Shhh -- don't talk about class

Forget politics and religion. If you really want to kill a dinner party, just start talking about class.

Most of us talk out of both sides of our mouths about class. We act as if it doesn't exist - as if success and failure are determined only by a person's merits and hard work - while accepting received wisdom that a person's socioeconomic circumstance influences every tiny life decision.

We've got some strong and unexamined assumptions about the way class influences everything from how a person talks to who and when they'll marry and how many kids they'll have. Everything from what kind of job they head off to in the morning (or second shift or third) and what kind of TV show they'll watch when they get home.

And we don't much think about the fact that class has a great deal to do with where home is - we just live in neighborhoods where everyone happens to earn about as much money as we do.

Most of us like it that way. In fact, we get a little anxious when that natural order is threatened. But in a country without class, you can't just come out and say that. You have to go through all kinds of linguistic contortions to try to keep poor people out of your neighborhood.

You have to rely on euphemism, have to talk about crime and broken families and undesirable behavior - not the fact that you don't want your kids playing with poor kids, on the off-chance that class is contagious.

You have to blow a few statistics out of proportion in order to shun folks who need help keeping a roof over their heads. It's nothing personal, you say - some of your best friends are poor.

But allowing low-income households to be so marginalized is more than a matter of discomfort or inconvenience - it reduces already slim housing options for Eastern Iowa families who struggle just to get by. Thank goodness some local folks are dragging the situation into the light.

In Cedar Rapids, civil rights advocates are pushing to ban housing discrimination based on where would-be renters' income comes from - be it alimony, Social Security, workers' compensation, Section 8 vouchers or other sources.

In Iowa City, a housing advocacy group has threatened to take the city to court because some recent City Council decisions have made it difficult, if not impossible, for them to continue to work to provide safe, decent affordable housing for area residents.

Housing security is a critical aspect of family security, of community security.

Every Eastern Iowa household deserves a roof overhead.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com