My new column is up at PopMatters. It’s one of those survey-the-land kinds of pieces, reflecting on where we’re at as a country. Specifically it considers Fantastic Negrito’s song “Working Poor” from his new album The Last Days of Oakland and what the song does–not just what it’s about.
I want to clarify that my interest in and examination of working-class music does not mean that I think those who do not work, or can’t work, are lesser citizens. As the Clinton campaign ramps up, it continues to spread the centrist gospel that working people just try harder than those who don’t work, and that those who don’t work don’t deserve much, if any, regard because…well, the implication is that they’re lazy. The rhetoric would never outright state this, of course; it’s too verboten, too “tacky” and non-inclusive. But Clinton’s neoliberal policies negate or obscure the systemic ways in which the poor are made poorer. This pretty much captures it:
The idea that only people who work full-time shouldn’t have to live in poverty is disgusting to me. I don’t want to contribute to that already pervasive perspective, and I plan to address this in a future column.
Robert Loss 