The Workingclass and the 2016 Election

One little-known element of that gap is that the white working class (WWC) resents professionals but admires the rich. Class migrants (white-collar professionals born to blue-collar families) report that “professional people were generally suspect” and that managers are college kids “who don’t know how to do anything but are full of ideas about how I have to do my job,” Alfred LubranoNational debates about policing are fueling class tensions today in precisely the same way they did in the 1970s, when college kids derided policemen as “pigs.” This is a recipe for class conflict. Being in the police is one of the few good jobs open to Americans without a college education. Police get solid wages, great benefits, and a respected place in their communities.Joan c WilliamsWe – as in left, progressive, labor and social justice activists – are going to have to get better at integrating class, race, gender and democratic issues. When you say, “It’s the economy, stupid,” it seems to disregard that democratic issues like pay equity, education, gun violence and police crimes, and reproductive rights are part of the economy. Teresa Albano