People like us – social class in America – should you be judging yourself according to how people see you?

People judge you by your appearance. They judge you by the color of your skin. They judge you by your gender. They judge you by the color of your eyes. They judge you by the color of your hair. They judge you by the size of your nose. They judge you by the size of your lips. They judge you by the size of your breasts. They judge you by the size of your butt. They judge you by your weight. They judge you by your smile. They judge you by your walk. They judge you by your talk. They judge you by the clothes you wear. They judge you by the car you drive. They judge you by the house you live in. They judge you by the places you go. They judge you by the people you hang out with.

Instead of concerning yourself with what people think about you, get busy living your life. Whoever is judging you should be too busy living their own life to care what color skin you have, what color eyes, what color hair, how big or wide your nose is, how thin or full your lips are, how big or flat your breasts are, how wide or flat your butt is, how much you weigh, whether or not you have perfect teeth, whether or not you move with the grace of a ballerina or the clumsiness of an elephant, whether or not you speak like you grew up spending your summers vacationing in Europe or spending your summers dodging bullets on the streets in the Bronx, whether or not you wear clothes from Walmart or Saks Fifth Avenue, whether or not you drive a Bentley or have to scrape coins together to take the bus, whether or not you live in a triplex penthouse on Park Avenue or a 3-room roach infested dump in a ghetto in Brooklyn.

The best way to handle people who need to have someone they can look down their noses at or people who need to put other people down in order to feel better about themselves, is to treat them like you can neither see them nor hear them. They need to feel important and when you give them attention you feed that need. Simply carry on with life and treat them as if they’re not important enough to be acknowledged.