Social Caste System: Staying In Your Place

On our first full day of class, we talked about various types of culture and the powers that be of said culture. High culture in particular piqued my interest because, as I grew up, I remember being taken to plays, learning how to play instruments, and participating in other activities that one would consider to be "cultured." While they may have had an effect on me as I grew up, I do not think that it is completely possible for a person to become a member of high culture, they must be born with a great deal of it within them. Why do I say this? Because high culture and practitioners of it see it as an elite group that people must be deemed worthy of. Unfortunately, some of the requirements of said culture are either unchangeable or infringe on the first amendment rights of American citizens. This is a college course full of adults, so I don't feel the need to mince words here: every way that we classify ourselves is means for being banned from high culture. All it takes is to be the wrong race, religion, sex, gender, height, weight, sexual orientation, birth place, etc. and you are instantly given a demerit against participating in high culture.
This creates a societal chain reaction that is further exacerbated by pop culture (television, music, movies, video games, magazines, etc.). If you miss enough of those requirements, you begin to feel alienated, like you don't belong or don't deserve to enjoy some aspects of high culture like opera or wine tastings. That feeling isn't your imagination, depending on how many of those requirements you meet, you actually, at least in the minds of the other, more cultured participants, you DON'T belong there. High culture shuns those of unfavorable classification, and what's worse is that those shunned by high culture have been trained to to lash out at those seeking to participate as well. People that have "forgotten where they came from," or "act white (my personal favorite...)" often get called out for daring to not match the status quo. At the end of the day, high society is protected by a fence, keeping itself "pure" while those on the other side move on with their lives. If someone even so much as looks at the fence, they are accused of wanting something they are not meant to have by BOTH sides of the fence. As far as they concerned, everyone has a place in this societal caste system and deviation will not be tolerated.