“Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper. ... poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing prose, but so are reams of paper, a typewriter, and plenty of time.” WritingMayHas BeensArtDoneFormVoicePoorRoomsSecretClassPovertyMaterialsPaperMajorsLaborPlentyProsePoetry IsHospitalsWorking ClassSubwayScrapTypewritersSurplusPantry Author:Audre Lorde
“The authoritarian child-rearing style so often found in working-class families stems in part from the fact that parents see aroundthem so many young people whose lives are touched by the pain and delinquency that so often accompanies a life of poverty. Therefore, these parents live in fear for their children's future--fear that they'll lose control, that the children will wind up on the streets or, worse yet, in jail.” PeopleChildrenFactsPainYoungFoundParentLosesClassPovertyStreetsStyleWindTouchedJailStemWorking ClassAccompanyChild RearingDelinquency Author:Lillian B. Rubin
“[Albert Camus] positions are sensed. So, naturally, those intellectuals who don't have that experience have difficulty in comprehending it. But I think it made Camus more tolerant because he had already seen both sides of things when the others had only ever seen one. They imagine poverty, but they don't know what it is. In fact they've got a sort of bad conscience about the working classes.” ThinkingKnowsMadeFactsSidesClassPovertyImaginePositionConscienceDifficultyWorking ClassBoth SidesComprehending Author:Catherine Camus
“[French intellectuals] could never address themselves to the working classes. They don't know what it means, and that gives them a bad conscience about it. [Albert] Camus has a greater proximity to those in poverty.” KnowsGivingMeanClassPovertyGreaterConscienceAddressesWorking ClassProximity Author:Catherine Camus
“If you want to get at African American poverty, the income gap, wealth gap, achievement gap, that the most important thing is to make sure that the society as a whole does right by people who are poor, are working class, are aspiring to a better life for their kids.” PeopleIfsWantDoeImportantWholeKidsWealthPoorClassPovertyAchievementImportant ThingsIncomeAfrican AmericanGapsWorking ClassBetter LifeAchievement GapAmerican Poverty Author:Barack Obama
“I grew up in the midst of poverty but every black kid that I knew could read and write. We have to talk about the fact that we cannot educate for critical consciousness if we have a group of people who cannot access Fanon, Cabral, or Audre Lorde because they can’t read or write. How did Malcolm X radicalize his consciousness? He did it through books. If you deprive working-class and poor black people of access to reading and writing, you are making them that much farther removed from being a class that can engage in revolutionary resistance.” PeopleIfsWritingBookFactsKidsReadingBlackPoorConsciousnessClassPovertyGroupsGrewGrew UpCriticalAccessResistanceRevolutionaryMidstBlack PeopleEducateWorking ClassReading And Writing Author:Bell Hooks