Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

7

Classism

Maurianne Adams, Larissa E. Hopkins, and Davey Shlasko*

The toll taken by the 2008 recession has focused public attention onto issues of class, economic status, and classism. People notice the glaring disparities between CEO and worker compensation, and between bank bailouts and personal bankruptcies or foreclosures, and wonder why executive bonus contracts are sacrosanct while union contracts and worker health benefits and pensions are stripped.

The authors of this chapter have noticed that in this climate, our students and workshop participants are more open to exploring economic injustice in the U.S. and globally, and to acknowledge the impacts of global and local economic forces on themselves and their families. Beliefs that are core to the U.S. class system—such as belief in universal upward mobility, meritocracy, and the reachable “American Dream”—are now being questioned.

In this chapter, we take a social justice approach to class and classism in the U.S., which pays serious attention to the historical legacies of economic injustice from the colonial period moving forward. We note some ways in which class-based oppression and race-based oppression have been entangled, and explore contemporary manifestations of class and classism that represent today’s version of those legacies, reproduced throughout U.S. institutions and normalized in everyday life. Based on the historical legacies, the complex systemic manifestations, and the intersections with other social justice issues, we frame a social justice approach to teaching and facilitating about classism. Materials and activities that support our social justice approach can be found on the website for this chapter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.