Emily Dickinson once wrote, “why not have a big life?” These are the words I kept close to heart when I joined the Seattle Education Access (SEA) staff and my fellow members of the SEA Student Advisory Board Council for the SEA Lobby Day. I had never been to the State Capitol, and the closest […]
Politics and Class
President Obama’s Middle Class: the Rhetoric and the Reality
It should come as no surprise that President Obama focused on the “middle class” in his State of the Union speech. He mentioned that term six times, even calling it “our generation’s task…to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.” What the president didn’t mention was the critical […]
Obama’s State of the (Dis-)Union Speech, 2013
If you ain’t poor (by America’s low poverty standards), you are “middle class.” That is the current political and pundit mode of understanding the USA. Those below the middle class income standards have no claim to a class appellation—they are just “poor.” The president’s speech was largely about improving the situations of those already in […]
Lance Armstrong and the Illusion of Meritocracy
The psychology of the “Anti-Lance Armstrong Brigade” illustrates exactly why socioeconomic inequality is increasing so much in this country. While Lance Armstrong is privileged by his race and class, the nature of the attacks against him illustrate what is wrong with society today. To clarify, I do not condone cheating in sports. However, I do […]
Anti-Classism and the Populist Right
Within the past two decades, the American professional and business world has begun to develop into a caste system based on the college that one attended. It seems that across industries from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, having an Ivy League degree has become the litmus test for intelligence and competence. There are hundreds of […]
Cautionary notes about liberals’ election self-congratulations
The election and reelection of Obama is a historical milestone in race relations. It is a definitely an achievement we should be proud of. We truly have came along way since, the days of reconstruction, when it was unusual for an African American to even visit the white house. While Obama’s election and reelection truly […]
Union Vote Declining But Still Crucial
In the past decade unions have greatly improved the way they do electoral politics, and if they hadn’t, Barack Obama would probably never have been our president. Though uneven from union to union, 16 years ago unions stopped simply giving money to their endorsed candidates and focused more intensely on member education and mobilization. Since […]
Race & Class & November 6
On the one hand, it is difficult to believe that Romney did not win. After all, when you think about it, we are in the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. He certainly kept repeating the fact that there are 23 million people out of work. Yet at the end of the day Obama […]
The Invisible Majority: Class and the National Election
Working class people are approximately 63% of our population, but they are all but invisible in the upcoming national election. What you don’t see can hurt you. While President Obama and other democrats have numerous policies designed to “lift up” people from the working class, they offer little verbal validation for a working class way […]
Ward Morehouse 1929-2012
A wonderful friend of Class Action has passed away. Ward Morehouse, 83, an internationally known human rights and anti-corporate activist, author, publisher, international educator, union activist, housebuilder, lover of dogs and children, died June 30 while swimming laps in a pond near his home in Northampton, Massachusetts. He had a multifaceted 60-year career that spanned […]
To Care or Not to Care About Obamacare
When the Supreme Court approved “Obamacare,” most of my Facebook friends had joyful statuses about the ruling. And it is something to cheer about: millions of Americans will now be able to be insured; women will now have access to affordable birth control and not face gender pricing of insurance; and people cannot be denied […]
“Is This for a Rental?”
Ever gone to a hardware store to buy a toilet, sink, or door and have the salesperson ask, “Is this for yourself, or for a rental?”? We all know that if it’s for ourselves, the owners of property, we’ll be wanting something nicer, better-made, more durable, more functional and often more efficient. If it’s for […]
Who represents the working class?
There was a time when if one asked, ‘Who represents the working class?’, a reasonable answer would have been the Democratic Party. But since Jimmy Carter that party has moved to the right, supports so-called Free Trade, champions legislation that fosters financial speculation, has forgotten the poor as a group worthy of aid, and goes […]
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 Gonzalez of Democracy Now!, Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher Jr. of Blackcommentator.com, and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert of Demos, with conference organizer Michael Zweig, author of The […]
Ubuntu and The Self-Made Myth
We’ve all heard rags-to-riches stories about successful individuals who “pulled themselves up by the bootstraps.” Certainly, many successful business people owe their good fortune to hard work and innovative thinking. But, to describe those people as “self-made” would be to dismiss a big piece of reality—the role of the commons. Would Bill Gates have enjoyed […]
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 weighed in and added their own grisly candidates. But this year, there’s no point in running a poll, since we already know who’s going to win (drumroll, please): Newt Gingrich, […]
Who should we REALLY be wary of?
The subject line said: “Tis the Season for Criminals”; then the body of the email, written in large threatening capital letters, said, “REMEMBER, DESPERATE PEOPLE DO DESPERATE THINGS, SO BE VERY WARY WHEN YOU ARE OUT IN PUBLIC……” What follows is my response, because I had this incredible experience this morning. A young repairman of […]
Thoughts about Thanksgiving (& -isms we may encounter at the table!)
After listening to a NPR segment about Thanksgiving and some anxiety that this very social holiday brings up for folks, I realized that this year may be challenging in new ways. Not only has the economy been stagnant, unemployment is rising, and political movements are taking place nationwide and internationally that put class inequality at […]
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 can almost hear her voice weighing in on a decision. For example, should we do a local training of trainers now, or wait until we can afford to fly in […]
First Generation College Students Survey
Class Action is conducting a survey of prospective, current, and previous first generation college students in order to develop a program that supports these students in college. Please help out by taking a few minutes to complete the survey! For more information about First Generation College Students Project, please check this link out –> http://www.classism.org/resources/resources-generation-college-students […]
