Lately, I’ve witnessed a familiar cycle of discussion about social class in America: some new poll or statistic will show that progressives are failing to win over working-class voters, then a chorus of critics will name all the ways to correct for this failure. In response, others will defend progressive tactics and appeals and insist on staying the course, while an airier discussion about who is really “working class” floats above the din.

Partisans tar their opponents as enabling the elite or abetting the bigoted; either you’re standing with the real working class against the maniacal professional elite, or you’re a deluded conservative pining for a mythical working class (with white skin and blue collars) that no longer exists.

But now the recent labor movement stirrings — from Amazon to Starbucks — have put a new wrinkle in this debate. This spring, the New York Times ran a widely circulated article titled “The Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class,” which profiled several labor organizers and union drives where college-educated workers are leading the charge, explicitly crediting them with the recent “upsurge for organized labor.” Other outlets — from the Washington Post to Brooklyn Rail — followed with similar stories.