One of the unique aspects of Class, Race, and Gender – both on this blog and in the classroom – has been the fact that our discussions have been as much about how we talk about the most controversial bits of our society as they have been about the history of these meaty topics in […]
Read more "The Play’s the Thing"Flying across the country can teach you a lot about our society. When I flew from New York to California for family vacations I always wondered why my family could not sit in big comfy chairs in first class at the front of the plane. Why would anyone want to spend 6 hours sitting in […]
Read more "Other Peoples’ Lives"As I read Nickel and Dimed this week, I could not help thinking of a video that one of my classmates tweeted earlier in the semester about wealth inequality in the United States. My upper middle class upbringing made (and makes) it fairly easy for me to forget about the stark realities of wealth in […]
Read more "Money May Not Buy Happiness, But It Certainly Helps"This morning as I was reading my twitter feed, I stumbled across an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about a rally that was held by around 300 of the city’s cab drivers on Friday, May 10. [1] Earlier this week, a cab driver was robbed and killed, in West Philadelphia, while on duty. As a […]
Read more "Driver Power!"For years, the only thing I knew about the culture of the early AIDS epidemic in NYC, I knew from the musical RENT. Sure, I knew more about the disease itself. In fact, in high school I was vice president of a club called the Teen Aids Task Force. We were trained and educated about […]
Read more "AZT Break"This semester we have approached difficult subjects through many different types of mediums. One of the recurring mediums has been theater. Theater productions often have the ability to present controversial issues to the general public in a way that many other mediums do not. As a class it seems that we tend to enjoy these […]
Read more "Poor it Out on the Stage"Ventura County, California. When I describe my hometown, breezily summarizing it as a southern California suburb, I have a pretty good idea of what people imagine. Traffic, beaches, large single-family homes, year-around sun. The assumptions are accurate, at least to a point. While I, a middle-class white kid who got good grades, took ballet lessons, […]
Read more "The Faces of Homelessness"Him: So me and my buddy, we met in high school. Me: Oh, did he move to town then? Him: No. It’s just…I mean, we went to different elementary schools. Me: But he didn’t move? You didn’t move? Him: No, Abbie…my district has more than one elementary school. We all feed into the high school. […]
Read more "On Living “Nickel and Dimed:” Class Consciousness in the Boonies"Searing pain shooting up the back of the leg from hours of standing; the ever constant lower backache that no amount of ibuprofen seems to cure; dizziness and fatigue from lack of food and water because the service floor is too busy for a break – these were the physicalities endured during my time working […]
Read more "On the Job: Working For A Low-Wage"Image courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation site Where were you? Where were you when the first plane hit the Twin towers? Where were you when JFK was shot (if you were alive then; I was not)? Where were you when Michael Jackson died (OK, so I really only remember this because I was on […]
Read more "Where Were You?"
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