Class Lives: Stories from across Our Economic Divide

Published by Cornell University Press 2015

Class Lives

Stories from across Our Economic Divide

Edited by: Chuck Collins , Jennifer Ladd , Maynard Seider and Felice Yeskel

In the series A Class Action Book

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801454530

Overview
Contents

About this book

This anthology of narratives dramatizing the lived experience of class in America includes forty original essays from authors who represent a range of classes, genders, races, ethnicities, ages, and occupations across the United States. Together, these essays form a powerful narrative about the experience of class.

Author / Editor information

Chuck Collins is a board member at Class Action and a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author most recently of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. Jennifer Ladd is cofounder of Class Action. Maynard Seider, author of A Year in the Life of a Factory, has retired as a Professor of Sociology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. The late Felice Yeskel was cofounder of Class Action.

Reviews

Kim Bobo, Executive Director, Interfaith Worker Justice:

Too often, 'class' is viewed as a concept without meaning or impact. Class Lives demonstrates through powerful stories how we are all impacted by the challenges (for the poor) and opportunities (for the rich) imposed on us by class. Pushing against class barriers is critical for those who care about justice and fairness. This book will help us all.

Jack Metzgar, Roosevelt University, author of Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered:

The stories in Class Lives all engage the reader at a directly personal level that both stimulates and guides self-reflection on the role of class and the awareness of class in one's own life. The overall class framework—poor, working class, middle class, and owning class—is intuitively compelling in itself, and the individual essays bring that framework to life in a way that is even more compelling and memorable.

James M. Jasper, author of Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements:

In a sad world where our class origins matter more and more, it is useful to have these candid stories about exactly how they matter, from thoughtful people who have devoted their lives to combating injustice.

Bill Fletcher, Jr., author of "They're Bankrupting Us"—and Twenty Other Myths about Unions:

Class Lives addresses the forbidden subject on the U.S. landscape: class. But it does so through the narratives of a spectrum of writers who examine—indeed, interrogate—their own experiences in order to make sense of their backgrounds, their challenges, their successes, and their worldviews. This deeply personal collection takes issues of class and class struggle off the shelf of both academia and social struggle and situates them in the context of living the real contradictions of the real USA. I was drawn into this volume from the very opening pages.

Dennis Soron:

It does a good job of highlighting the implicit class biases and prejudices that often infect progressive movements and institutionslimiting their popular appeal and undercutting their stated commitment to inclusion and diversity. The book's compassionate and inclusive ethos, and its detailed consideration of complex ways that class inflects the whole spectrum of identity and everyday experience, offers a welcome respite from the sanctimonious hothouse of much contemporary liberal identity politics.

Rinku Sen, President of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and Publisher of Colorlines:

Among the many things that shape our movements, the class identities of principal players are among the least examined. In this insightful book, dozens of authors share heartfelt stories of their struggles with and consciousness around class. Class Lives takes class from a social taboo and brings it to life.

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: Caviar, College, Coupons, and Cheese Felice Yeskel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Poor and Low Income
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Cleaning Up the Trash Fighting Shame Linda Stout Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
North American Peasant Fisher Lavell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
I Work with Worn-Out Tools Janet Lightfoot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Mexican Girl from Fontana Geneva Reynaga-Abiko Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
What They Say about Poor Girls Stephanie Jones Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
Better Than Patience Rage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
No Yellow Tickets The Stigma of Poverty in the School Lunch Line Wendy Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Part II. Working Class
Reflections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Those of Us from Rio Linda Dwight Lang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
The Cost of Passing John Rosario-Perez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
The Floors of the Met Karen Estrella Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Washroom Class Politics Timothy Harris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Artichokes N. Jeanne Burns Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Here’s How to Drive the Poor Crazy Michaelann Bewsee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Red Datsun Security Karen Spector Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Working Class and College
A Box from My Grandfather Janet Casey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
Vacuum Cleaner Truth Sierra Fleenor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
I Am Working Class Michelle M. Tokarczyk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
Hitting the Academic Class Ceiling K. Stricker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Blue-Collar Heart, Ivy League World Jennifer O’Connor Duffy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
Between Scarcity and Plenty Camisha Jones Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
A Nuyorican’s Journey to Higher Education Toward Meritocracy or Internalized Classism? Jim Bonilla Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
My Parents’ Hands Are on My Back Christine Overall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
Part III. Middle Class
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
“Better Be Street” My Adventures in Cross-Class Romance Polly Trout Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
It’s Who You Know and How You Talk Betsy Leondar-Wright Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Childhood Friendship When Class Didn’t Matter Pamela Burrows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Finding Myself in the Middle Monica Crumback Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
A Privileged Path in a Class-Shattered World Anne Ellinger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Oreo? A Black American Experience John Vaughn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
Class Is Always with Us Kyle Harris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Part IV. Owning Class
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Born on Third Base Chuck Collins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Money Was Never a Worry Catherine Orland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
The Women Who Cared for My Grandparents Sarah Burgess Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
What Was It Like Growing Up Owning-Class? Jennifer Ladd Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
A Day of Traveling across the Class Spectrum Charlotte Redway Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Social Capital Sally Gottesman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Part V. Mixed Class
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Coming Clean April Rosenblum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Ferragamos A Cross-Class Experience Zoe Greenberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Girl Scout Green Mariah Boone Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
Living beyond Class My Journey from Haiti to Harvard Jacques Fleury Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Afterword: The Power of Story Chuck Collins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Resources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
About Class Action Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Keywords: class journeys; class system; class awareness; working class; classism; class culture; class and race

eBook

Published: February 6, 2015
ISBN: 9780801454530