Book Read Free

White Working Class, With a New Foreword by Mark Cuban and a New Preface by the Author

Page 14

by Mark Cuban


  262. Ben Casselman, “Inequality Is Killing the American Dream,” FiveThirtyEight, December 8, 2016, http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/inequality-is-killing-the-american-dream/.

  263. Nick Timiraos, “5 Questions on Trade Adjustment Assistance,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2015, http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/06/15/5-questions-on-trade-adjustment-assistance/.

  264. Joel Paul, “The Cost of Free Trade,” Brown Journal of World Affairs 22 (2015).

  265. Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 1984), supra note 12, at 194–195 (pro-choice women work), 195 (pro-life women less likely to work), cited in Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000), 151.

  266. Jennifer Medina, “California Farmers Short of Labor, and Patience,” New York Times, March 29, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/us/california-farmers-short-of-labor-and-patience.html.

  267. Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Phillip Atiba Goff, Valerie J. Purdie, and Paul G. Davies, “Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87, no. 6 (2004): 876–893, http://fairandimpartialpolicing.com/docs/pob5.pdf.

  268. Rachel Swan, Phil Matier, and Andy Ross, “Oakland Police Bombshells: Racist Texts, Latest Chief Steps Down,” sfgate.com, June 18, 2016, http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Latest-Oakland-police-chief-is-out-after-two-days-8310286.php.

  269. U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, “Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department,” August 10, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/883366/download.

  270. Jane Harman, “Rapists in the Ranks,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2008, http://www.latimes.com/news/la-oe-harman31mar31-story.html.

  271. James Pinkerton, “Hard to Charge: Bulletproof Part 3,” Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/investigations/item/Bulletproof-Part-3-Hard-to-charge-24421.php.

  Chapter 14

  272. John McCormick, “Obama Talks Arugula—Again—in Iowa,” The Swamp, https://archive.fo/I3RIU.

  273. Bernard Weinraub, “Campaign Trail; For Quayle, a Search for Belgian Endive,” New York Times, September 20, 1988, http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/20/us/campaign-trail-for-quayle-a-search-for-belgian-endive.html; Kate Zernike, “Who Among Us Does Not Love Windsurfing?,” New York Times, September 5, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/weekinreview/who-among-us-does-not-love-windsurfing.html; Sarah Pavlus, “Scarborough on Obama’s ‘Dainty’ Bowling Performance: ‘Americans Want Their President, If It’s a Man, to Be a Real Man,’” Media Matters for America, March 31, 2008, http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/03/31/scarborough-on-obamas-dainty-bowling-performanc/143050.

  274. Jeroen van der Waal, Peter Achterberg, and Dick Houtman, “Class Is Not Dead—It Has Been Buried Alive: Class Voting and Cultural Voting in Postwar Western Societies (1956–1990),” Politics and Society 35 (2007): 415.

  275. Zach Carter, “Mitt Romney Doubles Down on Cadillac Gaffe, Accuses Obama of Corruption,” Huffington Post, February 26, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/26/mitt-romney-cadillac_n_1302193.html.

  276. Nick Anderson and Janet Hook, “Dean Is Targeted by Ad Campaign,” Los Angeles Times, January 7, 2004, http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/07/nation/na-media7.

  277. Philip Bump, “When Did Black Americans Start Voting So Heavily Democratic?” Washington Post, July 7, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/07/07/when-did-black-americans-start-voting-so-heavily-democratic/; and “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom: Immediate Impact of the Civil Rights Act,” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/immediate-impact.html.

  278. Mark Stricherz, Why The Democrats Are Blue: Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People’s Party (New York: Encounter Books, 2007), 5–6; Geoffrey Layman and John Michael McTague, “Religion, Parties, and Voting Behavior: A Political Explanation of Religious Influence,” in The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics, ed. Corwin Smidt, Lyman Kellstedt, and James L. Guth (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009), 343.

  279. Thomas B. Edsall, Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 16–18.

  280. Stricherz, Why the Democrats Are Blue, 1.

  281. Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden Story of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right (New York: Anchor, 2016).

  282. Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (New York: New Press, 2016), 71–72, 179.

  283. V. B. Dubal, “The Drive to Precarity: A Political History of Work, Regulation, & Labor Advocacy in San Francisco’s Taxi & Uber Economies,” Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 38 (2017): 73–130.

  284. Amy Chozick, “Hillary Clinton’s Expectations, and Her Ultimate Campaign Missteps,” New York Times, November 9, 2016, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/hillary-clinton-campaign.html; T. Becket Adams, “Bill Clinton’s Lonely, One-Man Effort to Win White Working-Class Voters,” Washington Examiner, November 12, 2016, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bill-clintons-lonely-one-man-effort-to-win-white-working-class-voters/article/2607228; Annie Karni, “Clinton Aides Blame Loss on Everything but Themselves,” Politico, November 10, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/hillary-clinton-aides-loss-blame-231215.

