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From: jj@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women,net.flame
Subject: Re: Discrimination
Message-ID: <3832@alice.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Jun-85 12:48:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.3832
Posted: Fri Jun  7 12:48:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Jun-85 03:44:43 EDT
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Well, Lisa, you're partially right.

When I go home, my relatives ask me "Why don't you move back here
and get a real job.  Work with your hands for once, and make
some honest money."  Needless to say, I don't talk very much to
those relatives any more.   At work, I still do see evidence of
being from the wrong side of the tracks, when people
ask where I got my degree from.  (Frankly, my school isn't bad,
but we're taking acoustics <they didn't even WORK on acoustics>
and digital signal processing <ditto, at least when I was there>
in which they aren't reknowned.) ( I don't want to
name the school, it's certainly on the net, and I can't
blame them.)

As to still carrying around effects, yeah, I still do.  I tend
to be very conservative with $$, I'm still sensitive
when people make assumptions without getting the facts first,
etc.  Given that people tend to make assumptions from things
like school, degree, part of the country, etc, that still
is a handicap, but it's also an essential defense mechanism.
It's also the source of my firm belief in personal
responsibility for one's own actions.


Yes, it's probably clearer that you are female on sight
than it is that I came from a dirty blue collar background.
That is indeed true, and it does mean that people who don't
know ANYTHING will treat you differently.  In my case, it
means that people who've read things like employment records
(Started as casual labor, went to Tech Aid, then to Associate
member of staff, then to Member of staff) make some very
insulting assumptions <i.e., I am an ignorant person
who just got lucky, might be smart, but must absolutely
be ignorant>(certainly any racial minority who took
the same path would face the same.)  Frankly, I leave tracks
on patronizing types who can't see when they're being
patronizing, and that in itself might be a handicap, I suppose.


About people being hurt by AA---  Does loosing financial aid to
two minority students in grad school count?  (It was a deal
where the department could get matching funds, but only
for minorities.  Being from the wrong side of town didn't count.)
That DID have a significant effect on my life.
(There is more to it, but I've distilled things pretty much
fairly.  I can't necessarily say that the events were wrong,
since the school could support more students.  I just do know
the effect it had on me.)

Curiously, one of the things I learned in blue collar society
(this is clearly not the case everywhere) is that we're
all in it together, and fighting each other because of
race or national origin is just plain stupid.  <Sex wasn't an
issue.  I fear for the kind of work it was, it still wouldn't
be much of an issue, since brute strength and patience for repetitive
work were the main desirable qualities.  I don't think
I could do the work at 6'0", 180 lbs and not fat, and I don't
think most females could manage, either.>

Have a nice day, Lisa.
-- 
TEDDY BEARS HAVE LIMITED PATIENCE! THEY DO EVENTUALLY GET HUNGRY!
"Let us remember my cat, Geoffrey, ..."

(ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jj