Welcome to the Class Class Website!
The Class Class - A steel city study-discussion group about Classism - 2010

Thursdays 7 - 9 --

We will start at 7pm. (just sayin')  

The Class Class will go from

January 7th until March 11th. 10 weeks.

Jesse Holmquist and etta cetera, are so interested in understanding class more clearly that we are embarking on a 10 week long study group on the subject. Together we have selected materials we were interested in reading and discussing together.
We are hoping that people from different class backgrounds will participate in the study group. We both were raised in middle class and our families have moved into the upper middle class bracket. Because we have not read all of the readings we are not sure what audience the authors are writing too. That will be something to consider during each reading. The idea is that wether or not we agree with the authors the articles and essays will be jumping points for discussion. Get out your Scrutin-eyes!

Oh! Please contact with suggestions, concerns, advice etc. Excited to learn, unlearn and grow together,                                  

   jessie and etta --> mostpeople.etc(at)gmail.com - 412-802-8575

Reading List – Number of Pages in Parenthesis                 

Week 1 - January 7th --First Class - Introductions (wink)

DOWN LOAD READING FOR WEEK 1 HERE
- Definitions
- Shadowy lines that still Divide by Jarry Scott and David Leonhadt (25)
- Encounters with Class – vignettes by multiple authors (4)
- Narratives – by bell hooks - (not in the download. not sure were this pdf is)                                                                                                            *not in download--Class Action defines Middle Class - http://www.classism.org/resources_middle.html
*not in download --Cross Class Couples. http://www.classism.org/resources_cross.html (has downloadable questionnaire for cross class couples)

Week 2 -- January 14th - Race and Class I

DOWN LOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 2 HERE

--Overview: The Roots of Racial Wealth Divide
--Rainbow Economics: Closing the Racial Wealth Divide
--Dread Sisters, Indigenous Voice by Masoni Alexis Deveaux
--Crime, Punishment and Economic Violence – from Incite Anthology

Week 3 --January 21st -- Race and Class II

DOWN LOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 3 HERE

- Immigration and Environmental Campaign (3)
- Language of Immigration (1)
- Stereotypes persist even where Immigrants Don’t by Jeff Kluger (2)
- Immigrant Activist Call Illegal Alien Costumes (2)
- Report Immigration Raids Violated Rights (2) NYX AP
- Crack Down Upends Slaughterhouses Work Force Steven Greenhouse (4pg)

Week 4 --January 28th --Gender/Sexuality and Class

DOWN LOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 4 HERE

-Feminist Class Struggle by bell hooks
-Domestic Service and Women of Color in United States by Mary Romero (23)
- Compliance is Gendered: Struggling for gender self determination in a hostile economy by Dean Spade (14)

Week 5 - February 4th - Movie! Stranger with a Camera – 61 minutes –

Public Event - Location to be announced

DOWN LOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 5 HERE

Stranger with a Camera investigates the 1967 killing of Canadian filmmaker Hugh O’Connor who was shot while capturing images of poverty in the Kentucky coalfields. Director Elizabeth Barret looks at the death of O’Connor and the motivation of Hobart Ison, the irate property owner who shot him. Through her exploration of the tragic incident and its aftermath, Barret reflects on the nature and consequence of media making.
- Homophobic Workers or Elitist Queers by Joanna Kadi (7)
- White Trash Blues (1) Geared to middle and upper class audience

 Week 6 --February 11 --International Spin – Global Classism-- Possibility of showing movie Life in Debt

DOWN LOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 6 HERE

--Transnational Feminist Practices Against War (5)
Statement by Paola Bacchetta, Tina Campt, Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan , Minoo Moallem, Jennifer Terry oct. 2001
--Population and Development Toward Social Justice Agenda by Asoka Bandorage (13)
--Frightening Bedfellows Pop culture and Imperialism by Joanna Kadi (4)
--Reading from Bekezela - Jamacia Kincaid. A Small Place
 

