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Through the voices of women activists in the welfare rights
movement across the United States, The Price of Progressive
Politics exposes the contemporary reality of welfare rights
politics, revealing how the language of colorblind racism undermines
this multiracial movement. Through in-depth interviews
with activists in eight organizations across the United
States, Rose Ernst presents an intersectional analysis of how
these activists understand the complexities of race, class
and gender and how such understandings have affected
their approach to their grassroots work. Engaging and accessible,
The Price of Progressive Politics offers a refreshing
examination of how those working for change grapple with
shifting racial dynamics in the United States, arguing that
organizations that fail to develop a consciousness that reflects
the reality of multiple marginalized identities ultimately
reproduce the societal dynamics they seek to change.
— JoEllen Pederson
Ernst's creative research design offers unique insights into the impact of intersectional marginalization, welfare organizing, and social movement mobilization, and is an important contribution to each of these fields.
— Catherine M. Paden
Nelson is as determined to protect the academic freedom of contingent faculty as of full professors . . . he speaks up not only for academic freedom, but for better wages and conditions.
— D.R. Imig
Ernst has provided an amazing window into contemporary welfare organizing and the challenges faced in a political context that urges unitary rather than intersectional frames of social justice. Without a doubt she has provided an important book relevant to scholars and welfare organizers alike.
— Ange-Marie Hancock,author of The Politics of Disgust and the Public Identity of the ‘Welfare Queen’
In this important and courageous book, Rose Ernst shows how the discourse of colorblindness limits the progressive possibilities of the welfare rights movement. One must know the monster one is fighting if one wishes to slay it ‘for real.’ Otherwise, as Ernst’s data demonstrates, one ends up feeding the monster. Bravo for a job well done!
— Eduardo Bonilla-Silva,author of Racism without Racists: Color-BlindRacism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America
Rose Ernst’s book is well-written, with a nuanced theoretical frame that grows out of the relevant literature; it provides an important empirical contribution based poignantly on the voices of the women activists themselves.
— Sanford Schram,author of Welfare Discipline: Discourse, Governance and Globalization
This penetrating and thoughtful work confronts the challenges, conflicts, and opportunities in the fragile coalitions that compose the welfare rights movement today. Written with fidelity to the cause and an empirical eye, Ernst demonstrates how the false construction of a ‘post-racial’ America warps the discourse and activities of welfare rights organizers. A passionately written text that brings these women and this movement to life, The Price of Progressive Politics analyzes the welfare rights movement from within and without using the intersectional lens of race, ethnicity, and class. This timely, fascinating, and intricate book moves forward our understanding of colorblindness and intersectionality.
— Andrea Y. Simpson,author of The Tie That Binds: Identity and Political Attitudes in the Post-Civil Rights Generation