working class? (was Re: [lbo-talk] Farrakhan invites gay speakerto MMM)

Louis Kontos Louis.Kontos at liu.edu
Tue Oct 18 21:00:33 PDT 2005


'perhaps an urban legend' -- yes


> Doug:
>> Why do you accept the definition of US working class as "blue collar"
>> and native-born (and, reading between the lines, white)? Why not
>> Latino janitors or Chinese-born waitresses? Why not cable TV
>> installers of any demographic?
>
> Because I believe that the way this concept is used in political discourse,
> it is based on "blue-collar" cultural identity and populist vernacular,
> rather than on the relations to the means of production. Otherwise, the
> distinction between 'working class" and 'yuppies' - which is quite common on
> the left - would make no sense whatsoever.
>
> To define a concept it is important to enumerate its connotations, its
> designates, as well as its contrasting notions. The concept 'working class'
> - at least as it is used in the US - connotes an unmistakable
> anti-intellectualism that some argue (cf. Hofstadter) permeates the US
> culture. It is contrasted with the 'cultured' and the 'educated' which in
> popular discourse is often associated with elites, urbanism, and mental
> work. Therefore, a Latino janitor - or for that matter Black drug dealer -
> is a member of the working class, but an Indian or Russian software engineer
> is not by the virtue of their education and an connection to culture (work
> with their heads rather than their hands).
>
> Stated differently, 'working class' - as used in this country - is an
> emotive rather than an empirical concept - it expresses certain emotions,
> attitudes and cultural values (such as anti-intellectualism and populism)
> rather than connotes an empirically identifiable feature that identifies a
> class of individuals regardless of their cultural or ideological traits.
>
> PS. I heard a story, perhaps an urban legend, that during the Bolshevik
> Revolution, armed gangs were challenging people on the streets asking them
> to "show their hands" ("pokhazhi ruki"). If their hands did not have signs
> of manual labor, they were beaten or shot. I also know for the fact, that
> similar attitudes toward mental labor were expressed by the Cultural
> Revolutionaries in China - I personally witnessed "trials" of teachers and
> college professors by mobs of Red Guards.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
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