Archive: Sherry Linkon
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WCP: Beyond the Caravan: Why We Must Protect Workers Covered by TPS
Leading up to the U.S. midterm elections, Republicans warned voters about a caravan of migrants traveling north from Central America. In this weeks’ Working-Class Perspective, KI’s Juan L. Belman Guerrero calls our attention to another group of immigrants who have already planted roots in the United States: hundreds of thousands of immigrants covered by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) face the threat of removal from their homes and workplaces if their immigration status is not addressed, which would harm both them and the American economy.
Categories: Our Staff, Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Is the Fever Breaking? Ground Zero Youngstown
Before the election, KI visiting scholar John Russo dubbed Youngstown, Ohio as “ground zero” for Trump’s appeals to white working-class voters. Two years later, Russo explores whether the Trump fever is starting to break in the area. In Working-Class Perspectives, he tracks how a slumping local economy, trade policy, and the politics of resentment are shaping political views in this long-time Democratic stronghold.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Working-Class Politics and The Foremen Problem
“White working-class voters” are usually treated as a single, monolithic group, but that ignores some important differences in this category. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Allison L. Hurst analyzes how foremen, who consider themselves as middle-class, are more likely to vote Republican than other workers.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Middle-Class Influence vs. Working-Class Character
Children start learning the culture of their social class early on, and those lessons shape not only their own behavior and opportunities but also the way others respond to them. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Jack Metzgar reviews Jessica Calarco’s book on how middle-class children learn to negotiate for better opportunities, while working-class children are taught to be deferential.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Labor’s Day, More or Less?
The U.S. labor movement is facing bitter legal and political attacks. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective Wade Rathke asserts that the talk of unions dying off is greatly exaggerated. Rathke points to a surge of worker-led organizing across the country and the ability of unions in other parts of the world to thrive in even harder circumstances than the ones set by Janus.
Categories: Bargaining for the Common Good, Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Sorry to Bother You: A Spectacle That Teaches
Among labor activists, summer movie-going wasn’t defined by another high-budget action film or carefree 70’s themed musical, but by Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You. In this week’s Working-Class perspectives, Kathy M. Newman reviews the film and discusses how its production is reflective of a changing Hollywood that is becoming more accepting of pro-union politics.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Black Working-Class Voices Doing It for Themselves
For many working-class people of color it can be difficult, if not impossible, to find mainstream narratives that reflect their experiences. In Working-Class Perspectives, Adjoa Wiredu explores her experiences growing up in an environment lacking these narratives, and describes the work being done to create and popularize independent black narratives.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: This Is Your Daughter’s Labor Movement
As the challenges facing the labor movement continue to change, so does the composition of the labor movement itself. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective’s, Lane Windham discusses how women are leading the labor movement and creating innovative strategies to address the movement’s future.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Relocating the Dream: Working-Class History as History and Spectacle
As affordable urban housing becomes increasingly inaccessible for working-class families, working-class housing can be portrayed as a thing of the past. In Working-Class Perspectives, David Nettleingham investigates the case of the Robin Hood Gardens to illustrate how placing once iconic working-class housing in museums relegates the ideal of affordable housing to the past, rather than a goal for the future.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Class at the Forefront: 2018 Working-Class Studies Association Awards
Popular media often portrays working-class identities without the nuance and depth inherent to working-class lives. In Working-Class Perspectives, Michele Fazio highlights the works from multiple disciplines that earned the 2018 Working-Class Studies Association Awards.
Category: Visiting Scholars