We Are Blind to Class Oppression

A Blind Spot 

An article that appeared in the NY Times on December 18 shows a lack of awareness of issues of class that many of us share. The author of the article is a high school junior, and she bemoans the fact that the day after the election, her female friends were crying while the boys were playing Minecraft. She tells us that she and her friends are scared of the dangers that women will face in a country where Trump has been elected. She says,

I am scared that the Trump administration will take away or restrict birth control and Plan B — the same way they did abortion. I am scared that the boys I know will see in a triumphant, boastful Mr. Trump the epitome of a manly man and model themselves after him. I was 8 years old the first time he was elected. Now I am 16. I am still unable to vote, but I am so much more aware of what I have to lose.

Her fear is understandable and realistic, but she – like many Democrats - misses the fact that, if she continues her education, she will probably be ok under Trump because she will be on the upper side of our education-based class system. Like other well-to-do women, she will be able to obtain an abortion if she needs one because she will be able to travel to a place where abortions are legal. The suffering that Trump creates will be borne by working-class women and their families.

The Oppression of Working-Class Women

Working class women are some of the most oppressed people in our society, but the author does not see that. She is so concerned about gender as such that she does not notice that women are not all equally oppressed. All women suffer from gender-based oppression, but working-class women also suffer from class-based oppression. In an earlier post on this blog, I said,

… Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County in Georgia, is a … woman, and as such she has surely encountered obstacles in her career. Her movement up the career ladder has undoubtedly been slowed by men’s resistance to promoting women. As an attorney, she has had to overcome the common tendency to take women … less seriously than … men. Like all professional women, she has had to put up with the sexual harassment that pervades women’s professional lives. Very likely, she earns less than a man in a similar position

On the other hand, she does not have to worry about being evicted from her house because she cannot pay the rent. She does not have to see her children get sick because she cannot afford routine, preventive care for them. She does not live in a “food desert.” Millions of … women suffer in these ways, but she does not because she belongs to the patrimonial middle class.

A Shared Blind Spot

Many of us share the author’s blindness to class oppression, and our failure to see class differences has had important political consequences for the Democratic Party as we saw in the recent elections. We have framed issues in ways that defined white men as the oppressors and defined women and people of color as the oppressed. We have ignored the fact that while our country is run by a small group composed mostly of white men, most white men do not belong to that small group. Most white men are also among the oppressed. They may be less oppressed than working-class women or people of color, but focusing on that difference only serves the interest of the real oppressors. 

Moreover, the ruling group is not exclusively male. It includes some women. Betsey DeVos, Pam Bondi, and Amy Coney Barrett are real people, and so are Karen Lynch and Mary Barra. They are part of our ruling class, and they represent its interests. To put it bluntly, the people who work on the assembly line at GM's DHAM plant are not in a position to oppress Mary Barra.

Our Blindness Has Consequences

Our blindness to issues of class has cost us votes among working-class members of racial minorities as well. Working-class Latinos and Blacks have voted in large numbers for a president who openly disparages minorities. They have done so because they hope that he will be better than Biden at managing the economy. They worry about putting food on the table much more than about saving democracy, and we must recognize the legitimacy of their concerns if we want to regain their votes.

If we want to regain the votes of working-class people of all races, we will have to learn to frame our issues in ways that do not ignore class oppression.