Progressive and social activists are too often portrayed as latte drinking,  sushi eating,  Volvo driving, arugula eating, white wine sipping, Birkenstock wearing, NPR listening, New York Times reading, tofu eating…etc.  You get the idea.  

This isn’t just another ordinary line of attack,  because what it does, what it means to do, is to drive a wedge between classes.  Class groups that often have common goals, shared values, and a true desire to solve real problems.

But the attacks often work because sometimes the leaders of social movements themselves, forget that while goals may be shared, many groups and different classes bring very different experiences and approaches along with different worldviews to solve similar problems.

So how can this circle be squared?  How can these groups not work against their self interest in a “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” kind of way?  Betsy Leondar-Wright gets to the core of the problem and potential solutions in her new book Missing Class: How Seeing Class Cultures Can Strengthen Social Movement Groups.

My conversation with Betsy Leondar-Wright: