CLASS, STATUS AND 9/11
BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX

When William Julius Wilson wrote The Declining Significance of Race in
1978, he garnered headlines. White America gleefully interpreted his book to
mean that “race didn’t matter” anymore. Some African Americans treated him
as badly as Islamic fundamentalists treated Salmon Rushdie, pretty much
calling him a traitor and a heretic and reading him out of the race.
Wilson’s book triggered both academic conferences and scholarly articles, but
the popular press treatment of his book was especially notable. The New York
Times Magazine, for example, did a cover piece on race and class and used a
picture of a black man seemingly walking out of the very upscale Tiffany’s.
Weeks later, the man pictured indicated he was just passing by Tiffany’s, not
shopping. Still, it is interesting to note the easy way that symbolic
stereotypes work. It is almost if the Times were asking who that black man
thought he was to be walking out of Tiffany’s. This happened, of course,
before ghetto-fabulous rappers made Cristal champagne a ‘hood cliché, and
dripped with so many diamonds that an unadornment is considered an anomaly in
that world.

Nearly a quarter of a century after Wilson’s book was published, few
would deny the importance of class in American culture. And those who’ve been watching 9/11 related charitable contributions total more than $2 billion have also watched the majority of that money go to the families of wealthy and well-connected victims. According to the Washington Post, the families of fallen firefighters have already received about $1million each – a number 10 times the amount of aid that has typically gone to the average victim’s family members. Additionally, the Post reported, other monies earmarked for the families of dead firefighters could bring each family’s average to above $2 million for the year. To be sure, whether firefighter or food vendor, the families of those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks would return every penny if it meant they could have their mother, sister, son or husband back. We can’t bring back the dead. But we can look at how we treat the living as a testament of our values.

9/11 has also forced us to redefine the status of the modern family. The Uniformed Firefighters Association is involved in a dispute over whether parents and siblings fall into the same category as spouses and children of those firefighters killed. This dispute has resulted in the union having disbursed only 18 percent of the $70 million it’s taken in. Further, the American Red Cross had to modify their definition of family. Marshall Miller of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, would have likely been pleased: the Red Cross made adult children, fiancées, gay partners and even mistresses “family.” Interestingly enough, according to the Washington Post, “dozens” of women told Red Cross relief workers they were mistresses to World Trade Center executives.

If you still don’t think class and status matter, consider Enron and the respectful way its leaders were treated by the Congress when they testified at hearings.
Imagine that any other kinds of criminals, who caused major economic losses
for thousands of people, would be so courteously treated. Even in the face
of prevarication, some members of Congress expressed a muted frustration, not
the outrage that seems appropriate for Enron’s financial chicanery.
Or, consider regulations that say that people who live in public housing can
be ejected if their relatives are drug addicts and come to their property
(that’s zero tolerance for drugs). Are members of Congress ejected from
their posts if their relatives are drug addicts? Do corporate CEOs have to
give up their positions because they have addicted relatives who, perhaps,
show up on company premises every now? Class matters, and so does status. It’s quite sad that this nation had to endure a day bloodier than Antietam to realize that the American pie is neither sliced fairly nor judiciously.