Joan Williams stands out as a no-BS voice on class, and on classism among liberals.
Lots of us have been influenced by her 2017 book “White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America.” Now her new book has an even more pointed critique of where progressives have gone off the rails.
In this latest webinar in the Talking Class series, sponsored by the Working-Class Studies Association, Jack Metzgar and Betsy Leondar-Wright will ask her about the broken relationship between working-class people and college-educated progressives.
People’s values reflect their lives, and their lives reflect their privilege—or lack of it. The path forward is not just to center kitchen-table economics—though that’s important. Equally vital is to develop the cultural competence to connect with working-class tastes, cultures and values. Building an effective cross-class coalition to bridge the “diploma divide” will require both a change in messaging and a change in priorities. Williams explains how, on issues from climate change to gun control to pandemics to LGBTQ+ issues and more.
As always, this will be an interactive session. Your thoughts will be welcome!
