On Class

Despite being an absolute SEO nightmare, I love these Field Notes from Biblioasis. Thoughtful conversations from a Canadian perspective — I had to grab the latest On Class from the books editor at the Toronto Star, Deborah Dundas.

Things that I take for granted like reminiscing about back to school shopping. Fresh new notebooks, a mittfull of highlighters, the misguided ambition of a Day Timer, and Post-Its galore was something Dundas didn't have an experience of. Even the modest Laurentian pencil crayons were out of her reach growing up. She was poor, and for many that realization is weighted with a sense of shame.

It's that bootstrap mentality. That we live in a meritocracy and that a little elbow grease is all you need to pull yourself up. That hard work gets rewarded - the corollary being that it's your fault alone if you don't succeed. With failure comes shame, which prevents folks from talking about it openly, and absolves those who find themselves on the positive side of the ever growing wealth gap.

The pandemic seemed a moment ripe to consider class more closely. How those at the lowest rungs suddenly became incredibly invaluable to keep things running. Heroic pay for grocery workers. Banging pots and pans for our PSWs and nurses. The continued expectation of migrant workers keeping the food coming. But all that attention and sympathy dried up as soon as the pandemic ended. Dundas is writing to remind us of the every growing disparity between the haves and have-nots.