Please, if we are going to devolve into the "White Privilege" debate, can I first implore that we

[BainsBane]

28. although you're not reading, I still have a suggestion

Rather than telling people not to talk about race (and gender), how about suggesting a discussion about how class intersects with race? Women and people of color on DU are told several times a day to keep quiet and let their betters decide what is important. Your post is going to be read in that context. Class is indeed important, but to pretend that race and gender are not--or that we should set them aside to talk about what you think is more important, is unrealistic. We can't put aside who we are. The fact is that sexism and racism affect our lives on a daily level. The more interesting and ultimately more productive discussion is about how race, class, and gender intersect.

To have a discussion exclusively about class, you would need to exclude the life experiences of the majority of the country from your discussion. Is that really what you want to do? Perhaps you could challenge yourself to think more comprehensively about the issue rather than condemning those of us who care about our own lives and those of the majority of Americans as playing into the hands of the 1 percent. In insisting people think only about the narrow frame you consider important, you don't leave much space for discussion.

I would also suggest you might think about what you mean when you say class. The one percent vs. the 99% are not classes. Those are catch-all terms that have come into currency in the media to talk about income disparity, but that 99 percent contains within it more than one class.