Posting Class Action internships gives me a window into the massive under-use of young adults’ energy in this lousy economy. Even for unpaid internships, we get dozens of bright, motivated students, and even college graduates. And whenever we can afford to offer internships with small stipends, the applications come in by the hundreds. These applicants have an amazing array of skills and experience to offer employers. What kind of sick economy wouldn’t have decent summer jobs and good entry-level jobs for all these young idealists?
Upsides of sky-high youth unemployment
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012The most classist comment of 2011
Friday, January 6th, 2012Last January Classism Exposed asked for your votes on which was the most classist comment by a public figure in 2010, offering eight options. Readers weighed in and added their own grisly candidates. But this year, there’s no point in running a poll, since we already know who’s going to win (drumroll, please): Newt Gingrich, for calling child labor laws “truly stupid” and advocating firing union school janitors and replacing them with poor students.
Giving thanks humbly or smugly
Thursday, November 24th, 2011When I was a girl, at the beginning of Thanksgiving dinner, my family would sing a beautiful old hymn, We Gather Together, the most traditional Thanksgiving song, written in 1597. I loved the melody and the tradition and didn’t think much about the words. But in my 20s, with my newly critical eye, I scrutinized the lyrics and was horrified by the self-righteous meaning I found.
WWFD? What Would Felice Do?
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Working in the Class Action office, I sometimes find myself asking, “What would Felice do?” Often it’s hard to know, but at other times I can almost hear her voice weighing in on a decision.
A Dubious Milestone
Thursday, July 28th, 2011Well, a goal of Class Action’s just took a step forward, though not exactly in the way we envisioned. The professional cheaters have recognized our cause!
Economists can’t be rapists? Hotel maids are lunatics?
Thursday, May 19th, 2011In rushing to the defense of accused rapist and head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn, well-known conservative commentator Ben Stein has stooped to blatant classist stereotypes. His headline on the American Spectator website, “Presumed Innocent, Anyone?,” implies that he’s just asking for a fair trial before judgment – a reasonable point. But look at why he thinks Strauss-Kahn is probably innocent:
Rapid response to “low-class Italian white trash”
Sunday, February 6th, 2011What a coincidence! Just a few days after posting the two pieces below about responding to classist comments, I heard a doozy – and I think I responded quicker and better because I’d so recently read Nicole’s and Susan’s advice. But I’m still not sure whether it made any difference.
Felice’s mission of making classism a diversity issue
Monday, January 17th, 2011When Felice Yeskel started graduate school in the 1980s, she was outraged that the Social Issues Training Project at the UMass Education School omitted classism from its curriculum. Every aspiring diversity trainer had to practice facilitating two-day workshops on sexism, racism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism and anti-Semitism – but not classism.
Mourning the loss of Felice Yeskel
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011Felice Yeskel, co-founder of Class Action, passed away in her home early this morning after a courageous struggle with cancer.
What was the most classist comment of 2010?
Sunday, January 2nd, 2011It was a bumper year for callous, elitist politicians and CEOs spouting off in public. Cast your vote for one of these doozies, or add another 2010 classist comment to this list:
Gisele Bundchen’s clueless classist comments
Monday, September 27th, 2010Supermodel Gisele Bundchen was quoted in the September Harper’s Bazaar UK as saying, “There should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months.”
B&B Breakfast Classism
Saturday, July 24th, 2010It was the usual chit-chat among strangers encountering each other over breakfast at a Seattle bed-and-breakfast: “where are you from?,” “how’s the weather there?” Three middle-aged couples and a 20-year-old son who immediately set off my classism alarms. The first red flag was his face, a sneer usually seen on sulky teens much younger than him. While the rest of us oohed and ahhhed at each food item presented proudly by the proprietor (berry scones with homemade jam! eggs with local tomatoes!), he appeared deliberately unimpressed, as if he’d seen it all before. I took an instant dislike to him, thinking “spoiled boy.”
Faking your way into a working-class job
Friday, June 4th, 2010Laid-off professionals are “dumbing down” their resumes to avoid being rejected as overqualified when applying for jobs outside their former field, reported the Boston Globe. Job seekers are deleting graduate degrees and high-level jobs, and revising titles (for example, from Marketing Director to Marketing Manager).
