A Reflection on the Gig Economy
I am no stranger to the gig economy. I have relied on it from time to time to supplement the income from my small business.... Read More
Thank You for Being on Time
A few months ago, I made an appointment at the low-income clinic to see their therapist. I was hoping to find someone to listen to... Read More
Weighing Every Cost: A Genteel Poverty
I am the youngest of 10 siblings. My dad built a successful plumbing business, bought his own shop and employed a few helpers at the... Read More
Why Do You Want to Be Poor?
Growing up poor on Long Island builds character. While trying to balance personal responsibilities with maintaining a GPA high enough to make myself a competitive... Read More
Breaking the Silence about Class in One Liberal Denomination
In 2012, I was lucky enough to attend a remarkable weekend-long Class Action Train-the-Trainers mega-workshop. I did not attend to learn techniques to raise awareness about class and... Read More
A Total Commitment to First Gen Students
Instead of a program located in one department, Mount Holyoke provides a dynamic, collaborative initiative focused on ensuring that the august institution is meeting the... Read More
B1GS: First Gen College Students
I am a sophomore at Rutgers University-Camden, studying psychology with a minor in childhood studies and social work. I am also – with great pride... Read More
Feel the FLoW
Throughout my first years of college, I couldn’t help but notice I was different than my peers. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but... Read More
Roseanne and the Changing Working-Class
When ABC’s Roseanne premiered in 1988, it arrived in the era of Reaganomics with policies that stripped power from unions, sent blue collar jobs overseas and... Read More
Roseanne: A Working-Class (S)hero Returns
The Roseanne reboot promises to tackle love and politics. Pack your bags and hit the road, folks. On March 27th we’re going back to Lanford.... Read More
American Exceptionalism Leaves International Women’s Day Blank
When searching for information about International Women’s Day (IWD) 2018, I knew I would not find details from the U.S. government. It doesn’t coordinate IWD... Read More
Mirroring Administrative Attitudes: One Year Into Trump’s Rhetoric
Kalkaska, or Trout Town USA, is a picturesque northern Michigan town touting a population of just over 2,000. Located in the snow belt with its... Read More
Trump Supporters: Why Our Attitude Towards Them Matters
Not Stupid. Not Crazy. Those are the two most important things for progressives to remember about rightwing people, says Chip Berlet. He has tracked U.S.... Read More
Trump One Year Later: Most of Us Live in Dread
I had a discussion with my doctor late spring 2017. I was having gastrointestinal issues, and I said to him that I kept wondering whether... Read More
Trump’s First Year: Did the Working-Class Benefit?
Donald Trump ran for president on a populist and inclusionary platform. As he campaigned across the country, he appealed to increasingly larger numbers of Americans... Read More
Andy’s Story: Class and Homelessness
Before the year 2004, the word “classism” was not in my vocabulary. As a music teacher at a prestigious private elementary school and a private... Read More
Sexual Predators and Blue Collar Women
Finally. The manifestation of the recognition that women’s rights ARE human rights. That’s how I’ve been feeling about the outing of so many well-known sexual predators,... Read More
Environmental Classism/Racism and the Sides of Human Rights
On November 29th, Boston City Council unanimously passed a plastic bag ordinance that aims to reduce our reliance on disposable plastic bags. Stores will charge... Read More
No Retreat in Confusion: Classism in Germany
When I talk about classism in Germany the common reactions range from an unknowing Never heard of it to a disbelieving and doubtful Do you really think classes... Read More
Missing Corner, Missing Choices
I recently participated in the Class Action workshop The Moment for Change: Exploring Class and Classism for Social Action. I learned a lot from the... Read More
Four Ways Nonprofits Can Address the Classism Within
Several years ago, I was sitting in a diversity training of a nonprofit I helped manage. We’d spent the morning talking about inequality within the... Read More
Class Diversity Improves Your Nonprofit Board
Nonprofit organizations, which are legal entities that must be approved by state governments, allow people to join together and combine resources to achieve common goals.... Read More
Reader Feedback on Classism Exposed
More than 100 people responded to the summer 2017 Classism Exposed 5-Minute Survey. The responses were as diverse as the people who responded, as evidenced by... Read More
Is Elvis-Hating Classist?
So much depends on whether you are looking up at Elvis from the working poor or working-class or down at him from the middle- and... Read More
What Happens When Degrees Aren’t Enough?
Being a first generation college student often feels like being perpetually caught between two or more worlds. Many of us learn that we must... Read More
Trump’s War on the Poor, Working-Class and …
When explaining why his cabinet is filled with billionaires, President Donald Trump uttered what might just earn him Class Action’s 2017 Most Classist Comment of... Read More
Trump’s Presidency: What We Deserve
Type “Trump voters deserve” into your search bar, and the two suggestions that pop up are “Trump voters deserve what they get” and “Trump voters... Read More
Assimilation and the First Generation College Student
Going to college as a first generation student of color is more than just getting the money and applying for the right scholarships. It’s also... Read More
Living “Relatively Visible”
I am born to a Tamil, working class, OBC (Other Backward Caste) couple who immigrated to North India to earn their livelihood in the mid-1980s.... Read More
The Poverty Catch-22
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... Read More
Class in Crisis
Usually when I sit down to write out my thoughts on a political event, I write because I want to express an idea to resolve an... Read More
Spring Break?
When I think of spring break, I think of MTV and early 20-somethings soaking up the sun. I believe that this ideal spring break is becoming... Read More
How Class Affects My (Breaks from) Class
As a teenager, I became acquainted with our modern society’s expectation of “spring break” through MTV’s spring break specials. I remember as a teen feeling... Read More
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... Read More
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... Read More
Five Classist Pitfalls to #Resist in Your Activism
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.... Read More
Resistance Is Critical
The election outcome was a shock – but wasn’t something new. Throughout U.S. history we’ve had waves of right-wing populism, when people bought into explanations... Read More
Affordable vs. Attainable Housing
When you think affordable housing, you think $600,000 for a condo, right? With a $12,000 down payment, that would be $3,557 per month for 30 years. Maybe that’s... Read More
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... Read More
Beyond Trump: Donald Trump Needs Our Racism
Part of the White, Working Class, and Worried about Trump (#WhiteWorkingClassVsTrump) Campaign*: Throughout the 2016 election cycle, the U.S. electorate has subjected to overt and systemic racism... Read More
Beyond Trump: Building a Coalition for Change
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... Read More
The Sound of Class
The final days of summer always remind me of the time I left home for college. In an instant I can recall what I felt... Read More
Changing Classes, Changing Vacations
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,”... Read More
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.... Read More
Housing Is a Right not a Luxury
While most of us know that housing in the Boston area is getting more and more expensive, you may not have realized that between 2000... Read More
10 Facts About Housing Affordability
5 Things to Make You Furious About Housing 1. Realtors and their allies in government keep track of the growing size of single-family homes. But... Read More
Inclusion, Preservation and Lottery Odds
Somerville used to be a place where many of the residents were people who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. As I’ve told many younger... Read More
Brexit: Race and Class
I had very mixed emotions about the Brexit vote. Having watched the manner in which the European Union strangled Greece, I have not been very... Read More
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... Read More
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... Read More