A license to fight.

• Author: Ehrenreich, Barbara
• Position: Flip Side - Barbara Ehrenreich's speech to the 2009 class of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism - Speech

The dean gave me some very strict instructions about what to say today. One, no whining and no crying at the podium. No wringing of hands or gnashing of teeth. Two, do not be depressing. Be upbeat, be optimistic--and of course it wouldn't hurt to throw in a few tips about how to apply for food stamps.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

So let's get the worst out of the way right up front: You are going to be trying to carve out a career in the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. You are furthermore going to be trying to do so within a dying industry or at least an industry going through such profound "restructuring," as the euphemism goes, as to be almost unrecognizable to an old-timer like me. You have abundant skills and talents--it's just not dear that anyone wants to pay you for them.

Well, you are not alone. How do you think it feels to be an autoworker right now? And I've spent time with plenty of laid-off paper mill workers, construction workers, and miners. They've got skills; they've got experience. They just dont have jobs. Or for someone at a similar level of education, take the case of my nephew. I reconnected with him when he was in his thirties and driving a delivery truck in Minneapolis. With the royalties from Nickel and Dimed I was able to put him through college and a master's degree in computer science: Biggest opportunity of his life, and what did it lead to? Short-term contract jobs at $12 an hour.

So let me be the first to say this to you: Welcome to the American working class!

You won't get rich, unless of course you develop a sideline in blackmail or bank robbery. You'll be living some of the problems you report on--the struggle for health insurance, for child care, for affordable housing. You may never have a cleaning lady. In fact, you might be one. I can't tell you how many writers I know who have moonlighted as cleaning ladies or waitresses. And you know what? They were good writers. And good cleaning ladies, too, which is no small thing.

Let me tell you about my own career, which I think is relevant, not because I'm representative or exemplary in any way, but because I've seen some real ups and downs in this business. I didn't start out to be a freelance writer or a journalist, but after a number of false starts and digressions, I discovered that's what I really loved doing--research and writing about issues I really cared about. In about 1980, I was a single mother of two small children; my boyfriend was...