This letter is a to a private school in which I interviewed for a job that I did not get. I have had enough with the shoot to kill privileged elite folks in this world. So here is my letter to them. In the letter you will notice that there is no mention of the school, cities or anything like that. Because for me, this is just venting. As a feminist I have interviewed for over 80 jobs since finishing graduate school. I have made nothing beyond poverty level wages. I am very tired of looking for jobs and interviewing for them. I have been discriminated many times in a job and I feel the privilege folks in the job world keep trying to shoot and kill me.
I drove 500 miles round trip in my 14 year old rusty car to inteview for a job that I got rejected from. I asked for reimbursement on the gas that I paid for, roughly $70 dollars and they said no. You might find this funny. When she said no I said, "do you want me to send you some rust from my car?" I was going to do that. Why not take some rust with your privilege?
With all this said here is my letter....
To Whom It May Concern:
Your privileged and elite private school is something that I do not want to be a part of and I am glad I did not get the job. You can't reimburse someone who came all the way up north but you can take money from "economically" privileged families in your city to line your pockets and your salary. Excess is a demise of a nation and you play a part of that excess. Go ahead and think you are living your idealistic lifestyle working at a private and elite school. Remember people in the inner cities (15% unemployment in the major city near me) who are suffering in a reality of homelessness, poverty, depression, violence, pollution and environmental racism because of your failure to understand the interconnectedness of this failed capitalistic system. You should feel guilty.
With your costs of education for an infant or toddler costing more than one year of college is absurd. You should be ashamed and disgusted with yourself considering you can't reimburse someone who drove a round trip of 500 miles.
I would rather work in an inner city helping children who really need help. Or better yet I would rather work on a reservation where Native American children are the brunt of this terrible system. Since my Native American heritage is a huge part of my life and today I am your brunt in your excess and thinking you live an idealistic life.
Open your eyes for a change!
Sincerely,
The Angry Native Woman
When does it end?
The very first line of this article: "The anticipation over Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech Tuesday night was as high as her pantsuit was orange."
thank you yahoo for your insight. *eye roll*
Ok, a certain Center City Philadelphia ultra-fragrant soap store, which shall remain nameless because I don't want to give them the business (also which gives you that "you're probably going to get a yeast infection from using that soap feeling), had their employees stand outside the store handing out flyers completely nude, except for a little apron, in the name of publicity. Because you know, sex sells.
While perusing notoriously anti-feminist Clare Boothe Luce Institute's website for amusement, I cam across a column by Ashley Herzog titled: " College Classes for Conservatives to Avoid," in which she laments her time her classes that deal with " writings of some allegedly oppressed group, such as 'Gay and Lesbian Literature' or 'Women and Writing.'” She was so upset to not be assigned reading by Charlotte Bronte, but God-forbid, take a step out of her white privilege to read about the interesting life of Assata Shakur . And it doesn't take a background in sociology or ethnic studies to understand that things would be different without this white fear surrounding the Black Panthers, and had she been white, her storylines would have played out very differently.
She then advices like-minded conservatives to stay away from sociology in general, anything labeled non-Western or multicultural, "queer theory" (the only subject she had in quotes, and nothing in U.S. history that doesn't reiterate the one-sided view of our history).
What is disturbing about this is that she is suggesting that the best way to survive the baccalaureate core curriculum of the undergrad years is to stay away from any class that points out that the U.S. isn't a meritocracy, and that people of different race, class, sexual orientation, ability, religion, class, weight, etc (and various combinations of privilege and oppression) experience the world in very different ways. College is supposed to be about challenging our understanding, not picking and choosing what one wants to hear and ridiculing the reality of other peoples lives.
Continue reading "Herzog Writes the Ignoramus' Guide to College Survival"
Hello, fellow Feministing Community members. In the past couple of months since the Community Blog was started, I have seen how supportive this place can be for young feminists in a world that is often hostile to what we believe in. Yes, we have our occasional miscreants and trolls—but do we take their crap? No .
I’ve written here and on my own blog about my experiences as a survivor of rape. Because justice for fellow survivors is such an important issue for me I often find myself reading posts on other blogs about developments on this topic. Yesterday, while commenting on The Curvature (a favorite of mine and well worth reading, by the way) I ran across another commenter named Marta who agreed with me on what Cara had to say.
Later, Marta contacted me on my own blog, and while initially our correspondence was a dance of apologies over my paranoia and her thoughts that she might have offended me (I can be very abrupt with commenters on my blog if I’m not sure I understand their intentions, I’ve had some assholes on there before and I’m pretty quick to pull the ‘block’ trigger), we quickly began a conversation about our experiences and feminist resources.
You see, while I am currently attending a college with a small but close-knit and lively band of feminists, Marta is dealing with the hell known as high school. She identifies as a feminist and is, like me, a survivor of sexual assault. I recommended the Feministing Community blog to her as a place where she can write about her experiences and find the kind of support she told me she does not receive in her daily life. I’m not sure yet how often she’ll be posting and commenting or what she’ll want to write about, but I ask all of you here to welcome her into our community.
In the past few years it has become abundantly clear to me that dealing with difficult experiences is only possible with the support of others, and that it is impossible to survive the worst parts of life alone.
I was either a freshman or a sophomore at Miami when I heard about this case initially. You can find a lot more information in a Google search, but the basic story is that a sex offender was allowed to return to campus, victim and other students were not notified, offender victimizes another female student, she almost bleeds to death from the attack, and offender found guilty of drug charges but acquitted of rape charge. Now he wants to change his name...
New at Voice of Dissent - Fabulous Feminist Photos From Flickr.
I've been scouring Flickr a lot lately and after seeing all of the great feminist imagery decided to do a feature here on the blog. I hope you enjoy them and feel free to reply with links to your favorites.
Once upon a time
In a land far away
A beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog
As she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle
The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said "Elegant lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dopper young prince that I am.
And then my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother. Where you can prepare meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so."
That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sauteed frog legs seasoned in white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself...
I don't fucking think so.
:-D
This is my first post here at Feministing, so I'm sorry if this seems off topic. I thought I'd share this with everyone else who seems to be frustrated by the election coverage.
Eric Kleefeld of talkingpointsmemo.com notes this most recent development in the comedy of errors that is the GOP:
Wow -- a leading Republican appears to have just inadvertently admitted that the GOP's spin machine set up to counter Barack Obama during the convention is a propaganda machine spewing nothing but lies.
The GOPer in question is Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams, who accidentally made the admission when describing the GOP's war room in Denver set up to hammer Obama during convention week.
Wadhams described the GOP's outfit thusly to the Denver Post : "Just consider this the Ministry of Truth."
Um, as anybody who has ever read George Orwell knows, the Ministry of Truth exists to disseminate false propaganda about how great the ruling regime is, continuously rewriting both history and the present-day facts in order to maintain total control over the population.
"The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation," Orwell wrote. "These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink ."
It truly boggles the mind. Should I laugh or cry? It makes me wonder if there's a correlation to the controversy unleashed by the Bush administration's recent attempt to redefince contraception as abortion.
OK, so when I was a kid, Highlights magazine was my favorite reading material and they always had a Hidden Pictures feature: you were given x number of random items to look for in a huge illustration, which kills oodles of free time when you're six. However, this "Hidden Pictures" misogyny I found in the latest CNN commentary of Michelle Obama wasn't that hard to spot. See if you can find it with me!
From CNN's Report Card for Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention:
So, let's break this down, commentator by commentator.
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