Tag Archives: working-class stories

The News Media’s Blind Spots Covering the Working Class

Posted on September 23, 2019 by

At midnight on Sept. 15, 49,000 UAW-GM workers walked out on strike at locations across the country, a day after their 2015 collective bargaining contract with General Motors expired and the union declined to extend the provisions of the agreement. … Continue reading →

Posted in Christopher R. Martin, Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Memoir as Medium: Bridging the Class Divide

Posted on September 16, 2019 by

More than three years after its publication in 2016, Hillbilly Elegy and its author J.D. Vance continue to be lightning rods. A recent Washington Post opinion piece caused an uproar by insinuating that Vance lamented the declining white birth rate … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Understanding Class, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

I, Daniel Blake and The Power of Working-Class Story Telling

Posted on December 5, 2016 by

Ken Loach’s latest film I, Daniel Blake (2016) was hard for me to watch. I left the cinema with a knot in my stomach and tears in my eyes. It was a visceral experience that brought back memories of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Sarah Attfield | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

White Trash, Hillbillies, and Middle-Class Stereotypes

Posted on September 19, 2016 by

During election years white people who do not have bachelor’s degrees (the increasingly common definition of “the working class”) become both a somewhat exotic who-knew-they-were-here-and-in-such-large-numbers object of discussion and a target for freewheeling social psychologizing. Thus, it is more than … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Understanding Class, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Losing the Narrative of Their Lives

Posted on November 30, 2015 by

A study released a few weeks ago, conducted by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, documented a significant increase in the death rate among the white working class in the US, much of it due to suicide and substance abuse. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Sherry Linkon, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

‘Struggle Street’: hard-hitting documentary or middle-class voyeurism?

Posted on May 18, 2015 by

A new Australian television show, Struggle Street, has attracted much controversy and commentary. The three-part documentary was commissioned by the public broadcaster, SBS, and made by KEO films. The production company’s web site describes Struggle Street as an ‘observational documentary’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Sarah Attfield, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

We’re Here! We’re Queer! We’re Not Going Shopping!

Posted on August 25, 2014 by

In 2002, when I was soliciting submissions for the anthology Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life, I received this message on a Working-Class Studies listserv: “Excuse me for saying so, but isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Class at the Intersections, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments