Only those who know me well are aware of my humble beginnings. It’s not so obvious until you notice that I only have a few professional outfits, none of which I bought myself.
I have written much about issues of class in the context of relationships, politics, and other markers of oppression—notably race and gender—but I have mostly avoided labeling myself as part of a particular social class because it is still unclear to me how I should classify myself (if at all). Moreover, it is far from the norm to label oneself as a member of any class in the United States, whose populace remains either ignorant or indifferent toward the subject. In fact, it’s hard to think of any social movement in recent U.S. history—other than Occupy Wall St.—that had a clear class dimension. The most powerful and recognizable grassroots movements from the 1960s to the 1980s focused on single issues, such as nuclear disarmament, or broader concerns around racism, sexism, homophobia, or environmental destruction. Communist, and anarchist groups certainly exist, but they are fragmented and irrelevant to the mainstream political discourse. Movements equivalent to the Yellow Vests in France have virtually disappeared in recent years. Only in the 1930s did European-style leftists hold any real power in the United States—until F.D.R. succeeded in placating the unruly masses with the New Deal.
It is with this historical context in mind that I identity as “working class.” I do not see it as a descriptive label as much as a political one. A strong argument could be made that I am middle class, even though most of my immediate family members are high school dropouts, and only my mother has a college degree, which she paid for herself through working-class wages back when this was possible. Nonetheless, she became a teacher, which is typically considered a middle-class profession—though barely so. I, too, became a teacher (along with many other things) and currently hold two college degrees.
Education level and occupation are often beside the point, however. What makes a person a member of a social class has more to do with his or her relationship with money than any other factor in my opinion. Bottom line: A working-class person must work or face dire consequences, whereas a middle- or upper-class person can spend months traveling or studying without concern. An uneducated, jobless wife of a millionaire fits the latter description and thus is clearly not working class. I am far more aligned with the former.
I am also far more aligned with the politics of a working-class person—at least in the economic sense. I am a firm believer in government programs designed to promote equality and meet basic human needs, such as healthcare, education, and employment. Those who believe the market can fix everything—ultra-libertarian types—are typically those who have strong personal safety nets in the form of wealthy relatives, assets, and trust funds. Most working people know better.
What they don’t seem to know, though, is the power of identifying as the downtrodden. There is much strength in numbers, and we have the numbers. We don’t fear the rich (for some reason), but the rich fear us. They would not exist without us. No politician could win a state-wide or national race without the support of at least some of us, and we are undoubtedly the best at raising hell on the streets.
Let us not forget or deny who we are.
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Each week on Friday at noon EST, I will be shining a light onto a unique aspect of my identity hidden below the surface. I ask other writers to join me on this quest. Too often we think of “identity” in terms of physical traits, such as gender or race, and neglect the person within. Both sides of the political spectrum cultivate and manipulate identity to gain votes, but a more authentic identity politics entails more than succumbing to labels thrust on us by academics, politicians, and the media in other to further factitious or provincial causes. This series is a call for us as concerned citizens to determine our own labels and, consequently, our own causes.
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