BY AMELIA POSSANZA

In print | Published November 6, 2008 — Updated December 05, 2008 10:12

Class Awareness Month kicked off earlier than usual this year to include discussions about the intersection of race, class and the election. Later on in the month, the dialogue will shift to issues currently facing Swarthmore students, such as the recent concern about financial injustice and inadequate financial aid packages.

Earlier this month, with an African American candidate for president, a female candidate for vice president and constant references to Joe the Plumber, a dialogue about the election quickly evolved into a dialogue about class. One of the month’s first events, last Thursday’s “Class and Race in the 2008 Presidential Election,” was a forum for just such a discussion. History professor AllisonDorsey, political science professor Carol Nackenoff and education professor Cheryl Jones-Walker shed light on how race and class played into the election. Student questions led the panelists to talk about Joe the Plumber, national identity, and what types of candidates are seen as “electable.”

“All [the panelists] had a similar understanding of [how candidates were] using Joe the Plumber to talk about class. The way we talk about [the] working class is very coded. Democratic candidates have learned that talking about poverty does not win elections. So it’s been interesting to see how the Democratic candidates were really about the middle class and eager to talk about the middle class. The Republican Party hasn’t been generally [eager], but now all of the sudden in the eleventh hour, Joe the Plumber comes up,” Jones-Walker said. She considered the panel a success, noting that nearly one hundred students attended and actively engaged in the discussion.

Inspired by her participation on the panel, Jones-Walker brought the discussion into her Intro to Black Studies class. “I’ve been careful not to talk about the elections in my courses,” she said. “But I’ve decided for Wednesday to integrate a discussion into part of my class because I can’t imagine not speaking to it the day after we’ve elected a new president given how historic this election is.”

Besides addressing issues the entire nation is facing, CAM is also focusing on issues of race and class on campus. “One of the aims of Class Awareness Month is to give Swatties and students some perspective on where other people are coming from in the campus community, but it’s also to encourage dialogue about these issues,” Brianne Gallagher ’09, one of the students who helped plan this month’s events, said.

To this aim, two discussion groups were hosted to kick off the month, a working class discussion and a privileged class discussion. The working class discussion took place on October 27 and drew about a dozen people. “[The discussion] gave me a lot to digest and a lot to think about. It also really pushed me towards trying to understand what it means for me to be someone from a working class background and to come into this world of privilege,” Sable Mensah ’11 said. The group talked about the impact they experienced on a day-to-day basis as well as in the long term.

Also, to focus on issues at Swarthmore, attendees at each event are asked to sign fake dollar bills as a way to indicate that they support two on-campus initiatives. One asks the libraries to devote a portion of their budget to ensure that it has up-to-date text- books for each class on reserve for students that don’t want to or can’t afford to buy expensive textbooks that will only be used for one semester. The second initiative addresses seminar snack breaks. It asks departments to put aside a seminar break fund that students can choose to tap into to purchase snacks for their seminar classes.

Some of the upcoming events also have direct ties to Swarthmore. This Friday, Tayarisha Poe ’12 and Eva McKend ’11 will be performing alongside recognized spoken word groups iLL-Literacy and 3xLady Crew at Olde Club. “I don’t write a lot about class, but I’m so excited about this month because it’s giving me the opportunity to write about class,” McKend said. “I think in the Swarthmore community we have tremendous issues surrounding financial injustice. I wanted to take a break from spoken word this semester, but since I’m dealing with financial issues, I felt I needed to give voice to students dealing with the same issues.”

McKend said that like several other students she’s spoken to, her family received less financial aid than expected this year. Her performance on Friday will speak specifically to financial injustice. A financial aid question and answer session on Nov. 18 will have incredible relevance for Swarthmore students. “We turn in all these important forms and paperwork and get this number. A lot of people might not understand what it means. [So it’s] a chance for the student body to go into the
financial aid office and say, ‘Can you shed some light on this?’” Mensah, a CAM organizer, said.

Recent news concerning the changes in individual aid packages from year to year and the inflexibility of aid packages is bound to make this session popular. Other events this month include a lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, a movie screening and an anti-oppression workshop. At its heart, each event is designed to raise awareness about class issues and get people talking.

“There are a lot of issues that play into and intersect with class,” Gallagher said. “It’s not necessarily separate from women’s rights. It’s not necessarily separate from race and injustices in that regard. It can really potentially involve a lot of people and get people talking.”

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