Yesterday, I attended the Class Matters workshop with Betsy Leondar-Wright (classmatters.org). The premise of the workshop was to look at the mistakes that middle class activists make in cross-class coalitions and how to build better cross-class coalitions.

Class has been something that has come up a lot lately in coversations with friends. The conversation seems to center around the number of young folks in our community who pretend to be poor and use such an identity to justify certain activities. While explaining the Top Ten Mistakes of Middle Class Activists two, in particular, rung a bell: romantizicing the working class and pretending to be a member of the working class. A friend and i were talking about a week ago about the later. She asked why I thought middle class people thought it was ok to pretend to be members of the working or economic-poverty class. I explained it as a reaction to guilt. Either consciously or subconsciously, middle class people (radical activists in particular) recognize the unearned privileges they possess due to their class. Recognition of unearned priviliged and our roles in oppressive systems of power often sends us into a whirlwind of guilt. As i see it, there are two ways to respond to this guilt: 1)take action to equalize privileges, or 2)pretend we are not a member of the privileged identity. In my opinion, only the first option can rid ourselves of guilt because we are doing something to rid ourselves of unearned privilege (which isn’t the same as destroying privilege, mind you). The second option serves as a “stop gap” measure - a quick fix to a lifelong problem - but it is a much easier route to take in the short term.

Betsy talked about this reaction process as being similar to a pendulum. We are first on one side, oblivious to our privilege or lack thereof, then we try to make up for it by swinging all the way to the other end when we recognize our privilege. As she exlains it, we are most effective and the most change occurs when we are somewhere in the middle of the pendulum swing - we are honest about our identity and privilege and we are using our gifts to equalize power.

I was made aware of just how middle class our subculture of activists is here during an exercise about past coalitions. We first defined eight different types of organizations based upon the type of organization and the class of the organization. For example, a poverty class grassroots group or an upper class grassroots group or a profession middle class institution/nonprofit or a working class institution nonprofit. We defined an organization’s class based upon who has power in the organization, not who the organization serves or employs. As we sat down to list the organizations that we had worked with in coalition, we could not name a single poverty class organization and only couple working class organization (which we hadn’t actually worked in coalition with, we just knew they existed). I was blown away by the fact that we couldn’t even list a poverty class organization and we could only list a couple working class organizations. We are a small town, but not that small! There must be unions, churches, community centers and other such groups around. So why aren’t we working with them? I don’t think there is a simple answer to that, but its a question we need to keep asking ourselves. And its a question that we need to find answers for. If not, our work will always be relegated to the middle class and our successes will be limited to a small subculture.

A new phrase that I came away with from the workshop was “earning potential”. I felt that this helped me to clarify a bit about was I was thinking in regards to middle class activists pretending to be working or economic-poverty class. A recent discussion that came up among friends was about how many activists in our town show up to events or fundraisers and don’t pay. A part of this, i recognize, is due to the “VIP syndrome” (that’s whay i’m calling it) - when people feel they don’t need to pay because they know the organizers or they are “down” with the cause. But the excuse that is often given is that they just don’t have any money. A friend brought up that they don’t have any money because they choose not to work. Therefore, they choose not to give money. This wouldn’t be as much a problem if folks gave in other ways, but they often don’t. Betsy talked about people giving based on earning potential. In other words, taking into account your class background, education status, free time, etc you pay based upon what you could be making if you chose to work. If this were the case, fundraisers in our small town would be bringing in a lot more money. There aren’t many jobs worth having in our little tourist town, but there are always jobs available for young White folks in the service industry. The question is are we willing to do something we don’t really want to further social change? And if you ask it that way the question is do you really want social change. Becuase if you do, then you will want to do the things that you say you don’t want to do in order to further your vision of a better world. I know.. sounds crazy. But it makes sense in my head. Now I need to think about the many ways to apply it in my life.