Fifty Shades of Grey topped box offices in its opening weekend: but how would this novel turned film have performed if its protagonist, Christian Grey, wasn’t a billionaire?

Wealth colors how actions are perceived and what access is granted, yet it is frequently absent from student conversation at St. Paul Academy and Summit School. Students casually fling around their insensitive critiques of SPA lunches, faculty, facilities, and more, while few stop to think about the way these comments make them sound. What’s worse, even fewer stop to think about the way these comments are making the people around them feel.

It all too easy to assume that everyone comes from the same socioeconomic background, that everyone’s family can pay SPA’s tuition in full. Yet we know this is not true–not by any stretch of the imagination. Our habitual attitude of ignorance and, in some cases, indifference, to the effects of bragging and flaunting money, if we have it, creates a silent, unacknowledged tension. The subtle yet pervasive notion that having less money makes one inferior is not only elitist, but it is false. It’s not kind, and it definitely not “classy.” Too many students simply refuse to recognize that socioeconomic entitlement divides the community, fostering a slow, bubbling resentment in all parties involved, not least in those who have less, socioeconomically speaking.

Two years ago, this same month, The Rubicon staff published an editorial encouraging students to embrace socioeconomic diversity and squelch economic entitlement. However, not enough progress has been made since this piece was published–not in the month of March, not over the course of the past few year.

The administration itself has done much in the past two years: financial aid programs have grown and new scholarships have become a significant part of the admissions process. In 2012, the Malone Family Foundation gave a $2 million dollar grant to assist students who need 30% tuition (or more) covered in order to attend SPA. In 2014, the Redleaf Scholarship Program began, offering up to 50% of its recipients’ tuition for the entirety of their Upper School academic careers.These programs are bringing students from all financial backgrounds into the student population.

But there’s still more work to do in classes, among students. Along with identities of race and religion, socioeconomic diversity is pushed aside or looked at from a limited academic viewpoint. We analyze class hierarchies in global history and interpret literature through the lens of socioeconomic theory. But how do class disparities shape the present and what are we going to do about it? These discussions have their place in our curriculum too.

Recently, groups like Common Ground and USC have done great work, especially on MLK Day and Speaker Day. They have encouraged students to open up to others’ identities, on a personal, not just on an academic level. We can and should share our different socioeconomic backgrounds around the Harkness tables too. Affluence does not define this community as a whole.

SPA needs to make some changes, subtle and overt, if it’s to meet growing levels of economic diversity in all grades. We must never assume that class identity is a black and white issue, but see that it is nuanced and personal and many, many shades of grey. We can consider low cost, inclusive social activities built around making memories instead of proving status. We can be conscious of words and avoid bragging. Above all, we can understand that there is a fine line between sharing and bragging–that our words have the power to define our realities.