Week 7  - February 18 -Institutionalized Class

DOWNLOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 7 HERE

- I went to College and all I got was this Trailer Trash T-Shirt by Kat Marie Yoas (2)
- Minorities have trouble getting help (mental health) helpplace.com (2)
- The climate Gap by Hayes Morehouse (2)
- Third World bears brunt of Global Warming by Paroma Basu (2)
- Life at the Top just isn’t Just better, It’s Longer by Jarry Scott (20)
- At the Elite Colleges – Dim White Kids by Peter Schmidt
- A Voyage Out (or is it back?); Class and Disability in my Life by Lennard Davis

Week 8 --February 25 - Pittsburgh and Class  how class plays out in local media coverage

DOWNLOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 8 HERE

--Father of Boy Burned by Space Heater – Newspaper article (1)
--G20, Pittsburgh Didn’t Invite You to the Party by Hannah Dobbz – (2)
--Poplawski’s Grandmother protests at a Family Home by Sadie Gurman ppgazette (2)
--Donor of G20 Welcome Board past supporter of Hate Groups by Dennis Roddy (3)
--Weed ‘n Seed & Pittsburgh (2 pages)                                                                                                                                                                                **not in download--Gentrification reading...

Week 9 --March 4th - the Rich Class

DOWNLOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 9 HERE

**THE BETSY LEONDAR WRIGHT PIECE IS FOR NEXT WEEK IT'SIN WRONG WEEK. SARS!                  

- Five Bedroom, Six Figure Rootless Life by Peter Kulbon (18)
- When the Jones wear Jeans by Jen Steinhauer (12)
- Create your money story/Self Made Man
- The invisibility of the Upper class (1)
- Class Checklist (1)
- Social Class Privilege (1)

Week 10 -- March 11 - Activism and Class

DOWNLOAD READINGS FOR WEEK 10 HERE

-Elitist Language by Peter Gelderloss (3)
-It’s not “them” it’s us! by Betsy Leondar Wright (5)
-Strengthen Our Organization by Felice Yeskel
-Confronting Classism by War Resisters League (3)
-Exploring Eco privilege

Other Suggested Readings: (plan to list all books used and then some. do you have suggestions? email.ok?)

 Dorothy Allison http://www.dorothyallison.net/

Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz - http://www.reddirtsite.com/

http://www.classism.org/

Movie - Born Rich - they have it at dreaming ant. made by the the heir to the johnson and johnson company. interviews children of extreme wealthy. etta thought it was interesting.
 

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Also - Some great suggestions from Bekezela and David Meiren

from: Bekezela

5. Suggestion: Folks bring food to share (from snacks to dishes to beverages, whatever they can and if they can't - come and eat with the bounty)
6. Suggestion: I think we should read A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid. It's very short and its the book of which the narration for the documentary film Life and Debt is based. I think its a good literary piece about the post colonial economic states, Island colonies found themselves in. Here is a brief description: Kincaid here examines the geography and history of Antigua, where she was raised. We first see the island through the eyes of the typical North American tourist, who aims to exchange his or her own "everydayness" for that of someone without the same privilege. But rather than interpret Antiguan experience for outsiders, Kincaid lays bare the limits of her own understanding. She asks us to grasp the crime of empire in a new way, stressing that it can be understood only from a post-colonial point of view: surveying 20 years of a corrupt "free" government, she finds the inheritance of colonialism to be a commercial and governmental enterprise that serves individual interests. Antiguans, she effectively demonstrates, are ordinary people saddled with an unthinkable but unbreachable past.
7. Or excerpts from it... lol... and It would go well in the week of Feb.7th. International Spin.

8. Also.... if folks were interested in the book... we could possibly get the library to lend us a few copies, I could work on getting a group discount from some book stores or contact the publisher about some deals..

9. Just some thought cuz I got really excited about it. This book is one which highlights the Caribbean with such articulation...!!!!

from david:

several suggestions:
- perhaps include something about class issues associated with the
increasing urbanization of the u.s. and and ever-expanding industrial
agriculture;
- something about native americans (the most economically and
politically disenfranchised group in the u.s.)
- something about anarchist economics? i realize that may be bit
off-topic but it might be nice to read something about a positive
vision for a class-less world.

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