she left but feels like she has lost the connection with her family and where she
came from.
29. What are the positive and negative aspects of the Appalachian attitude toward personal
ambition?
They like people to always remember their roots and where they came from even if it is not
wanting people to leave to better themselves in life.
Part 4: Belonging
30. What is Hay's recipe for making it into the top echelon of society? Do you agree or
disagree?
Going to the right pre-school, then making the right decisions for sports and schools. I think it is
mostly right because certain people will do certain things in their life to get to where they are
now.
31. How does somebody get to be a society columnist? What does their job entail?
Analyzing classes and being versed in the types of people in society. Their job entails the
different people, classes, and behaviors in society.
32. Do you think R. Couri Hay is upper class or is he from a different class? What makes you
think so? If he's an outsider, in what ways would his class influence his perceptions of
the rich and the way he reports on their lives?
I think he is upper class now but wasn’t before. He seems to fit in with most of the upper-class
people. His class might make him think that they see him as less than him.
33. Analyze the program's portrait of Anderson High School. What are the class divisions the
teenagers talk about?
They talk about groups of people who are similar and hang around people because they’re used
to hanging out with them.
Bell Ringers:
1.
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3.
Post-Film Notes: Is the American Dream a Reality for most people? Why or Why not?