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Bridging the class divide

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Class cultures

Vacationing Broke

August 25, 2016 by Mary Grace 2 Comments

Being poor can feel like you’re stuck, and when everyone you know disappears into the world when they have the chance, you realize how truly stuck you are. When you’re young, it’s simple stuff like not being able to go to day camp, anywhere on spring break, or to anything but the free stuff you […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Classism in Everyday Life, Consumer culture Tagged With: blaming the victim, class cultures, classism, debt, low-wage jobs, poverty

Brexit:  Race and Class 

July 7, 2016 by Bill Fletcher Jr. 1 Comment

I had very mixed emotions about the Brexit vote. Having watched the manner in which the European Union strangled Greece, I have not been very sanguine about the EU as a project. The guiding vision of the EU is neo-liberal globalization. And it is determined to impose this on the continent. At the same time, […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy Tagged With: blaming the victim, class cultures, classism, immigrants, race adn calss, race and class, racism, union-bashing, working class

Brexit – A Class Issue

July 7, 2016 by Milan Rai 2 Comments

Two weeks on, a lot of progressive people in Britain are still in deep shock or fury or despair – or alternating rapidly between all three emotional states. A full 51.9% of British people voted to Leave the European Union (Brexit), and 48.1% voted to Remain in the EU. It was 17.4 million votes to 16.1 million. […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Money, Politics and Class, Poverty Tagged With: budget cuts, class cultures, downward mobility, low-wage jobs, middle class, poverty, privilege, union-bashing, working class

African Americans and Classism:

February 29, 2016 by Class Action 2 Comments

It’s Complicated When I started this post, I thought it would be a straight-forward musing on classism on and in African-American communities. A few minutes in, and I found that I didn’t know where to start. Should I write about the devastating effect that the intersectionality of classism and racism has on individuals and communities? Should I […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism, Dealing with privilege Tagged With: classism, education, intersectionality, middle class, privilege, race and class, racism, stereotypes

Walk a Mile

February 29, 2016 by Christopher Page Leave a Comment

They are phrases we’ve all heard a million times and show up in comments on social media: “If you’re on food stamps you don’t belong buyin’ a candy bar.” “I shouldn’t have to pay for your shrimp and steak dinner.” “The nanny state offers no incentive to work.” “Poor people are just lazy.” “It’s not […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism Tagged With: blaming the victim, classism, downward mobility, poverty, Rationalizing privilege, snobs

Can’t Buy Me Love

February 12, 2016 by Taylor Chapman 1 Comment

Being Poor in a Cross-Class Relationship We had just turned 18. We had just started dating after two years of friendship. We had just walked into one of my worst nightmares: Which friggin’ fork do I use first?!? My boyfriend was wealthy, and I was poor. It normally didn’t affect our relationship very much, because […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Money Tagged With: class cultures, cross-class relationships

Class Mobility – Climbing Up, Stepping Down

January 28, 2016 by Jodie Zisow Leave a Comment

I grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore, the granddaughter of Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust and came to this country with nothing. My father grew up and worked in the same bakery where his Dad worked. His Mom was a seamstress. My Mom’s side was also working-class but slightly better off. Her dad, […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Your Stories Tagged With: class mobility

It’s Not What You Say, but How?

December 17, 2015 by Class Action 2 Comments

Using Language as a Weapon of Classism A British friend of mine, who met and married his American wife in London, told me that he dreaded attending her job-related social functions in “The Square Mile.” As a bank executive, her coworkers were mostly upper middle-class, and they, along with banking and corporate elites, attended these […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism Tagged With: class cultures, classism, privilege, snobs, stereotypes

Language Matters, Too

December 15, 2015 by Laurie Sheridan 2 Comments

My brother, sister and I were all brought up to speak a very clear, accent-less English with good grammar and syntax. We were not “perfect,” but we were obliged to try. Our mother harassed us constantly about the way we talked. And she stressed that we would never be able to get a job or […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism, Classism in Everyday Life, Dealing with privilege, Dismantlng Classism Tagged With: class cultures, classism, downward mobility, privilege, snobs, speaking up, stereotypes, working class

