Recently I read an essay on the Huffington Post written by Baptist theologian and activist, Jeff Hood, about developments in Ferguson, Missouri. Hood took issue with clergy on the scene who asserted to African-American protesters, “If we remain peaceful then we will get what we want!” On the contrary, Hood argued, suppressing anger in the […]
racism
Class identity is different for black professionals
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 […]
Pioneering Black Class-Analysts
Black History Month got me thinking about some of the African-American thinkers who have taught me the most about class/race intersections: 1) W.E.B. DuBois, author of The Souls of Black Folk (1903), was many decades ahead of his time in connecting the subjective experience of racism with its institutional dimensions. He had a global view of […]
Classism is in Fashion
Ever since Miley Cyrus twerked her bum on Robin Thicke’s crotch at the MTV awards, cultural appropriation has been a hot topic. But, society has been capitalizing off of minority cultures long before Miley was even conceived. High-end designers are now adopting hip-hop and urban styles to create a new IT look that has been […]
Parading Around in Privilege
Halloween is quickly approaching and low-quality polyester costumes are flying off shelves like Tickle Me Elmo on Black Friday. In the year of the Hipster, pricey immaculate store-bought costumes are out and pricey immaculate homemade DIY costumes are in. What is now the new Halloween trend is eerily evolving into an upper-crust high-cost arts and […]
Climate Justice Work Must Include Marginalized People
Late last year, I attended a 350.org divestment rally for climate justice at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Although the organizers made no claims to work intersectionally, and made no promise cross-class organizing, I left feeling deflated and angry at what seemed to be an effort to pander to wealthy white men at the […]
Lessons from a Class Straddler: Upward Mobility in Literature
Are you a straddler like me? According to Alfred Lubrano’s Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, a straddler is a person who was reared in a working class background but now enjoys a middle-class standard of living. Whether you are a straddler or not, you have come across one, more than likely, either in real life, […]
Do We Still Need Race-based Affirmative Action?
Do we, as some claim, live in a post-racial society that no longer requires any special measures to aid equality of opportunity? After all, we have our first black president. What further proof of racial opportunity could anyone want? Well, a lot. Our racial history casts a long shadow particularly in black-white relations, (though other […]
Responding to Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision
My first response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the University of Texas case was to breathe a sigh of relief. I had been expecting affirmative action to be ruled illegal. Instead the Court, in effect, said that the University had to prove that non-racial methods were ineffective in creating greater diversity. We should, however, […]
Race and Class: The more we get together the stronger we are
Labor unions, welfare rights campaigns, and the fight for pay equity are historical struggles for justice that have impacted the shape of the wealth distribution in the last century. Each of those fights was strengthened and more effective as they became more inclusive of people of color. One of the most effective tools we have […]
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 me by now. Grama says we’re Indian, mama says ‘no’. Sis calls me a “wetback” and a “beaner” (“mom said it all the time”). Brother teases me about getting pregnant […]
Exhilarating discoveries at anti-racist conference
I’m entranced with the White Privilege Conference’s culture and community. I was a first-time attender at the 14th annual conference in Seattle last week, and the experience was a series of exhilarating discoveries. What most buoyed my spirits seemed to buoy others too: seeing about 1,500 white people who are so committed to ending racism […]
Cautionary notes about liberals’ election self-congratulations
The election and reelection of Obama is a historical milestone in race relations. It is a definitely an achievement we should be proud of. We truly have came along way since, the days of reconstruction, when it was unusual for an African American to even visit the white house. While Obama’s election and reelection truly […]
The Anthropologist in the Organic Store
The drive on I-90 on the way to the Organic Store is picturesque. That’s the only word that can quantify the margarine yellow and red zebra stripes of the majestic trees and leaves painted across the landscape. You’re an anthropologist, you see. It’s a fancy term you’ve started calling yourself because the word “immigrant” is […]
Is Classism a Hate Crime?
Classism is the new acceptable discrimination. It’s a phenomenon I met while growing up poor and continually saw in the physical facts of life—food, clothing, housing, transportation, acne treatments and braces—all were allocated by class. Generally, so were the emotional/social facts of life: respect, admiration, popularity, participation in plays and expensive sports—those were, by and […]
What’s needed at this political moment? 5 well-known leftists, 5 strong opinions
At the Working-Class Studies conference last weekend, I heard an amazing dialogue about class, race and movement-building by five progressive journalists and activist scholars: Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now!, Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher Jr. of Blackcommentator.com, and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert of Demos, with conference organizer Michael Zweig, author of The […]
Exploring Classism
Just recently I attended a Class Action workshop. This was my first workshop ever dealing on the issues of classism. Heading into it, I didn’t know what to expect. I had an open mind and was willing to work with others I hadn’t met. It was definitely a big step to go outside my comfort […]
Guilt and Defensiveness vs Owning Our Privilege(s)
What follows is a very personal essay about my own learning about class, race and other “isms.” I use my own method of self-critique and observation and lived experience. Most of what I’ve learned is, of course, unfortunately, hindsight. I am from a poverty / lower working class background. Socially I have had many mixed […]
Giving thanks humbly or smugly
When I was a girl, at the beginning of Thanksgiving dinner, my family would sing a beautiful old hymn, We Gather Together, the most traditional Thanksgiving song, written in 1597. I loved the melody and the tradition and didn’t think much about the words. But in my 20s, with my newly critical eye, I scrutinized […]
Diversity & isms in #Occupy
The various “Occupy” developments around the country have opened the long-neglected and marginalized question of economic equality, and the power of concentrated income and wealth over the nation’s nominally “democratic” political system. Nothing could be more welcome. At the same time, the historic struggles of various “identity groups” for their place in the sun is […]
