Alan Tai

“Having good wages and benefits and good conditions, being treated fairly and with dignity in retirement, should not be only for Republicans or Democrats or red states or blue states. These are nonpartisan issues that should be for everybody.”
― Batya Ungar-Sargon, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women

“Cowardly silence aside, these executives could not have transformed commercial hip hop into a playground for destructive street icons alone. Clearly, the corporate takeover of commercial hip hop has also been facilitated, directly or indirectly, by artists (especially those who have become moguls and entrepreneurs) who gleefully rap about guns and bitches, liberal and conservative critics and academics, and journalists who uncritically profile these artists and hip hop fans of all races, classes, and genders. This shift was not inevitable; it was allowed to happen.”
― Tricia Rose, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters

“Until the 1970s, American workers labored in factories making things-cars, homes that they and their neighbors consumed, which created a natural upper limit on prices and profit because they weren't just producers but consumers. The profits from their labor were reinvested into the factories and into them, the workers, to make sure they could keep buying the products they made; after all, they were the biggest share of the market. But in an economy where the biggest share of the money is being made in speculation by a tiny percent of people who own or control most of the investments, the worker gets a vanishingly small slice of the pie.”
― Batya Ungar-Sargon, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women

“It's hard for people that are intelligent that don't have a degree. We can bring something to the table. We just don't get the same opportunities as other people.”
― Batya Ungar-Sargon, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women