Reluctant Discussions
Long before Hurricane Katrina hit, the academy was already looking more closely at the issue of class in regards to diversity. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policies, several colleges and universities, shying away from considering race, began to look at class via family income as a means to diversify their student bodies. Some schools began to offer more financial aid in forms of grants as opposed to loans to attract students from low-income households. This is a start in the class conversation, and Skidmore College professor Janet Galligani Casey says it’s indeed time for liberal arts colleges to examine how current diversity rhetoric ignores class distinctions.
In the “Class Matters” interview conducted by Diverse correspondent Patricia Valdata, Galligani Casey says, “Working-class culture is all the things middle-class culture often is not. The academy explicitly is setting up students for white-collar jobs, not blue-collar jobs, so right there you have an erasure of that blue-collar experience.”
Speaking of class, it has been well reported that Hurricane Katrina caused more than physical damage. Many of its victims have been traumatized, their lives put on hold until homes are rebuilt, jobs are found and families are reunited.
It was obvious to all who watched the television news coverage following the hurricane that most of the victims left behind with nowhere to go and no way out of the city were Black and poor. Many of us wondered whether race was a factor in the agonizingly slow response by federal officials.
On-air analysts, politicians and others, however, were initially reluctant to discuss whether race played a role. They were somewhat more comfortable discussing issues of poverty and/or class, but it’s virtually impossible to discuss class and classism without talking about race and racism.
