Social Mobility | Clarissa's Blog

Social Mobility | Clarissa's Blog: It’s amazing how often people have assumed that I was comfortably middle class though. They even almost convinced me of it. People do lack imagination, it seems. But I come from a background where there was a lot of psychological violence due to the imminent threat of poverty or disaster. I’m from a place of very mixed fortunes. Thing is, while I was in Africa, a strong propaganda campaign was being run by tabloids like The Guardian, depicting me as having lived it up in the lap of luxury. I had no idea. In fact emotionally I was undernourished and on the skeletal side of lean. Psychologically speaking, that is not a luxurious middle-class situation. But I have been accused of all sorts of things, including having nefarious character traits, because other people have wanted to maintain their illusion that I was well-to-do.