The High Costs of Destitution Cause a Vicious Cycle Nothing is more infuriating than the ill-informed critique that “the haves” like to lob at “the have-nots.” Here’s a classic: “If you’re so poor and can’t afford to eat, then why are you overweight?” If you have ever been poor, you know the answer to that question […]
poverty
Debbie Downer’s Spring Break
Spring break is coming up. That means hearing about Cancun and Barcelona while walking by students, seeing Airbnb and hotel tabs on 101 laptops, and seeing Snapchat countdowns every day. Spring break is a college student’s dream – one that comes with a hefty price to make it a reality. As a student coming from […]
Classism in Literature: Poor Boy Syndrome
In the song “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Freddy Mercury sings, “I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy.” He’s right, you don’t. Yet, it seems that in the literary world, poor boys are the ones who receive all the sympathy. It did not dawn on me until I took the class Working Class Women’s Literature at Goucher […]
Social Class and a Writing Conference
Though not all writing conferences are expensive, many are. A number try, essentially, to take money from those who can afford it to subsidize those who can’t – a worthy policy. But one still tends to meet more wealthy people than poor at a writing conference. Last summer, I attended one on the East Coast that […]
Eviction
Frequent Classism Exposed contributor L.A. Kurth invited students in her class at a California community college to share their thoughts on affordable housing. Here is one student’s response. All my life I have lived in a rental home or an apartment, except for the brief period of time when my family and I had a […]
Safe, Affordable Housing Is a Human Right
On the morning of December 3rd, 2016, the deadly effects of the affordable housing crisis became clear. If housing were treated as a human right, if artists were supported by the cities and developers that profit off their creativity, the loss of 36 lives in Oakland, California in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire could have […]
Politics of Work, Socioeconomics, and Classism in Classrooms:
Education to Work to Live or Live to Work? I am a first-generation American whose parents immigrated from Dhaka, Bangladesh, so I could make it big – so I would never have worry for my survival as they had and still have to, and to be able to take my life for granted as most to none of […]
The Demise of Neoliberalism
And What It Means to U.S. Communities The election of Donald Trump and the Bernie Sanders campaign made it clear that people are rejecting “business as usual.” There are many reasons why Hillary Clinton lost the election, but her strong association with “the status quo” (business as usual) was a major factor. Collectively, I agree that […]
Beyond Trump: Creating Class-Race Alliances
Part of the White, Working Class, and Worried about Trump (#WhiteWorkingClassVsTrump) Campaign*: I grew up in economically depressed, though beautiful, northeastern Vermont. My family was on and off welfare throughout my childhood, and we were always poor. As a child, I was acutely aware of the ways poverty set me apart from other people. As I […]
Systematic Failure: A Recipe for Self-Doubt
What does it mean when our education system, “The Great Equalizer,” turns low-income dreamers into third-generation self-doubters? When a high-quality education system is built only to serve and advance the dreams of highly resourced, high-wealth individuals? Prior to my time at UC Berkeley, the formula to a successful college career seemed pretty simple. All you […]
My Summers on the Cape
Working, Not “Summering,” on Martha’s Vineyard Summer rolling around means vacations for many. But for others it means seasonal migration to restaurant and hospitality work. When on the Cape recently, I stopped by a Black Dog store, to check to see if the clothing was still made on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. A considerable […]
Vacationing Broke
Being poor can feel like you’re stuck, and when everyone you know disappears into the world when they have the chance, you realize how truly stuck you are. When you’re young, it’s simple stuff like not being able to go to day camp, anywhere on spring break, or to anything but the free stuff you […]
When Skinny Isn’t So Cute
Growing up as the daughter of a farm worker, we often had dinners of biscuits and milk gravy. I always thought I was having a great meal! While we did grow a lot of vegetables and canned as many as possible, we often ran out before the next season. Sometime there would be a little […]
Brexit – A Class Issue
Two weeks on, a lot of progressive people in Britain are still in deep shock or fury or despair – or alternating rapidly between all three emotional states. A full 51.9% of British people voted to Leave the European Union (Brexit), and 48.1% voted to Remain in the EU. It was 17.4 million votes to 16.1 million. […]
Choosing Not to Go Into Debt for College
Nicole Brown wrote the following after reading, and being so affected by, last month’s (May 2016) Classism Exposed blog post on the possibility that students are deciding not to attend college due to the fear of loan debt. After reading that low-income and working-class students may be choosing not to go to college for fear of taking on debt, […]
Avoiding Loans at Any Cost
Recently, community college students in a class taught by Classism Exposed contributor L.A. Kurth (see her note at the bottom of the post) responded to an essay in Yes!* magazine about the student loan debt and the feasibility of a debt strike. Their responses illustrate the loss of opportunity and potential we ensure by offering loans […]
When Pregnancy Is the Biggest Scare
Stephanie Jones, writing in Class Lives, says, “But poor girls are so strapped by their finances, we can’t imagine a pregnancy: the furniture needed, time away from work, the long-term financial costs, the exhaustion after a double shift, the food, the bottles, the formula, the child care.” The author is right. Being pregnant when poor […]
First in the Family: Social Mobility as a
First Generation College Student
As the first in my family to pursue a college degree, I have found challenges in navigating the privileges and isolation encompassed in the system of higher education. Both of my parents moved to the United States in the late 1980s – my mother from Hong Kong, China and my father from Monterrey, Mexico. Neither […]
Finding My Place in Academia as a First-Gen
As the first in my family to attend college and to go on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees, I have definitely struggled to find my place in the world of academia, the class system of higher education, and to understand the worth of my experience. As a child of mixed Caucasian and Native American […]
Class, Money and Mental Health
When I was in high school, I knew something was wrong with me. There were many days where I felt like I had lost all purpose in living. I remember crying a lot in my high school years. My chest would feel tight, the air would get thick, and my mind would race with negative […]
