The morning after the election I wrote, “The country spoke yesterday. And we must listen.”
For Democrats particularly, but also for some (many?) Republicans and Independents, the article below is one example of the thinking, understanding, and writing I meant when I said we need to listen. (Hat Tip to Richard Margolies for pointing out this article to me.)
Read: What So Many People Don’t Get About the White Working Class, by Joan C. Williams, Harvard Business Review, Nov. 10, 2016.
Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center of WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College in Law.
As always, please consider adding your thoughts in the Comment section of this post.
Bob Thurston said:
Good essay, thanks for sharing it!
I hope observations like this will be uppermost in the goals as the Democrats pick up the pieces. What concerns me is how few good ideas I’ve heard for really bringing those good jobs back.
liz Frost said:
Read the article when Ellen posted on Facebook. I knew of the view growing up in the western Pennsylvania steel mills and coal mines.
Bill Bullard said:
Wonderful article … I am one of those people whose Dad “rode the rails” trying to find a job. Also, saw the hobo camps down by the river. We also fed some the hobos etc. Hillary missed all of us – maybe she was trying to erase the sting of her “middleclass” upbringing. Arrogant, dismissive, deplorable, etc. and, I am a college graduate from a little “hick” town in Colorado who even make it to Washington D.C.