It’s a Bourgeois Town


Westfield, NJ April 2020

The local bourgeoisie has discovered water soluble chalk. A few years ago, during Occupy Wall Street, or Black Lives Matter, chalking the sidewalk often meant that dozens of militarized police would roll up  on you, throw you to the ground, and put you through central booking (before the judge offered the inevitable ACD). But now, during the pandemic, in Central Union County, NJ, where the average family takes in about $200,000 a year from jobs on Wall Street, or in for profit healthcare, it’s rare to see a street without some message written out in pretty colors. I just wish there were more creativity. 90% of the slogans are generic, apolitical messages like “thank you to our healthcare workers” or “stay safe.” Perhaps I should buy some chalk myself the next time I go to the grocery store and write something like “workers of the world unite” or “end the fed” and see if I get arrested.


  1. John Thurloe · · Reply

    Here’s why occupy Wall Street was an honest insurgency. Because it didn’t degenerate into a liberal racket where some Dukes or Queen Bees strutted around trying to cash in on the movements coattails.

  2. Reblogged this on Writers Without Money and commented:

    Hey. I called it. This is what privilege in action. An elderly black woman in New York just got roughed up and put in handcuffs by the NYPD for chalking some anti-Trump slogans onto a wall.


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