College Amplifies Advantages & Disadvantages
Here’s some bad news for all of us who strive to get more working-class first-generation students into and through college: college is not an effective... Read More
Crummy nonprofit jobs – and solutions
by Betsy Leondar-Wright Some of the worst pay I ever got was from progressive social justice organizations. No health benefits at one job; no raise... Read More
Untold Stories: Bringing Class into the Classroom
By: Adj Marshal and Betsy Leondar-Wright Students often respond with confusion to questions about social class—not surprising given the common assumption that the US is... Read More
Trump Supporters: Why Our Attitude Towards Them Matters
Not Stupid. Not Crazy. Those are the two most important things for progressives to remember about rightwing people, says Chip Berlet. He has tracked U.S.... Read More
Resistance Is Critical
The election outcome was a shock – but wasn’t something new. Throughout U.S. history we’ve had waves of right-wing populism, when people bought into explanations... Read More
How the non-homeless talk about homeless people
I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know it was this bad! I had a chance to ask over 500 people to write down... Read More
Class identity is different for black professionals
Why would someone not identify as middle class? Many high-income African American professional homeowners respond to pollsters who ask for class self-identification by not choosing... Read More
A surprising class culture pattern
When I was studying 25 social justice groups for Missing Class, one of my biggest surprises was a class category I hadn’t even thought to... Read More
Pioneering Black Class-Analysts
Black History Month got me thinking about some of the African-American thinkers who have taught me the most about class/race intersections: 1) W.E.B. DuBois, author... Read More
Wondering how to respond to a classist guy
Is there any point to engaging with someone who’s rigidly dug in to their classism, or other oppressive attitudes? I had to think hard about... Read More
Orange is the Newest Redneck Bashing
I’m eager to talk with someone who has both read Piper Kerman’s memoir “Orange is the New Black” and seen the Netflix series based on... Read More
Arrested Development & the pitfalls of the wealthy
Why do so many TV watchers love Arrested Development (whose latest season was released on Netflix last night)? Is it just another sit-com in the... Read More
Two more cars & class stories
We obviously hit a nerve with the two recent stories about cars and class. Besides the long and intense comments under the posts, I received... Read More
Exhilarating discoveries at anti-racist conference
I’m entranced with the White Privilege Conference’s culture and community. I was a first-time attender at the 14th annual conference in Seattle last week, and... Read More
Les Miz: Class themes in Oscar nominees #2
The poverty in the Les Miserables movie seems more realistic than most poverty portrayed in fiction in one crucial aspect: the way desperately poor people... Read More
A memory of Helen Ladd, 1924-2012
Years before I met Class Action’s co-founder Jenny Ladd, I met her mother, Helen Pratt Ladd, who passed away last week. Our first encounter revealed... Read More
New classism book holds the keys to movement-building
Barb Jensen was a rebellious teenager. When she tells her own stories in her new book Reading Classes, readers can vicariously enjoy her mouthing off... Read More
What’s needed at this political moment? 5 well-known leftists, 5 strong opinions
At the Working-Class Studies conference last weekend, I heard an amazing dialogue about class, race and movement-building by five progressive journalists and activist scholars: Juan... Read More
Upsides of sky-high youth unemployment
Posting Class Action internships gives me a window into the massive under-use of young adults’ energy in this lousy economy. Even for unpaid internships, we... Read More
No-degree social movement thinkers
Who do you think of when you think of a social movement theorist? A professor? Two of the authors who have taught me the most... Read More
The most classist comment of 2011
Last January Classism Exposed asked for your votes on which was the most classist comment by a public figure in 2010, offering eight options. Readers... Read More
What about those hand signals?
The same week that Steven Colbert pretended to mock Occupy Wall Street’s hand signals, I saw them used at an Occupy Boston General Assembly, and... Read More
Giving thanks humbly or smugly
When I was a girl, at the beginning of Thanksgiving dinner, my family would sing a beautiful old hymn, We Gather Together, the most traditional... Read More
WWFD? What Would Felice Do?
Working in the Class Action office, I sometimes find myself asking, “What would Felice do?” Often it’s hard to know, but at other times I... Read More
Occupiers’ Demands and Working-Class Activist Traditions
Thanks to Occupy Wall Street and its spin-offs, a national conversation has broken out over the purpose of protesting. I understand why defenders of the... Read More
A Dubious Milestone
Well, a goal of Class Action’s just took a step forward, though not exactly in the way we envisioned. The professional cheaters have recognized our... Read More
Economists can’t be rapists? Hotel maids are lunatics?
In rushing to the defense of accused rapist and head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn, well-known conservative commentator Ben Stein has stooped to... Read More
Rapid response to “low-class Italian white trash”
What a coincidence! Just a few days after posting the two pieces below about responding to classist comments, I heard a doozy – and I... Read More
Felice’s mission of making classism a diversity issue
When Felice Yeskel started graduate school in the 1980s, she was outraged that the Social Issues Training Project at the UMass Education School omitted classism... Read More
Memories of Felice and class
A few memories of Felice and class from Betsy Leondar-Wright I remember when Felice first identified herself as working-class. When she was in her mid-20s,... Read More
Mourning the loss of Felice Yeskel
Felice Yeskel, co-founder of Class Action, passed away in her home early this morning after a courageous struggle with cancer. Felice was a tireless activist... Read More
What was the most classist comment of 2010?
It was a bumper year for callous, elitist politicians and CEOs spouting off in public. Cast your vote for one of these doozies, or add... Read More
Gisele Bundchen’s clueless classist comments
Supermodel Gisele Bundchen was quoted in the September Harper’s Bazaar UK as saying, “There should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should... Read More
B&B Breakfast Classism
It was the usual chit-chat among strangers encountering each other over breakfast at a Seattle bed-and-breakfast: “where are you from?,” “how’s the weather there?” Three... Read More
Faking your way into a working-class job
Laid-off professionals are “dumbing down” their resumes to avoid being rejected as overqualified when applying for jobs outside their former field, reported the Boston Globe.... Read More