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Chitterlings, made from pork intestines, reveals that the Dawes family is indeed from a lower social class. Helen Dawes and Mr. Purcell both agreed that red meats were too costly with so many mouths to feed, although they will sometimes make hamburgers, and that red meats were not as tasty as white meat. They recalled an experience with eating chickens that were injected by hormone antibiotics. The chicken came from the packing house, and certain pieces of the chicken were sold for very cheap and were very good, but eventually Mr. Purcell's voice started to sound like a woman's and even started growing breasts because of the antibiotics injected into the chicken (Ozeki 117). These chicken parts were also of the last pick at the packing house, which accounts for its cheap price and place under the "low class meats" category. .
Another representation of chicken as low class meat is the train scene of Akiko, a runaway Japanese wife at this point, riding back from the south to New York. The Amtrak coach attendant explained to Akiko what the "Chicken Bone Special" on the train was. .
In association of race with meat intersects with class and portrays African Americans in the south as particularly poorer first by not buying Amtrak food on the train while on it, and second for cooking and bringing their own. .
Several other white families used meat other than beef, but were still able to maintain that higher level social class. Take the Beaudroux family with the 11 adopted children for example. Although they used pork instead of beef for their recipe, adoption and their home-owned restaurant set them at an upper middle class. The Bukowskys with the disabled daughter used lamb, but the father being mayor overshadowed the lamb-a second class meat because it is not beef. Meat has the power to reveal a person's social class and other unstated information about them, but meat and the "My American Wife!" show also delivers a more political message as well.