The Centrality of the Workplace and Class Consciousness in the US South: The New Orleans Community Studies

Abstract

The popular and scholarly imagination considers Americans—especially those from the US South—to be averse to working-class politics. The South, in particular, is regarded as having especially low levels of class consciousness, hopelessly mired in racist or racialized ideologies which effectively eliminate the possibility of working-class solidarity. This article problematizes these conclusions by presenting the results of a series of studies conducted in New Orleans, Louisiana. Interviews with activists and community leaders, as well as two representative surveys of the city find that New Orleanians are remarkably class conscious, and almost universally regard the workplace as the central social system for determining their overall well-being. These findings are contextualized in Louisiana’s oft-ignored labor history, and contrasted with the currently en vogue “white working class” literature.