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Bridging the class divide

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privilege

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

Was the International Women’s Day Strike Classist?

March 13, 2017 by Liz Padgett 2 Comments

What did you do for International Women’s Day? Did you strike? Well, I’m currently unemployed, and my partner has been supporting us while I’ve been more-or-less taking care of our home. We had a conversation in the morning about the kind of day-to-day work I do around the house, how a lot of it is unbalanced background […]

Filed Under: Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Cross-class alliances, Dealing with privilege Tagged With: community organizing, privilege

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

Five Classist Pitfalls to #Resist in Your Activism

February 13, 2017 by Davey Shlasko 4 Comments

In a moment of potentially revolutionary activism and mobilization, don’t let classism undermine your efforts. The past few weeks have been both terrifying and inspiring. In the midst of ascending totalitarianism and the drastic, likely unconstitutional roll-backs of basic rights, we are also seeing a swift mobilization from both new and established activists. Organizations and […]

Filed Under: Class prejudice, Classism in Politics, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Cross-class alliances, Dealing with privilege, Internalized classism, LGBT & Class, Politics and Class Tagged With: activism, class cultures, classism, community organizing, middle class, owning class, privilege, social movements, working class

Charity vs. Solidarity Work

December 15, 2016 by Cheryl Distaso 4 Comments

Settling in after a short but intense trip to Standing Rock, I took to Facebook, curious about what had transpired at the camp during my 10-hour drive home. Expecting to see updates regarding activities of the thousands of water protectors and their allies, I was instead startled by a Facebook post advertising tee shirts. The […]

Filed Under: Philanthropy and Classism Tagged With: owning class, privilege, public services, social movements

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

Building Bridges, Not Walls

November 24, 2016 by Class Action 1 Comment

Class Action was founded by visionaries who realized that they had grown up at different ends of the class spectrum, but who had arrived in the same place when it came to their passion for advancing social equity and justice. Their commitment to building bridges across differences – instead of building walls – continues to inform […]

Filed Under: Classism in Diversity Work, Classism in Politics, Electoral politics Tagged With: activism, classism, privilege, race and class, racism, social movements, stereotypes

Beyond Trump: Building a Coalition for Change

October 19, 2016 by Justin Stein Leave a Comment

Part of the White, Working Class, and Worried about Trump (#WhiteWorkingClassVsTrump) Campaign*: I grew up in South St. Louis City in a multi-racial, working-class neighborhood. My dad was a union carpenter, and my mom worked part-time at various jobs while maintaining the home. I’m the oldest of seven children. I remember the constant anxiety in our […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism, Classism in Diversity Work, Classism in Politics, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Classism in the Economy, Cross-class alliances, Dealing with privilege, Dismantlng Classism, Electoral politics, Politics and Class, Race and Class Tagged With: #WhiteWorkingClassVsTrump, activism, blaming the victim, classism, community organizing, privilege, race and class, racism, social movements, working class

Risk Telling the Truth

September 29, 2016 by Abraham Lateiner 1 Comment

I thought I was going to be a career teacher. But after a decade, I hit bottom. Teaching in inner-city schools, I saw the barriers my students faced and confronted my own limits caused by my vastly different experience growing up. I had some positive, uplifting experiences, but I wasn’t very resilient, and I kept […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in the Economy, Cross-class alliances, Cross-class Relationships, Cultural capital, Dealing with privilege, Dismantlng Classism, Money, Owning class Tagged With: classism, privilege, race and class, racism, super-rich

Being an Owning-Class Activist

September 29, 2016 by Jennifer Ladd Leave a Comment

All of us are more than a label, right? We each are more than one of our identities standing by itself. We are complex, changing, contradictory beings, and a mystery in many ways. And yet, our identities do matter – at the very same time as those identities are not all of who we are. […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Building Economic Alternatives, Class cultures, Cross-class alliances, Cross-class Relationships, Dealing with privilege, Dismantlng Classism, Owning class Tagged With: activism, community organizing, money, owning class, privilege, social movements, super-rich

Wealthy, Come Home

September 29, 2016 by Chuck Collins Leave a Comment

Here’s my invitation to those of you, like me, in the top of America’s income and wealth ladder. Come home.  What I mean by “coming home” is to bring your whole self – your passion, your stake in a place, your wealth and sense of agency – and throw it fully into the movements to reduce […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Cross-class alliances, Dealing with privilege, Dismantlng Classism, Money, Owning class Tagged With: activism, community organizing, Felice Yeskel, owning class, privilege, speaking up, super-rich

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

Changing Classes, Changing Vacations

August 25, 2016 by Class Action Leave a Comment

I was born to two African-American strivers. My dad had been born poor and my mom came from people who had “clawed their way up,” according to my maternal granddad, from “dirt poor to lower-middle-class.” Family difficulties early in her life, however, meant that Mom grew up working-class instead. My parents shared a great love – […]

Filed Under: Cultural capital Tagged With: class cultures, class mobility, middle class, privilege, working class

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

Poor Little “Not-So-Rich” Girls

March 18, 2016 by Megan Marshall Leave a Comment

It wasn’t until I began to write about class from the perspective of the 19th century women about whom I’ve written two biographies that I realized how much issues of class lie at the heart of my attraction to these women. Class Action asked me to explore the constraints that even upper class white women […]

Filed Under: Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Gender Class Intersections, Women and Class Tagged With: class cultures, gender bias, privilege, race and class, racism, speaking up, women and class

African Americans and Classism:

February 29, 2016 by Class Action 2 Comments

It’s Complicated When I started this post, I thought it would be a straight-forward musing on classism on and in African-American communities. A few minutes in, and I found that I didn’t know where to start. Should I write about the devastating effect that the intersectionality of classism and racism has on individuals and communities? Should I […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism, Dealing with privilege Tagged With: classism, education, intersectionality, middle class, privilege, race and class, racism, stereotypes

Health Equity: What’s Working

January 12, 2016 by Prevention Institute Leave a Comment

We have lots of ways to measure what’s not working in the United States. We can quickly pull the latest numbers that track growing inequalities in wealth and opportunity in our society, from displacement driven by gentrification and mounting student debt to low social mobility and gaping health disparities across lines of class and race. […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Health care access, Poverty Tagged With: health care, poverty, privilege, public services

It’s Not What You Say, but How?

December 17, 2015 by Class Action 2 Comments

Using Language as a Weapon of Classism A British friend of mine, who met and married his American wife in London, told me that he dreaded attending her job-related social functions in “The Square Mile.” As a bank executive, her coworkers were mostly upper middle-class, and they, along with banking and corporate elites, attended these […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism Tagged With: class cultures, classism, privilege, snobs, stereotypes

Language Matters, Too

December 15, 2015 by Laurie Sheridan 2 Comments

My brother, sister and I were all brought up to speak a very clear, accent-less English with good grammar and syntax. We were not “perfect,” but we were obliged to try. Our mother harassed us constantly about the way we talked. And she stressed that we would never be able to get a job or […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class cultures, Class prejudice, Classism, Classism in Everyday Life, Dealing with privilege, Dismantlng Classism Tagged With: class cultures, classism, downward mobility, privilege, snobs, speaking up, stereotypes, working class

Election Day 2015

November 2, 2015 by Class Action Leave a Comment

Despite “get out the vote” efforts by civic groups, nonprofit organizations, religious institutions and political parties, millions of registered voters in towns and cities across America won’t bother to vote tomorrow, Election Day 2015. Some will tell you that they are just too busy. Many will tell you that they see no value in voting […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classism in Politics, Electoral politics Tagged With: classism, democracy and class, money in politics, policy, privilege, voting

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