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 “middle class” or “upper class,” the identities usually chosen by their white counterparts. Why? University of Maryland professor Rashawn Ray explained some reasons in his plenary talk today at the […]
middle class
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
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 […]
When Love Crosses Class Lines
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, […]
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 […]
Adjusting to holiday changes
Throughout my life, when my holiday traditions have changed, for financial or family reasons, I have found myself yearning for what used to happen. When I was young, my family would travel regularly during winter vacations: Florida, Washington DC, the Caribbean, Europe. I grew accustomed to the ritual, and was very excited about all the […]
Hopscotching the Tracks
In my last essay, I spoke of my experiences of the disdain I receive as a working-class woman walking among the denizens of the middle-class world. Just yesterday I received another cool reception – in my old neighborhood, of all places. I still cling to my working-class ways, including shopping at thrift stores, and I […]
“Wishing for Heaven”: Cross-Class Relationships and Contemporary Culture
Class representations are present in many aspects of contemporary culture. Think about the latest TV sitcoms, five star movies, and literary novels. Sure, the word “class” may not be used always, but hints of class or class indicators, such as income, education, occupation, and power, certainly appear in one form or another. Cross-class relationships in […]
Cross-class College Interactions
College, they tell us, is the great middle class-making machine. When I think back on my own cross-class interactions at college, I mostly feel gratitude for the worlds my wealthier friends opened up to me and the way they included and shared with me. My closer friends were solidly middle (including comfortable working-class) and upper […]
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 […]
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 […]
Verizon Strike: A Teachable Moment?
Why Health Care Strikes Should Demand “Health Care For All,” Not Just “Hands Off My ‘Middle Class’ Benefits” For two weeks in August, thousands of Verizon strikers provided an inspiring display of picket-line militancy and resistance to contract concessions. From Massachusetts to Virginia, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood […]
From a Teenage Class Action Fan
My name is Liora and I’m fourteen years old. I’ve attended public schools my whole life except for the last year and half when I went to a private school. At this school, the classes were small and there was support and help anywhere and anyhow we needed. Not the case in public school. This […]
Middle Class Traitors: Who Are They?
I recently came up with a phrase that other than one fleeting reference was not to be found in Google. It seemed to me to really describe a recent phenomenon that I found quite disturbing: the demographics of the electorate who voted for right wing conservatives in the November 2010 elections both on the federal […]
Middle Class Brats?
I fear I am raising spoiled-rotten, middle-class brats. I fear I am raising the very kind of children I would have hated as a child. Why? Because they are comfortable and cozy and have everything they need in their day-to-day lives. They do not go hungry. They do not wear shoes with holes or ones […]
