Oberlin

Oberlin, Ohio is a great place to care about politics. The students and professors are knowledgeable and engaged, and beyond our campus is the great state of Ohio--a veritable microcosm of American people, interests, and values. With Issue 2, a citizens' vote on a law that stripped public sector employees of the right to collectively bargain, on the ballot, we are in the midst of an electric and engaging debate about labor rights, economic justice, and the American middle and working class.

The fact that we are having this debate is awesome. Class, although an extremely relevant issue in American and global society, is rarely discussed in the way we are talking about it now, in Oberlin, and the way that I will be talking about it next semester, in London. I am in the politics track for the Oberlin-in-London program, and, along with 12 other students, I will be studying class, race, and gender in London Society.

The Oberlin-in-London Politics program, then, is extremely applicable to American politics today. There is no better place in the world for the study of class than London, a politically buzzing city where social classes are demarcated and discussed, and where I'll have the opportunity to do in-depth study and research of class-based issues. Because, let's face it, although discussion of class is just beginning to emerge in America, it will only become more and more prevalent in a society where almost a quarter of the wealth is held by only one percent of households, where the single best indicator of where you will end up in life is not your race or religion or gender, but your zip code, where more marriages are crossing racial boundaries but fewer are crossing class ones.

This is the society in which we live, and having knowledge of class and how it works--in any setting--is necessary for anybody who wants to care about politics and people in the future.