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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOnce you notice inequality, you can’t escape the realities of class in America
from In These Times:
Class Consciousness Is Back
Once you notice inequality, you cant escape the realities of class in America.
BY Susan J. Douglas
Multiple times and on multiple days, my local NPR station actually used the c word on the air. No, not that c wordit was class. Yes, that most unmentionable of topics: socio-economic class and how it determines the fate of millions of Americans.
Our vernacular obscures the countrys very real class divisions, with cripplingeven lethalconsequences. The term middle class is used capaciously in the United States to include almost everyone, while the term working class is eschewed (it sounds way too Marxist). Even the 99% signs and chants of Occupy protesters occlude the multiple and often stark divisions within that 99%.
Class position, of course, affects everything: access to healthcare, education, where you live, what restaurants you eat in, nutrition, careers, income, tax breaks, how much credit costs you, who you marry (and when), who fights and dies for our country, and on and on. But with our medias national obsessions about gender, race and ethnicity, class may be the most under-covered feature of structural inequality in the country. In November, NPR-affiliate Michigan Radio aired an 11-part series called Culture of Class, which rolled back the stone, showing what lurks in Americas cave of inequities.
Lets start with the legal system. There, perhaps, is no moment in life when the difference in class is more apparent than when you are accused of a crime, reporter Lester Graham notes in his piece on class and the courts. If youre upper-middle class, or even truly middle class, you hire a lawyer, and the richer you are, the more choices you have. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12413/class_consciousness_is_back
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Once you notice inequality, you can’t escape the realities of class in America (Original Post)
marmar
Dec 2011
OP
Laelth
(32,017 posts)2. k&r for exposure. n/t
-Laelth
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)3. kick
RainDog
(28,784 posts)4. k&r n/t