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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
Blogroll
Category Archives: John Russo
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
Class Anxiety: Parasite and Joker
A couple of weeks after the South Korean film Parasite won both Best Foreign Film and Best Picture, Donald Trump went on what the Washington Post called a “nationalistic cultural” rant about the film’s awards. He was upset that a … Continue reading
Beyond Policy: Why Democrats Need to Show White Working-Class Voters Some Respect
When I heard Hillary Clinton refer to half of Trump supporters as “deplorables” during her 2016 presidential campaign, I knew she would lose. Her comment exemplified the arrogant, elitist, dismissive attitudes that make many white working-class voters suspicious of the … Continue reading
White Middle-Class Racism
What do you picture when someone refers to the “Trump’s base”? If you’ve watched television coverage of his rallies or read any of the dozens of articles in which reporters and commentators try to explain Trump’s appeal, then you probably … Continue reading
Class, Empathy, and the Green New Deal
The recent debate over the Green New Deal got me thinking about a lecture I gave in 2018 at the Columbia University Seminar on Energy Ethics. The faculty who attended were mostly environmental lawyers and scientists. I am neither. But … Continue reading
Blaming Workers Again
Working-class people often get blamed for their troubles. They should have planned better, been less demanding, or just been smarter. Those are just some of the judgments that surfaced again in the weeks after General Motors’ announcement late in November … Continue reading
Is the Fever Breaking? Ground Zero Youngstown
Two years ago, I described the Youngstown area as “crossover ground zero” for Donald Trump and the politics of resentment in working-class and rust belt communities. In local rallies during the 2016 campaign and since he took office, Trump has … Continue reading
Have Ohio Democrats Learned Anything About the Working Class?
In presidential elections, Ohio has long been a swing state. Its voters supported Obama in 2008 and 2012, then swung right in 2016 to support Donald Trump. On the state level, however, Republicans have dominated for the past two decades. … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, John Russo, Working-Class Politics
Tagged Ohio Democrats, Sherrod Brown, working-class voters
46 Comments
Everybody Knows About Alabama
“You don’t have to live next to me Just give me my equality Everybody knows about Mississippi Everybody knows about Alabama Everybody knows about Mississippi goddam, that’s it” “Mississippi Goddamn” Nina Simone We saw the play with music, Nina … Continue reading
Economic Nationalism and the Half-Life of Deindustrialization
In a 60 Minutes interview in September, Steven Bannon touted his form of economic nationalism and suggested that Democrats like Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S Representative Tim Ryan understood his economic vision, even if they didn’t agree with him. It … Continue reading