To Advisors of First Gen Students: Tell the Truth

September 14, 2015 by Sheltreese McCoy Leave a Comment

I can still vividly remember my first days on campus as a first generation, first gen, college student. How lush and expansive if felt in comparison to the slums of Cleveland. This was a whole new world literally, and I was new in it. I had made it from poverty to the rolling lawns and […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Class in Higher Education, First Generation College Students, LGBT & Class, Poverty Tagged With: academia, classism, education, first generation college students

Seeing the World: The View from Above

August 4, 2015 by Lily Luo 2 Comments

Ever since I was a little girl, my parents have taken me traveling all over the world. They have always told me how lucky I was to have been exposed to these different cultures, how open minded it made me, and how it made me unlike “those other kids” who had never traveled outside their […]

Filed Under: Class cultures Tagged With: middle class, privilege, travel

Visiting the Relatives: A Worthy Vacation

August 4, 2015 by Fisher Lavell 3 Comments

My nephew Christopher loaded his three kids and his partner Sam’s three kids into their 2004 passenger van and drove the 300 miles out of the city to visit me last week. He took Thursday afternoon and all day Friday without pay, which gave the family three-and-a-half days in total. This was their summer vacation. […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures Tagged With: class cultures, privilege, working class

When Love Crosses Class Lines

February 12, 2015 by Jessi Streib Leave a Comment

What’s it like to be married to someone who grew up in a different class? If you asked most of the 64 college-educated adults who I interviewed who did so, they would tell you that it was like being married to anyone else. Most said that they loved their partner deeply, and, like all couples, […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Cross-class Relationships, Money Tagged With: class cultures, couples, middle class, working class

Is That What They Would Say?: Home Knowledge vs. School Knowledge

February 9, 2015 by Lita Kurth Leave a Comment

Two incidents from my school years illustrate the clash between home experience and school assumptions. In second grade, I was drawing in my Alice and Jerry book, a lovely book about the foreign country of the middle class where kids got surprise playhouses for their birthdays— built, painted, and transported by Dad and Grandpa who’d […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in K-12 Education Tagged With: class cultures, kids, public school, working class

Cultivating the Joy of Gift Giving

December 23, 2014 by Anne Phillips Leave a Comment

When I was a little girl, we never had extravagant Christmases. As excited as we were about the gifts, my mom always reinforced that “Jesus is the reason for the season” by making a Betty Crocker birthday cake for Jesus every year, we didn’t bother to put the right number of candles on, obviously. My […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Consumer culture Tagged With: consumerism, gifts, holidays

Demolition Derby

August 16, 2014 by Pamela Haines Leave a Comment

I remember my first demolition derby, years ago as a young parent. It was the thrill of illicit activity that drew me there.  My parents—middle class academic types with progressive values—would never have dreamed of lending their support to such an uncouth spectacle; their disapproval would have been unconditional. A theme of my adult life […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Everyday Life Tagged With: class cultures, classism, cross-class bridge-building, working class

A surprising class culture pattern

March 12, 2014 by Betsy Leondar-Wright Leave a Comment

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 look for: lower professionals. Activists of that class had such unique ways of speaking, participating, and especially dealing with conflict that they had a notable impact on their groups. By […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups Tagged With: activism, class cultures, social movements, speaking up

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

August 14, 2013 by Barbara Jensen 3 Comments

Working with couples who hail from different class backgrounds is one of my specialties as a counseling psychologist.  I offer an example from my counseling practice to illustrate how different class backgrounds, and their cultural assumptions, can confound a marriage.  One couple met in college, where she got a para-legal certificate and he got a […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Everyday Life Tagged With: middle class, working class

When Love Crosses Class Lines

August 12, 2013 by Jessi Streib Leave a Comment

What’s it like to be married to someone who grew up in a different class? If you asked most of the 64 college-educated adults who I interviewed who did so, they would tell you that it was like being married to anyone else. Most said that they loved their partner deeply, and, like all couples, […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Everyday Life Tagged With: class cultures, middle class, working class

The Price of Passing

July 10, 2013 by Lita Kurth 9 Comments

Recently, a community college newspaper offered a fashion profile of several students. I was amazed and alarmed to learn that, if they were telling the truth, they were spending $200-plus on a pair of shoes and the same for a handbag. It’s true that the recent economic downturn has sent middle and upper middle class […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Consumer culture Tagged With: class cultures, consumerism, working class

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