smart college-educated white upper-middle-class mostly-male
Well, I'm considered smart, and I have a couple of diplomas to attest to the college educated part, and I'm white in the "grandson of Irish and son of Canadian immigrants" fashion. That last means that I was raised around men who worked very hard for what they earned. I suppose my current income makes me upper middle class, though I haven't been in this bracket for the greater part of my life. And yes, I'm male.
I started working, in the sense of doing work that brought in some money, when I was eight. Helping out in my father's garage. The first job I had outside of my family was as a stock boy in a drug store, where I restocked shelves and cut up empty boxes so they could go into the incinerator. From that I went to working as a short order cook and all around assistant in a cafe during my freshman year of highschool. Then back to working for dad when he bought a gas station. I also did janitorial work in my Catholic high school to help reduce the tuition.
Once I was old enough (16) I went to work in convenience stores (the Circle K chain) for the last two years of high school. That was an educational experience, and gave me an insight into the convenience store biz that I've never forgotten.
After graduation, I couldn't afford college, so what with one thing and another I ended up joining the USMC. I did that for the next 8.5 years, then moved over to the Reserve, got a job in a Ford dealership, and headed back to the halls of academia in my copious spare time. I was a line mechanic there at the dealership for 5 years, until I managed to wrangle enough of a Research Assistantship to become a full-time academic. Of course, some academics consider experimental physicists to be a bit blue-collar anyway, as we tend to get a lot of dirt under our fingernails along the way.
All that said, I agree with you, mostly, that having a lot of work experience which put me in the midst of hard working ordinary folks gives me an appreciation for things that some of my more fortunate colleagues just don't have.
But I'll confess I still bridle at seeing the word privilege tossed around. There were many years when I didn't feel very privileged at all, and I do have an understanding of why so many working class white men in the US feel that the deck is stacked against them.
no subject
Well, I'm considered smart, and I have a couple of diplomas to attest to the college educated part, and I'm white in the "grandson of Irish and son of Canadian immigrants" fashion. That last means that I was raised around men who worked very hard for what they earned. I suppose my current income makes me upper middle class, though I haven't been in this bracket for the greater part of my life. And yes, I'm male.
I started working, in the sense of doing work that brought in some money, when I was eight. Helping out in my father's garage. The first job I had outside of my family was as a stock boy in a drug store, where I restocked shelves and cut up empty boxes so they could go into the incinerator. From that I went to working as a short order cook and all around assistant in a cafe during my freshman year of highschool. Then back to working for dad when he bought a gas station. I also did janitorial work in my Catholic high school to help reduce the tuition.
Once I was old enough (16) I went to work in convenience stores (the Circle K chain) for the last two years of high school. That was an educational experience, and gave me an insight into the convenience store biz that I've never forgotten.
After graduation, I couldn't afford college, so what with one thing and another I ended up joining the USMC. I did that for the next 8.5 years, then moved over to the Reserve, got a job in a Ford dealership, and headed back to the halls of academia in my copious spare time. I was a line mechanic there at the dealership for 5 years, until I managed to wrangle enough of a Research Assistantship to become a full-time academic. Of course, some academics consider experimental physicists to be a bit blue-collar anyway, as we tend to get a lot of dirt under our fingernails along the way.
All that said, I agree with you, mostly, that having a lot of work experience which put me in the midst of hard working ordinary folks gives me an appreciation for things that some of my more fortunate colleagues just don't have.
But I'll confess I still bridle at seeing the word privilege tossed around. There were many years when I didn't feel very privileged at all, and I do have an understanding of why so many working class white men in the US feel that the deck is stacked against them.