This report presents an analysis of white working-class communities’ perspectives on belonging, change, identity, and immigration. Recent studies about the white working class focus on national politics, religion, and immigration; this study tells a national story from a grassroots perspective with an eye toward the prospects for cross-racial coalition building between working-class white communities and communities of color. The project’s goals were to increase understanding about white working-class communities in America, to disrupt the negative narrative about the white working class by contextualizing its issues and challenges, and to put forward practical ideas for cross-racial coalition building.
The study was guided by the following research questions:
1. How do current definitions of white working class fit with the experiences and views of this group of people?
2. To what extent do national representations of the white working class—as a disconnected and racist segment in American society—reflect reality?
3. What are the possibilities of building cross-racial coalitions between the white working class and communities of color, as the country transitions from majority white to minority white?Open Society Foundations, US ProgramsOpe
