BEST EDITORIAL YET ON THE BART STRIKE

The nauseating paternalism toward BART's multiracial workforce echoed the whines of the segregationist press in the South where I grew up. One could almost hear the phrase "uppity blacks" ring out when reading the Chron columnists talk about the BART workforce — and by extension all workers in the Bay Area. "Be grateful for whatever you get," wrote Andrew S. Ross, "this is the new economy."
As if taking a page out of Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, the papers also claimed to find a furious groundswell of support for BART management and for banning transit strikes. Amid a constant barrage of misleading information about the actual pay and benefits of BART workers, the editorialists claimed that the transit agency's employees were trying to live like royalty, and, in doing so, were sucking extraordinary salaries and benefits from the wallets of the average Bay Area resident — unlike the tech tax breaks or America's Cup, I suppose. There was a fury for sure, but it was coming from these editorialists and their big business allies, not the general population.

Let Them Eat Cake | Raising the Bar | Jay Youngdahl | East Bay Express