Colombian President Gustavo Petro has given the order to eliminate the so-called social strata to help combat classism.
Since the 1990s, society has been subdivided, from an administrative point of view, into six levels.
This classification originally had a social inspiration.
The purpose was for the inhabitants of the most affluent areas, located in strata five and six, to subsidize the public services of the most impoverished areas of levels one, two and three.
However, the cataloging of homes, on which belonging to a stratum or class depends, degenerated into a system that has more to do with prejudices than with electricity or water bills.
Phrases such as “you can see his stratum” or “he thinks he has a lot of stratum”, used to point out someone's supposed lack of taste or manners, serve as a euphemism for the most rancid classism.
Although a norm in itself can hardly change deep-rooted customs, adjusting the bonus system for these subsidies to one more in line with the times can help, from the outset, to modify the language and open a debate that is more sociological than technical.
The proposal to eliminate strata is not new, but it has never been carried out.
Created 30 years ago, with the 1991 Constitution, of a progressive nature, according to this system, the State studies the socioeconomic conditions of the properties - the existence and size of its kitchen, the state of conservation of its bathrooms, the material of its walls — and its surroundings, such as the existence of paved roads.
From this, a stratum is assigned to each property.
Numbered from one to six, households in the three lowest strata pay for subsidized public services, while the two highest strata assume a surcharge to help finance that aid.
A solidarity system that, however, pays more attention to the situation of houses than to that of people.
Therefore, with a more evolved State that has created mechanisms to know the economic situation of families, technicians are now also calling for the system to be eliminated.
It is at that moment that the president proposes taking advantage of a reform to also rethink classism.
Eliminating the strata system will not end either, on the one hand, public aid or, on the other, discrimination.
But, just as it can help improve the distribution of money, it can—and should—promote a more egalitarian society through its language.
It is another example that the ways to level the playing field are not limited to the creation of wealth or its redistribution: equality depends on how we understand each other and how we address each other.