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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 2017)
PAGE 2 | June 2, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $14 a year for union members, $22 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of $10.08 a year per person are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 140 Paula Clueless about Class Ivy Leaguer says elites had better start treating the ‘White Working Class’ with respect What could a University of Cali- fornia law professor have to say about the white working class? Quite a lot actually. In the days after Trump’s election, Joan Williams wrote an essay about it that went viral, with 3.2 million people reading it online. Now it’s been developed into a book, “White Working Class: Overcom- ing Class Cluelessness in Amer- ica.” I interviewed her by phone about the book May 24. By Don McIntosh The book is meant to do what? The book is meant for anyone who was surprised that Trump won. It’s meant to explain why he won and where we should go from here. I heard in my circles utter disbelief and confusion as to why Trump won. It was crys- tal clear to me, so I thought I would explain it. How do you know so much about the white working class? Well I attempted to read every ethnography of the white writing class written from about 1975 to about 2005, as well as those published after. I’ve stud- ied it for a very long time. I’ve also lived it for a very long time. I’m a “silver spoon girl. I come from an elite family, but I mar- ried into a white working-class family nearly 40 years ago. The book is really a book about the relationship between the “Pro- fessional Managerial Elite” and the “White Working Class.” The book describes the very different assumptions, dispositions, cus- toms, and folkways of these two groups, and tries to explain them in the hope of mending what is a seriously busted relationship between them. What do you mean by “class cluelessness”? Even socially conscious people run through their heads (and therefore inter- rupt) the biases more privileged people have typically have against less privileged people — when they’re talking about the poor, or people of color. But they don’t do that when they’re talking about people from a dif- ferent class, because they are convinced, like most Ameri- cans, that there are no classes. Very often the cultural elite speak extremely disrespectfully of people in the middle. Think of your cultural images, like Archie Bunker (white working class man as racist, sexist, and stupid), or Homer Simpson (white working class man as stupid, pathetic, and fat), or more recently the character “Pennsatucky” from the first season of Orange is the New Black (white working class women as ugly, coarse and brutish). They’re using the kind of stereotypes of non-elite peo- ple that elites have used for hun- dreds of years. And people who would never knowingly let a racist comment cross their lips often use open class insults in talking about working class peo- ple. The most obvious example is college fraternity parties called “white trash” bashes. University administrations would certainly not allow that kind of thing to happen if the in- sult were a racial insult, nor should they. They shouldn’t be allowed to happen with class in- sults either. Is this book is written so mem- bers of the professional man- agerial elite have increased empathy or stop exacerbating Turn to Page 4
