Cuban Mark - White Working Class, With a New Foreword by Mark Cuban and a New Preface by the Author: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America

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Copyright 2020 Joan C. Williams

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data is forthcoming.

ISBN: 978-1-63369-821-5

eISBN: 978-1-63369-822-2

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39.48-1992.

To my children,
with hopes for their future

Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have been repeatedly mocked for trying to explain how my neighbors feel and why they feel the way they do. Racism, sexism, and a fear of both Islam and Latin[os] are present. So is a fear of not being able to feed children, not being able to take care of elderly loved ones, not being able to maintain dignity in the face of layoff after layoff. Yes, Im sick and tired of humoring the white male working class. That doesnt mean their economic and political concerns should be ignored. It doesnt mean its OK to laugh at us for trying to maintain our rural lifestyle. Some of us live on land that our great-great-grandparents cultivated. Final point: my family is multiracial, and I am full of rage, fear, and heartbreak over the dangers that many of us are now in because of this election. My fellow liberals should have listened to those of us they call hillbillies, rednecks, hicks, and toothless idiots. They should have understood we dont live in a fly-over state; we live in our home.

Erin Brown

Contents

by Mark Cuban

Foreword

Too many Americans feel that Washington has turned its back on them. They know they work hard, and they believe that anyone who works hard in America deserves to earn a stable middle-class lifeat least. Whether youre a Democrat, independent, or Republican, you need to understand the depth of the anger that is driving American politics today. And you need to understand the reason for that anger.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, in a traditional blue-collar family. My dad did car upholsteryhe didnt love it, but it supported the family. My parents scrimped to save money, but we always had the basics: a house, a car that worked. My parents worked hard, and their hard work paid off. They took pride in their work ethic and their ability to persevere.

Joan Williamss book is truly enlightening. It describes the values I was raised with: self-reliance, hard work, stability, and straight talk. It also answers the questions many people have been asking about the so-called white working class since Trump was elected in 2016. (Theyre the middle class, by the way.) Why are they so angry? Why is so much of their anger focused on government? Why dont they just move to where the jobs are? Why dont they get their act together and go to college? Joan Williams answers these questions and more.

Most important, she shows that Americans want a country where hard work pays off. They will collect government benefits or go on disabilityif thats what they need to do to support their families. But thats not what they want. They want what my parents had: the ability to work hard and create a stable family life.

When I was in high school and still trying to figure out if and how I could afford to go to college, my mom recommended that I learn how to lay carpet, because she was concerned about my future. Her goal was not that I find fulfillment but that I find stabilitythe kind of stability that has become so elusive in the era of closed-down factories, abandoned Main Streets, and the opioid epidemic. It turned out I wasnt very good with carpet but did have a knack for starting technology businesses. But heres the fact: not everyone is an entrepreneur, and not everyone has a direct path to a job that can pay their bills.

As much as I believe that the American dream is alive and well, my experience in business has taught me that not everyone lives in a situation conducive to chasing that dream that so many of us have taken for granted.

Ive been in situations where Ive come home to find my utilities turned off. Where I didnt have money to pay for health care and, even worse, had to go to a dental clinic where student dentists botched my root canaland then their efforts to fix their mistakes made it even worse. I have written checks and then scrambled to figure out how to cover them before they bounced. But I was fortunate: I only had to take care of myself. I didnt have to worry about a spouse or children or providing for others in my family. I was able to move to Dallas, living with five roommates in a three-bedroom apartment, and get a bartending job at night and a sales job during the day, which allowed me to get my head above water.

Today, most people dont have the luxury of mobility. They are reluctant to move for a better job because thats very risky in their world. They stick close to home because a small network of family and friends theyve known forever sustains them both economically and emotionally. That network provides child care, elder care, help fixing the carnecessities of life they cant take for granted. Equally important, that network offers blue-collar families something not on offer from their less-than-prestigious jobs: respect.

Ive been at the top, among the 1 percent that are truly financially blessed. And Ive been at the bottom. Broke. Scrambling to make ends meet.

Anyone whos willing to get up every day, and show up and work hardthat person has my respect. Disrespect breeds anger, and anger distorts politics. Treating working-class people with the respect they deserve is not a partisan issue. Making sure that hard work pays off in America is not a partisan issue.

Our politics are being driven by middle-class peoples fear of falling into poverty. We need to stop scolding people for being afraid, or for expressing their fears the wrong way. We need to listen to them. In this book, Joan Williams does just that. She gives a voice to those who get up every day and do their best, and she lets them explain how American politics got to where it is today.

Their voices will open your eyesand hopefully your heart and mind as well.

Mark Cuban

Preface

Its been quite a ride. In the 18 months after the publication of White Working Class