The Sadness of America

[Joel Katz]

i don't know what kept the nam vet down but neither he nor a garbageman or 
news vendor constitute my definition of an underclass writeoff.  i grew up 
in working-class brooklyn.  my father was, yep, a beeper salesman, and i 
knew a couple of guys in high school who later became garbagemen.

what i meant by the remark was the violent or nihilistic poor.  their kind 
of disorder is the mirror image of, say, john ashcroft's version of law and 
order.  it's a curse they pass on to their children -- and it's often the 
only thing they pass on.

i agree absolutely about class interaction.  but class division is such an 
abyss in this country, and so strenuously enforced (both consciously and 
un), that it's almost extinct.  ever since college, i only come in contact 
with the working class in service situations (which is to say, they're 
working and i'm not).  and i'm not rich by any stretch -- it's just that 
cultural divisions track class ones.  we sleep, eat, and amuse ourselves in 
different worlds, usually right on top of each other.  in my father's time, 
beeper salesman were buddies with lawyers were buddies with bar owners.




> > <<real people in this country -- "real" meaning: not rich, but not
> > animalized underclass writeoffs either -- may be stupid sometimes but
> > are usually honest, civil, and actually do things, such as defend
> > weaker people and point out and confront injustice, for reasons other
> > than profit. sometimes, gasp, they even sacrifice for others.>>
> >
> > I spend a lot of time with animalized underclass writeoffs. I often
> > supervise them on the same crews with scholar/athletes. It's interesting 
>to
> > watch the interaction. They learn from each other.
>
>
>One of my closest friends could be classified as a "writeoff". I've known
>him for twenty years. He has lived a life as an urban black man that I 
>could
>only imagine as being comparable to being an untouchable in India. He never
>finished the eighth grade in Washington D.C., but he served two tours of
>duty in Viet Nam. He can survive in virtually any situation. I consider him
>a mentor.
>
>Take some time to learn from the people who sell you newspapers and pick up
>your garbage. You're just two economic downturns from competing with them
>for jobs. With the children of the elite in charge, people who have never
>really had jobs, that could come sooner than you think.

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