Our Kinds of People :: essays research papers fc

Cultural capital is specialized knowledge. They are symbols that you are given access to because of your upper class status. The children’s club Jack and Jill is full of these symbols. It is believed that the original Jack and Jill nursery rhyme was French and written about the beheadings of King Louis XVI and his bride Queen Marie Antoinette. The lyrics were changed to make the song more appealing to children. It later became a tale of sacrifice. In Our Kinds of People the children had to make sacrifices when in the club, and because of their association other children teased them (Graham, 1999, p.35) On all the Jack and Jill chapter websites that we came across the first thing it states underneath the chapter name is, â€Å"Providing nurturing and guidance for our future leaders† (www.jjfarwest.org/phoenix/). The phoenix chapter goes on to list their mission statement as follows; â€Å"Our mission is to provide an avenue for our children to develop bonds that will f oster spirituality, strong leadership skills, achievement and lifelong friendships. These bonds will lead to strong, positive images, promote sharing and caring, and support our children as they participate in age appropriate community and educational activities† (www.jjfarwest.org/phoenix/). Each year, the organization publishes an annual yearbook called Up the Hill, which features photos and reports from local chapters as they detail service, cultural, and social activities of the prior year. (Graham, 1999, p. 34)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The many different chapters, as well as the prestigious clubs for the men and women, portray cultural capital. They all must hold keys to get accepted into the groups. In Preparing for Power they needed to hold certain keys to be able to further their lives in the elite group. We think that the processes were very similar in both books. In Preparing for Power as well as the movie, Born Rich, it talked about living up to your family name and following in your parent’s footsteps. In Our Kinds of People it is just as important, although the context differs slightly, in that with the blacks it was not only a class issue but a color issue as well. In the book Lawrence Otis Graham even mentions that he had his nose altered and was instructed from his grandmother at a young age to stay out of the sun so his black skin didn’t get any darker.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We think that Graham’s concerns about there being black elite are justified.