We all have experiences that form who we are as a person. That mold our view of the world, and that give shape to our politics. For me, the most poignant of these experiences happened while I was in high school, when I had my teacher explain to me that I would never be able to be more than who I was, because of what I was.
My father worked skilled trades in the local auto factory, his father had worked in the same factory. I come from working people, and that was the issue. This particular teacher had decided that I had turned in a plagiarized paper, because she assumed someone who came from my background was couldn't write what I had turned in. She explained that to me. Your father works in a factory, your mother in a nursing home. People like you don't go to college, and you didn't write this. At the time, I was livid.
Since then, I've grown to appreciate the honesty. She at least had the honesty to speak aloud what so many others just thought in their head. I was able to finish college. Hell, I got my master's degree, was ABD, and adjunct taught for a while. That all came to an end when I found that wage theft happens to "educated" people too. With my background, I thought I'd at least be able to get work as as secretary at the local university. Boy, was I wrong. I had someone I went to high school with, who worked at there, explain to me that they got their job primarily because their father had hired on the hiring manager back in the day. I suppose it's this personal experience, that makes me so pissed about this:
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