I watched the second Democratic debate hoping that Senator Bernie Sanders would clearly articulate an economic policy that would differentiate him from Hillary Clinton, that would advance the interests of American workers and that would easily resonate with the millions of debate viewers. Unfortunately he didn’t. Instead he continued to lash out at the one […]
blaming the victim
Teacher sanctioned for challenging welfare stereotype
“Ladies, keep your legs crossed and your minds opened,” wrote a 58 year old undergraduate student who works in college admissions and recruitment in an online post in my sociology class. She said the economy was being destroyed by welfare mothers who have more babies for more welfare with many different men and that society […]
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 of The Souls of Black Folk (1903), was many decades ahead of his time in connecting the subjective experience of racism with its institutional dimensions. He had a global view of […]
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 […]
Responding to Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision
My first response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the University of Texas case was to breathe a sigh of relief. I had been expecting affirmative action to be ruled illegal. Instead the Court, in effect, said that the University had to prove that non-racial methods were ineffective in creating greater diversity. We should, however, […]
Thinking Positive Thoughts as the Ship Sinks: Oprah, Tolle & New Age Classism
I’m concerned about classism in the new age, self help and spiritual movements. Oprah Winfrey’s show and “lifeclass,” which many people study religiously, promote individualistic “create your own reality” ideas, including the philosophy of guru Eckhart Tolle. “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it,” Tolle writes. These ideas can be […]
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 in Les Miz are preyed upon. Fantine is deceived and ripped off by the Thénardiers, who try to extort as much money as possible from fostering her daughter. Then as […]
Action on inequality: Getting class recognized as a protected category
As the economic inequality gap continues to widen, students at Grand Valley State University in Traverse City, Michigan, started saying that they were tired of “talking” about economic inequality; they wanted to “do” something. We feel that there is a growing emergency. Waiting for things to get better in some far off future began to […]
Classism in Academia
A little over two years ago, a student called me a ‘cunt’ in front of 38 other students. My academic employer did little to protect me and allowed a local, “progressive” paper to attack me in a newspaper/Internet article. I believe this had everything to do with my being a popular but adjunct, community college […]
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 […]
Overlooking luck
Can someone please explain to Newt Gingrich that people not wanting a job typically doesn’t cause poverty; being unable to get a job causes poverty. I would strongly assert that very few people want to be unable to provide for themselves and their families. People who have only experienced privilege often do not recognize the […]
Condescending Baby-Feeding Advice
I read this article about negative breast-feeding myths among African Americans in The Root and sat upright when I saw this bit of social class cluelessness: “…myths persist because of a lack of education among African Americans.” The myths about the dangers of breast feeding described in Jamila Bey’s article exist because two generations ago […]
