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Subscribe to Working-Class Perspectives - Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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The State of the Working Class
Listen to Working-Class Perspective editor Sherry Linkon's recent interview about Working-Class Studies on KERA's Think with Krys Boyd.Working-Class Studies on Moyers & Company
Why Springsteen Voters Have Fled the Democratic Party
Hillary Clinton Needs to Declare the Trade War Lost
What Trump's Youngstown Problem Says About Campaign 2016
No Passes for Stereotyping -- Of Any Kind
Beyond Working-Class Stereotypes
The Half-Life of Deindustrialization: Donald Trump Is Just a Symptom
How Clinton and Kaine Can Make Youngstown a Call for Unity
Why Trump Is in Youngstown
What We Can Learn from Melania Trump's, Um, Flattery of Michelle Obama
To Really Understand Working-Class Voters, Read These BooksLinks
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Author Archives: Working-Class Perspectives
A Law and Order Platform to Unite Working-Class Voters
Donald Trump has positioned himself as the “law and order” president, because the term provides a positive framing for the racially-tinged rhetoric he uses to divide members of the white working and middle classes from people of color. The Guardian’s … Continue reading
The Unsettling
It’s fire season again. Two years ago, my parents lost their home in Paradise. This year, I almost lost mine. I live in Oregon, where scores of fires were stoked up by unusual Eastern blasts of dry wind over the … Continue reading
Undelivered: The DeJoy Scandal and Democracy in the Balance
In this turbulent moment, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy aptly symbolizes the precarious state of both our democracy and the workers on whose shoulder its future rests. Last week, a Washington Post team uncovered seven former employees of New Breed Logistics … Continue reading
Unemployed Workers of the World Unite?!?
Karl Marx’s famous phrase spoke of the unemployed as the “industrial reserve army.” His argument was plain. Creating greater unemployment was a key tool in giving employers the upper hand in forcing down wages and disciplining workers. I can still … Continue reading
The Hidden Price of an Education: Black and Working-Class in Academe
In August 2004, I entered a doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon University. My family is from Braddock, Pennsylvania, a largely black neighborhood with working-class roots, and they were ecstatic that I would be their first doctor. I did not know … Continue reading
Essential Work: The 2020 WCSA Awards
At the center of all the chaos and turmoil of 2020 has been the essential worker on the front lines—from healthcare workers treating those infected with COVID-19 to service workers of all kinds who have kept us fed, supplied, and … Continue reading
The Downwardly Mobile: How Some People Lose Class Privilege
We have two narratives about class in this country. Perhaps the most prominent is the American Dream – the idea that hard work and moral fortitude can lead people from rages to riches. The second is that of the rigged … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Understanding Class
Tagged class and education, class mobility, upper middle class
2 Comments
Will Lawyers Stand Up to Defend Working-Class Consumers?
Three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 40 million Americans have lost their jobs. 4.2 million homeowners have placed their mortgages in forbearance. Hundreds of thousands more are in default and have not yet worked out agreements with lenders … Continue reading
Deindustrialization as a Template for COVID-19
As we wrote in Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown, Youngstown’s story is America’s story. That’s true now as we try to imagine American life after the pandemic. No doubt, coronavirus is a natural disaster that is more contagious, widespread, … Continue reading
Posted in Issues, John Russo, The Working Class and the Economy, Youngstown
Tagged COVID-19, Deindustrialization, economic crisis, Youngstown
1 Comment
“People Ain’t Gonna Come to Work if They Don’t Feel Safe”
If you live in Iowa, you get to see a little bit of how the sausage is made, so to speak, especially if it’s pork. It’s a common occurrence to see long semi-truck trailers on the highways, with round pink … Continue reading
