ABSTRACT
Studying at Stanford, the author began to think seriously about class differences. Class differences were boundaries no one wanted to face or talk about. No wonder the working-class parents from poor backgrounds feared the entry into such a world, intuiting perhaps that we might learn to be ashamed of where we had come from, that we might never return home, or come back only to lord it over them. The author did not intend to forget class background or alter class allegiance. Yet these class realities separated the author from fellow students. Maintaining connections with family and community across class boundaries demands more than just summary recall of where one's roots are, where one comes from. Within universities, there are few educational and social spaces where students who wish to affirm positive ties to ethnicity-to blackness, to working-class backgrounds-can receive affirmation and support. Ideologically, the message is clear-assimilation is the way to gain acceptance and approval from those in power.
