Issue #17
“Cross-Class Relationships”
January, 1998

This issue takes cross-class relationships personally. Writers describe coming to a consciousness about race and class contrary to their family's as a result of being raised by black nannies, forming strong, warm bonds, while at the same time getting the message that those who work for the family are inferior. Brothers whose lives have taken them to different class status talk candidly about the confusion, shame, jealousy, guilt, and pride experienced as one marries an inheritor and the other maintains a much lower-class lifestyle. Working class and wealthy activists talk about the isolation in holding onto class stereotypes ("Rich people are stingy" or "Poor people only want our money") or the alternative, being open to friends wherever they come from and how that strategy can alienate them from others who share similar backgrounds.