  285. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote.

  286. Quoctrung Bui, “50 Years of Shrinking Union Membership, in One Map,” npr.org, February 23, 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/23/385843576/50-years-of-shrinking-union-membership-in-one-map; Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Economic News Release: Union Members Summary,” U.S. Department of Labor, January 26, 2017, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm.

  287. Greg Toppo, “Teacher Unions Smarting after Many Members Vote for Trump,” USA Today, November 23, 2016, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/23/election-unions-teachers-clinton-trump/94242722/.

  288. Patricia Murphy, “Why These Union Members and Lifelong Democrats Are Voting Trump,” The Daily Beast, July 26, 2016, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/26/why-these-union-members-and-lifelong-democrats-are-voting-trump.html.

  Conclusion

  289. Forsetti’s Justice, “An Insider’s View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America,” alternet.org, November 22, 2016, http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/rural-america-understanding-isnt-problem.

  290. Joe Mont, “10 Things Still Made in America,” The Street, October 18, 2011, https://www.thestreet.com/story/11279838/4/10-things-still-made-in-america.html.

  Additional Reading

  If you want to know more about the working class and you want to read one book . . .

  • Michèle Lamont, The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

  If you want to read five more, add:

  • Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New York: New Press, 2016.

  • Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

  • Jennifer Sherman, Those Who Work, Those Who Don’t: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

  • J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. New York: Harper, 2016.

  • “The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict,” Joan C. Williams and Heather Boushey, 2010, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2010/01/25/7194/the-three-faces-of-work-family-conflict/.

  If you want to know more, add:

  • Julie Bettie, Women Without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.


  • Jonathan Cobb and Richard Sennett, The Hidden Injuries of Class. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.

  • Naomi Gerstell and Dan Clawson, Unequal Time: Gender, Class, and Family in Employment Schedules. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2014.

  • Joseph T. Howell, Hard Living on Clay Street: Portraits of Blue Collar Families, revised edition with a new Preface and Epilogue. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2017.

  • Maria Kefalas, Working-Class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

  • Lillian B. Rubin, Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working-Class Family. New York: Basic Books, 1963.

  If you want to read more about the professional elite:

  • Barbara Ehrenreich, Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.

  • Michèle Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992.

  Index

  Note: Page numbers followed by t refer to tables.

  abortion, 115

  Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), 13, 100

  African-Americans

  discrimination against (see racism)

  police shootings of, 116–119

  in presidential election of 2016, 110

  as social conservatives, 111, 112

  stereotypes of, 63, 117

  work ethic and family values of, 62

  in working class (see black working class)

