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Crazy Monster Comic Series: musings about the world of sociology
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#5 Cultural Capital
Generic Asian Man: I have more money than you!
Crazy Monster: Oh Yeah? I have more cultural capital than you!
Generic Asian Man: I create your cultural capital!!
Crazy Monster: You little misrecognized structured bitch.
I drew this cartoon during a seminar discussion on Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction. I become so depressed I read Bourdieu because it feels like no matter what, the working class or the marginalized are always screwed. To counterbalance my feelings, I drew a cartoona la Bourdieu. To understand this cartoon here's a quick primer on Bourdieu.
Bourdieu tried to show that there are more ways than just using money to dominate people - and that people use "culture" to also reproduce their superiority. He conceptualized this as "cultural capital." For example, he said public education is a way social hierarchy is reproduced. When a school sends their students on an art museum fieldtrip, this can be an example of the the dominant class enforcing their tastes upon the students of what is considered to be artistic and valuable for education.
Bourdieu was trying to point out that the contradiction with public education is that it's supposed to INCREASE equality, but instead it PERPETUATES inequality. When teachers and textbooks force into black kids that they need to know about European art and memorize European history, this is one way of reproducing the hierarchy of whites on top and blacks on bottom.
