How do we become aware of class in America?

Always, I have wondered: What does it feel like to be another person? This question is the furnace behind my work. But when you write about people, you are writing about class. Time and place in history determine a great deal, and if you consider place to be a place in society, then that shapes a life, as well.
— Elizabeth Strout, "How do we become aware of class in America?"
How do we become aware of class in America?
Elizabeth Strout, Washington Post, August 28, 2017