Groveling for the Greater Good
I’ve been fundraising for nonprofits for 15 years now, mostly for homeless youth and families. When I started fundraising, my bible was the now classic... Read More
Toothpaste, Katrina and My Recovery from Classism
During my second week living in Boston, I faced one of those frightening moments of choosing whether or not to come out in front of... Read More
Doing the Math: Student Loan Debt and the Adjunct Equation
One of my friends calls working in higher education a “Ponzi Scheme.” This is how it works: You put years of your life on a... Read More
Psychiatry and the Imposition of Upper Middle Class Values
Psychiatrists do not have objective tests to confirm their diagnoses. They are often imposing Upper Middle Class values on their patients and then calling it... Read More
Becoming “The Others”
There are so many ways to suddenly become disabled – a fall, a virus gone rogue, bike accident, stroke, tick bite, infection that causes blindness... Read More
Tell Congress to End Child Poverty – Support the RISE and WORK Acts
The Global Women’s Strike, Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike and the Every Mother is a Working Mother Network and more than two... Read More
Poem: White Trash Beaner (to my 11-year-old confused self)
Grama says I’m Indian. Mama says my dad was “a Mexican” and that if he really loved me like “Mexican daddies do” he woulda found... Read More
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... Read More
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.... Read More
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Class themes in Oscar nominees #1
A darling of the film award season this year, the American fantasy drama film Beasts of the Southern Wild (BOTSW) has been nominated for numerous... Read More
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... Read More
Santa Claus, Imagination, and Class
I must have been around seven, living in far northern Wisconsin—not classy Minoqua and other Chicago playgrounds, but the dregs of the timber industry, the... Read More
Who Is Stressed Out?
I regularly facilitate a Stressed Out! workshop for Job Seekers in a non-profit organization serving a wide range of customers and clients in search of... Read More
A Forty Hour Week From the Other Side
As this election nears, I find myself passionate about a local issue: San Jose, following the stronger leads of San Francisco, Seattle, and Albuquerque, is... Read More
Who Counts as Poor (and who gets to talk about it)
I had a bizarre and frustrating experience recently talking to an agent at a writing conference. My main interest was to pitch a novel, but... Read More
Shame, School Lunch, and Passing
When I was in sixth grade, my family was eligible for free school lunches. I attended a small country school, without much class diversity, mostly... Read More
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... Read More
Poverty and Disability: the Vicious Circle
I first started to look at disability as a class issue when 18 of our members from Piedmont Peace Project and I attended a national... Read More
No-degree social movement thinkers
Who do you think of when you think of a social movement theorist? A professor? Two of the authors who have taught me the most... Read More
The Class Nightmare of Disability
Seeking instant invisibility? Displacement from society? Separation from the shared life expectations of friends, family and colleagues? If so, become disabled. Visible or invisible, commonly... Read More
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. ... Read More
Speaking of human rights, how many violations have I encountered in my life?
We never had enough food for all five children in our house and I don`t remember ever having an orange. My earliest memories are of... Read More
Remember When It Was Poster Board?: Computer Technologies and School Disadvantage
Remember when it was the poster board? I do. I remember my elementary school classmates—Russell, Missy, Jake—who could never afford it, who would raise their... Read More
Query: How to open discussion with a poor-basher?
Dear Class Action, What should I do? My neighbor in my conservative rural town emailed this racist/classist piece of junk to me. I need some... Read More
Moving the Bar
At first glance, I thought that it was just another article about disappointing test scores. I almost didn’t click through to read it, in part... Read More
Race Forward: Children, Wealth, and the Future of our Economy
For many children today, the door to economic opportunity is being shut, and they may never realize the “American Dream.” Of these kids, it is... Read More
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.... Read More
Caregiver Unions: Much Needed But Most Vulnerable Now
Often overlooked amid the current attacks on long-established public sector unions around the country is the threat to recently organized workers, who are the lowest... Read More
What was the most classist comment of 2010?
It was a bumper year for callous, elitist politicians and CEOs spouting off in public. Cast your vote for one of these doozies, or add... Read More
‘Tis the Season When the Poor are Freezin’
Lack of enough opportunity, social inequality, and exploitation are the main factors in capitalist America that cause poverty, but an often overlooked contributor are the... Read More
Defending my vibrant neighborhood
Recently four people were killed about ten houses away from where I grew up in Mattapan, a neighborhood of Boston. The neighborhood was maligned by... Read More
A Wealth of Whammies for Youth in Poverty
It is unjust enough that scores of young people in the United States are denied basic human rights; that even in a country which paints... Read More