Film Notes:

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.

Part 1: Bud or Bordeaux?

1. Bud is a short word for the beer Budweiser. Bordeaux is a type of red wine for the
southern region of France. With this in mind, what is the meaning of the introductory
segment title, “Bud or Bordeaux”?
Do they like to drink beer or wine. Are they fancy or not.
2. Who decides what’s in good taste – or not? What is meant by the term “status symbol?”
The people who are richer or more powerful. Who has more image among people.
3. What is Joe Queenan’s perspective on the things that we acquire? Do you agree or
disagree?
Depending on who knows what about certain things it is decided what is better.
4. Describe the issues involved in the choice of a community grocery store in Burlington,
Vermont. What is at the heart of this conflict?
White bread is always low in stock and wheat bread is almost full because no one buys it. They
feel that they should buy the one that fits their class.
5. Which groups does the program indicate are in favor of the co-op, and which
supermarket? What are their reasons for their choice? How would you vote on this
issue? Explain your choice.
The higher class in the neighborhood are in favor of the co-op and the lower-class people are in
favor of the supermarket. They like the higher quality of products, and the lower class likes low
prices. I would say the supermarket because it has a high variety for a low price which everyone
would like.
6. What does bread symbolize in this story? Why does this situation remind Oak LoGalbo
of being laughed at in high school?
The bread symbolizes class and their lifestyles. They laughed at her because she didn’t use high
priced products for her sandwiches.
7. What does Councilman Smith mean about being "invisible" in this culture?
They are not heard because of the power and money that the other people have.
8. What is your impression of Ginie Sayles? Vessa Rinehart? What social class does each
appear to belong to? Why do you think so?
She is rich and appears to belong to the high class. She is poorer than Ginie and appears to
belong to the middle class.
 9. Is class as Ginie claims, basically a question of appearance and style and the distance
you stand from people? Or is Paul Fussell correct?
Ginie is correct.
10. What are the particular pressures and obstacles an individual faces when s/he moves
into a different social class? Compare the term "upwardly mobile" with "social climber"
-- is there a difference?
There is a difference between how they are seen, and a social climber is thought to have more
obstacles than upward mobility.

Part 2: High and Lows

11. What does WASP stand for? What does it mean to "belong" to a "WASP" culture?
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. You were privileged and money came to you early on.
12. In this segment, what sports do we observe the "WASPS" engaging in? What sports do
we typically associate with the upper classes?
They are at a sort of party and they’re mostly talking amongst each other. They typically are
associated with polo, golf, and croquet.
13. What is the conflict within the black community regarding class identity and racial
identity?
They don’t want to think that there are classes in their community.
14. What examples do middle-class African-Americans offer about common white attitudes
toward them? About upper-class or lower-class blacks' attitudes?
They act bourgeoise, write well, and assume that they shouldn’t know how to do these things..
They seem rich or very poor and dirty.
15. What is the significance of the Jack and Jill club?
It helped show how people were oppressed in middle to high class society.

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.

Part 3: Salt of the Earth

21. What is meant by the phrase "Salt of the Earth" in the segment title?
The working class in society.
22. Think about what is said on lawn ornaments and the class associations that they evoke.
Do objects have intrinsic value in terms of class – or are other factors at work?
They do because certain people had or didn’t have things in their life growing up that people
associated with class.
23. How is the working class viewed (by either themselves or others)? What mannerisms,
traits, or cultural norms do we see displayed in the section with Bryon Smith? What do
these reveal about the working class?
They’re all similar and hardworking and they work for everything they have.

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.

Notes from Pre-Film Discussion:

Bell Ringers:

1.
2.
3.

Post-Film Notes: Is the American Dream a Reality for most people? Why or Why not?