  agricultural workers, 115–116

  alienation, among white working class, 4, 129

  “All in the Family” (television show), 2

  ambit of responsibility, 68–69, 71, 130

  ambition, among elites, 37–38

  American dream, 32, 69, 70

  American Federation of Teachers, 126

  Ammerman, Colleen, 81

  AMTEC (Automotive Technical Education Collaborative), 88

  anger, in presidential election of 2016, 3, 6

  Arizona State University (ASU), 86

  aspiration, family values as, 40–41

  ASU (Arizona State University), 86

  authoritarian nationalism, 4

  automation, 83

  Automotive Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC), 88

  avant-garde, elite embrace of, 32, 110

  Bettie, Julie, 60

  bias. See also racism; sexism

  prove-it-again, 62, 71, 79

  tightrope, 79

  Black Lives Matter, 117–118

  black working class

  on government benefits, 22–23

  liberals’ connection to, 111

  moral traits valued by, 16–17, 18t, 111

  on structural inequality, 23, 111

  women in, 77

  Blair-Loy, Mary, 37

  blue-collar workers

  disability benefits to, 98–99

  fictional depictions of, 2–3

  future of jobs for, 93–95

  permanent decline of jobs for, 44, 83

  resentment of professionals among, 30

  sense of loss among, 69–70

  sexism among, 75

  technical expertise of, 30

  blue states, 40, 78

  Boeing, 89

  Bourdieu, Pierre, 43

  breadwinners, men as, 76, 78, 80, 91, 92

  capital, cultural, 28

  Casey, Liam, 89–90

  caste system, college as perpetuating, 46–47

  Center for Manufacturing Technology Excellence, 88

  character, working-class emphasis on, 31, 33

  charitable giving, 39

  Chicago, Democratic convention of 1968 in, 123

  child care, 14–16

  costs of, 14–16, 39

  shortage of options for, 15, 23, 75–76

  by working-class vs. elite men, 80

  children

  born outside marriage, 41

  cousins in social lives of, 40

  elites’ talk with, 28–29

  of other families, working class caring for, 39

  parenting approaches to, 53–57

  poverty among, 3, 102

  civics education, 105–106

  civil liberties, 116

  civil rights legislation, 122–123

  class. See also elites; middle class; poor, the; working class

  as cultural tradition, 12

  definitions and use of terms for, 9–12

  education as proxy for, 12, 43

  shared language for, lack of, 11

  class callousness, 2, 130

  class cluelessness

  benefits of ending, 110–112

  among politicians, 12, 73, 121–122

  rise of, 2–4, 130

  class comprehension gap, 4

  class condescension, 6, 67, 130

  class conflict

  in abortion debate, 115

  need to defuse, 119, 131

  in working-class resentment of the poor, 13

  class consciousness

  decline of, 2–3

  history of, 2

  self-employment as expression of, 26

  class culture gap

  class migrants’ experience of, 50–51

  how to bridge, 33–34

  in politics, 121–124

  class migrants

  on admiration of the rich, 26

  ambivalence of, 33

  on class culture gap, 50–51

  college experience of, 47, 51–52, 111–112

  definition of, 4–5, 26

  family relationships of, 29, 36, 50–51, 111–112

  on fears of Trump supporters, 65

  class privilege

  displays of, 31

  and gender in hiring, 55

  and racism, 63

  climate change, 116

  Clinton, Bill, 23, 123, 125

  Clinton, Hillary

  arguments against Trump, 77, 78–79

  on “deplorables,” 68

  educational level of supporters of, 12

  on glass ceiling, 73–74, 77

  Trump’s threats to jail, 106

  union support for, 126–127

  white working class in coalition of, 125

  and working-class men, 78–80

  and working-class women, 75, 77

  clique networks, 35–36, 48

  coalitions

  evolution of, 111–113, 122–125

  family as metaphor for, 112–113, 131

  interracial, 59–60, 71–72, 131

  coffee, class structure of, 27

  college education, 43–52

  alternatives to, 86–88

  for class migrants, 47, 51–52, 111–112

  debt in, 49

  in definition of elites, 10

  elite vs. working-class views on necessity of, 43–45, 86

  impact on income, 45, 49

  jobs for class migrants, 45–46

  and middle-skill jobs, 84

  prevalence of, 44–45, 85

  relocation for, 47–49

  at selective schools, 46–49

  in up-credentialing, 85–86

  value of, to working class, 45–46, 49–50, 86

  community, working-class ties to, 36, 38–40

  community colleges, 88

  concerted cultivation, 54–57

  condescension, class, 6, 67, 130

  Conner, Alana, 65–66

  conservatives

  and industrial policy, 84

  negative attitudes toward government encouraged by, 100, 101

  range of sexualities embraced by, 32–33

  unions opposed by, 26

  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 103, 105

  Cooper, Marianne, 38

  Cooperative Extension Service, 102

  Corbett, Rachel, 44

  corporations

  on government regulation, 103–104

  negative public opinion on, 1
02–103

  credential programs, 87–88

  cross-racial coalitions, 59–60, 71–72, 131

  Crow, Michael, 86

  cultural capital, 28

  cultural traditions, class as, 12. See also folkways

  cultural voting, 122

  culture gap, class. See class culture gap

  Dawkins, Richard, 28

  debt, college, 49

  democracy, political polarization as threat to, 3–4, 130

  Democratic Party

  African-Americans’ connection to, 111

  class cluelessness in, 111, 121–122

  cross-racial coalitions in, 59

  evolution of coalition of, 122–125

  policy recommendations for, 114–119

  vs. Republican Party, connection with working class, 121–127

  strategies for connecting with working class, 109–119

  on trade policy, 114

  white southerners in, 122–123

  Dempsey, Rachel, What Works for Women at Work, 79

  dependability, as working-class value, 33

  “deplorables,” 68

  despair, among white working class, 4

  dignity

  of professional elite, 31

  of working class, 5, 22, 91–92

  dinner parties, 28, 30

  disability benefits, 21–22, 98–99

  discrimination. See racism; sexism

  disruption, 20

  divorce rates, 76

  doctors

  potential use of technology, 94

  working-class resentment of, 25, 26

  work devotion of, 37

  domestic violence, 81

  Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), 104–105

  economic justice, interracial coalition for, 60, 71–72, 131

  economic stability, government role in, 101, 102

  educational levels, 43–52. See also college education; high school education

  in definition of elites, 10

  in presidential election of 2016, 12

  as proxy for class, 12, 43

  education deserts, 47–48

  education-to-employment system, 86–88

  EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit), 104–105

  elderly, poverty rates among, 102

  elections. See presidential election; primary elections of 2016

  Electoral College, 125–126

 

‹ Prev