Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by
Chris Arnade is a powerful and insightful exploration of the class divide in
America.
Arnade believes that in the US, there is
front-row America and back-row America. Front-row Americans have credentials
and advantages and upward mobility. They often stigmatize and ridicule the
people in the back row. Back-row Americans hang out at McDonald’s and at
churches — two places they find acceptance and community. And they sense it when
their worldview and their religion are belittled.
Arnade traveled to cities and towns across
America where back-row Americans live: the Bronx, New York; Selma, Alabama;
Bakersfield, California; areas in Maine, Nevada, and elsewhere. He interviewed
them and photographed them. (
It is worth noting that many front-row
Americans happen to be like Arnade — politically progressive. Progressives often think they know what is best for the underclass, but they are oblivious that
their advice comes across as shallow and condescending to back-row Americans.
The back-row Americans you encounter in this
book will change the way you see working-class and lower-class Americans. Click here to buy from Amazon.
