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Bridging the class divide

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poverty

The Poverty Catch-22

May 4, 2017 by Hazel Garcia Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Class prejudice, Classism, Classism in Everyday Life, Classism in the Economy, Money, Poverty Tagged With: blaming the victim, money, poverty, working class

Debbie Downer’s Spring Break

March 23, 2017 by Muna Mohamed 1 Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class in Higher Education, Pop Culture Classism Tagged With: class cultures, education, poverty, privilege, speaking up, spring break

Classism in Literature: Poor Boy Syndrome

March 2, 2017 by Julia Gerhardt 2 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class in Literature, Women and Class Tagged With: academia, classism, poverty, sexism, stereotypes, working class

Social Class and a Writing Conference

March 2, 2017 by Lita Kurth Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class in Literature, Class prejudice, Classism, Pop Culture Classism Tagged With: poverty, privilege, snobs, working class

Eviction

January 5, 2017 by Taj Khunkhun Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Affordable Housing Tagged With: debt, downward mobility, low-wage jobs, money, poverty

Safe, Affordable Housing Is a Human Right

January 5, 2017 by Aimee Inglis 1 Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Affordable Housing, Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in Politics Tagged With: community organizing, poverty, speaking up

Politics of Work, Socioeconomics, and Classism in Classrooms:

December 8, 2016 by Doreen Mohammed Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class in Higher Education Tagged With: academia, blaming the victim, classism, education, first generation college students, immigrants, low-income, poverty, privilege, race and class, racism

The Demise of Neoliberalism

November 22, 2016 by Van Hardy 1 Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Dismantlng Classism Tagged With: poverty, Rationalizing privilege, speaking up

Beyond Trump: Creating Class-Race Alliances

October 20, 2016 by Rahula Janowski 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class prejudice, Classism, Classism in Diversity Work, Classism in Politics, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Classism in the Economy, Cross-class alliances, Dismantlng Classism, Electoral politics, Institutional racism, Owning class, Politics and Class, Poverty, Race and Class Tagged With: #WhiteWorkingClassVsTrump, activism, classism, community organizing, owning class, poverty, racism, working class

Systematic Failure: A Recipe for Self-Doubt

September 15, 2016 by Alyshia Macaysa 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Class in Higher Education, Classism, Dismantlng Classism, First Generation College Students, Institutional racism, Internalized classism Tagged With: academia, classism, community organizing, education, first generation college students, poverty, privilege, race and class, racism

My Summers on the Cape

August 25, 2016 by Camilo Viveiros Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classism in the Economy, Consumer culture, Dealing with privilege, Poverty Tagged With: consumerism, low-wage jobs, Minimum wage, money, poverty, working class

Vacationing Broke

August 25, 2016 by Mary Grace 2 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Classism in Everyday Life, Consumer culture Tagged With: blaming the victim, class cultures, classism, debt, low-wage jobs, poverty

When Skinny Isn’t So Cute

July 20, 2016 by Linda Stout 1 Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Class and health, Classism in Everyday Life, Corporate power, Environmental classism Tagged With: health care, low-wage jobs, poverty, speaking up

Brexit – A Class Issue

July 7, 2016 by Milan Rai 2 Comments

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. […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Money, Politics and Class, Poverty Tagged With: budget cuts, class cultures, downward mobility, low-wage jobs, middle class, poverty, privilege, union-bashing, working class

Choosing Not to Go Into Debt for College

June 8, 2016 by Nicole Renee Brown 3 Comments

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, […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class in Higher Education, Classism in the Economy, First Generation College Students, Money, Poverty Tagged With: academia, debt, education, first generation college students, poverty, working class

Avoiding Loans at Any Cost

June 7, 2016 by Anonymous Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Building Economic Alternatives, Class in Higher Education, Classism in the Economy, Poverty Tagged With: academia, debt, education, low-wage jobs, money, poverty, working class

When Pregnancy Is the Biggest Scare

May 20, 2016 by Seble Adinew Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Money, Poverty Tagged With: low-wage jobs, Minimum wage, motherhood and poverty, poverty, single mothers

First in the Family: Social Mobility as a
First Generation College Student

May 1, 2016 by Vivianna Lee Alvarez 2 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class in Higher Education Tagged With: academia, education, first generation college students, middle class, poverty, working class

Finding My Place in Academia as a First-Gen

May 1, 2016 by Kenneth Lambert Jr Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class in Higher Education, First Generation College Students, Internalized classism Tagged With: academia, classism, education, first generation college students, poverty

Class, Money and Mental Health

March 31, 2016 by Anonymous 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class and Disability, First Generation College Students, Health care access Tagged With: academia, bullying, health care, low-wage jobs, Minimum wage, poverty

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