How do we address the deep class and culture divide that has opened up between workers and environmental activists? We are heading to a potentially severe clash between green advocates who advocate for reducing carbon emissions and labor-community activists concerned about jobs, racial equity and reducing extreme wealth inequality. Both the climate crisis and the […]
Classism in the Economy
Through the Front Door
In recent news, New York City council members revealed that a new Manhattan high-rise, in which 20% of the units will be reserved for subsidized housing, will have a separate entrance for those units. In the basest terms, low-income residents will be entering through the “back door,” reminiscent of that reserved for servants in earlier […]
Economist Piketty Offers Bold New Perspective on Inequality
In a tour de force of economic analysis that has swept Washington, a 42-year-old French economist has upended conventional wisdom about the causes and consequences of inequality. Tom Piketty’s new book, “Capital in the Twenty-first Century,” quickly hit the New York Times best seller list and earned its author a seat at the table with […]
Solutions for servers subsisting on tips
There are plenty of industries out there that we wish would do better by their workers, but the restaurant industry poses a very specific problem. Here’s the largest and fastest growing economic sector in the US producing 6 of 10 lowest paying jobs in the country. Why? The majority of their workforce don’t get paychecks. […]
Capitalism’s Curtain Call
There seems to be an elephant in the room when we are discussing the issue of classism. This elephant is so large, and so huge, that the overwhelming majority of us believe that it is actually partaking in the discussion. That it is a member of the debate, and so we pay little attention to […]
Black History and White History are Inseparable
The schoolhouse version of Black History Month has rightfully focused on elevating African-Americans who have made great achievements in American history: writers, inventors, and public officials. Giving kids a sense of the possible is an important part of inspiring young people to strive to be the best they can be. However, a true understanding of Black […]
400 Billionaires = Wealth of All 41 Million African-Americans
Click here for updated numbers for 2015 from the new Forbes 400 Report. Preview: Just two years later, the wealthiest 100 now have as much wealth as entire African American population. The racial wealth divide has reached new heights. The billionaires that make up the “Forbes 400” list have as much wealth as the entire African-American […]
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 that question after a difficult conversation over breakfast at a B&B. One of the guests was beyond oblivious, into the realm of deliberately offensive. As I tell the story, I […]
Isn’t it Time for All Workers to Have More Job Security?
The United States is alone among industrialized countries in allowing workers to be considered “at will” employees and dismissed for any reason – justified or not, unless protected by a union contract or individual agreement. Labor should seize the opportunity to champion the passage of “just cause” dismissal standards into state laws. It’s a labor […]
“You Don’t Look Like a Homeowner”
For years my husband and I have nurtured the dream of homeownership, and when it finally came true last year, we were in heaven…but then reality caught up to us, as we ran into people who didn’t think we looked the part. We live in a condominium complex. All the units are privately owned, and […]
Gentrification and My New Old Neighborhood
In 1999 my classrooms in Somerville, Massachusetts– a culturally diverse city bordering Boston– were mosaics of colors and cultures, with students from as far away as Tibet to students whose families had lived in town since the Revolutionary War. Today in Somerville, hipsters are the name and gentrification is the game. In ’99, my neighborhood […]
Debt-Shaming in Contemporary Capitalism
I know that Dave Ramsey’s advice has done a lot of good things for a lot of people. There are thousands of people who are currently living debt-free as a result of Ramsey’s approach to personal finance—that’s great, and I’m not trying to take anything away from that. I’m simply saying that, even though Dave […]
Destroying Labor Law in the “Sharing Economy”
Many a magazine, including the usually liberal New Yorker, has gone ga-ga about Taskrabbit, AirBnB, Elance, and other new companies that in one fell swoop make a mockery of fair labor practices, regulated consumer products, minimum wage, and taxes. In a rather lengthy article in which a New Yorker writer gushed about her Taskrabbit experiences, […]
Food, fracking, and farms: Climate issues are class issues
I’m often disappointed by the narrow scope of the environmental movement’s rhetoric and, more importantly, the narrow scope of its constituency. It’s no secret that the mainstream environmental movement is largely an affluent, white effort. As an “environmentalist” (I’ll explain the quotes in a bit), I don’t think this is particularly surprising—the struggle for class, […]
Snob Zones
Long known as an affluent suburban oasis just to the north of New York City, Westchester County has lately gained infamy as a bastion of exclusion. An anti-discrimination group sued the county in 2006, questioning why it remains strikingly segregated despite having vowed to further fair housing as a condition of receiving tens of millions […]
Wealthy Kids Pulling Away: Accelerating Privilege, Compounding Disadvantage
How does the system of class advantage reproduce itself, generation after generation? Let me count the ways. I have an article in the latest issue of American Prospect called “The New Politics of Inherited Advantage.” I summarize the mountain of growing research demonstrating how affluent families engage in what sociologists call the “intergenerational transmission of […]
It’s not only the rich who carry out classism
Should the one percent be exclusively blamed for creating our stratified society? Occupy Wall Street came, and to some degree, has gone. Like many professional middle class progressive movements, its main focus has been on inequality between the owning class and everyone else. However, is the 1 percent owning class completely guilty for the stratification […]
Memorial Day: It’s the Least Wealthy Who Serve and Suffer the Most in War
“People like us don’t have children in the military”. I come in contact with a lot of military families. What is notable is the majority of people in the military don’t come from the upper middle class or wealthy communities. And the ones who have seen combat are not mindlessly gung-ho. If you have lost […]
The Ivy League: a class-based sorting system
Barack Obama’s election represented a triumph for African Americans who suffered years of race- and class-based oppression. Electing a black president was definitely a plus for African Americans and society as a whole. Among his opponents in 2008 were working class whites who were attracted to Sarah Palin. Many of these people seem to fit […]
Need vs. Greed: Greed Wins
I’ve been interviewing people and carrying out research lately on housing affordability in San Jose, and what I’ve found has been both heartbreaking and enraging. In a city and area where housing is jaw-droppingly expensive, some of the wealthy exploit the poor, or worse, take for themselves public goods intended for the needy. Beginning my […]
