The decks are stacked
This morning one of the first emails I read at work was that one of the BD graduates is leaving at the end of July, after our first rotation is done.
RATS!
RATS LEAVING THE SINKING SHIP!
Seriously, though, this is the first to hit me emotionally. We literally started together. We didn't get to become close, working in different offices, but I thought we were pretty good friends considering. I like her. At our last meeting she gave me a hug before I left to catch my plane, which really touched me.
I sent her an email when I read the announcement, saying we should keep in touch once her month's up. I guess we can only see if that actually works out.
This is particularly hard considering the current group demographics.
8 of us were hired mid-February, for the Business Development Graduate program for Wolfram & Hart. Of those:
I know it's not all about me, but I'm kind of getting sick of facing these odds. Every. Single. Day.
But leaving isn't a consideration - not at this stage, in any case. The knowledge that I'll have to submit 1.5 times more CVs in order to get the same number of interviews is still with me (and who knows how many interviews to get the same number of job offers), and yes, it's difficult, but this could also be my chance to prove myself.
Thinking about this reminded me - I got a response from ACMA a while ago (about the Channel 9 blackface skit), I never got round to posting about it. They basically said that Channel 9 was not in breach of the relevant clauses, because it didn't
"provoke or perpetuate intense dislike, serious contempt or severe ridicule against a person or group of persons on the grounds of age, colour, gender, national or ethnic origin, disability, race, religion or sexual preference" (emphasis added)
To which I say, well, that's a fair point but racist depictions don't need to provoke that kind of reaction to have an insidious, long-lasting effect that eventually desensitises individuals to more and more blatant acts of racism. Not talking to your children about race and valuing colour-blindness will have that effect. Constantly seeing white heroes does that, especially when they wipe us out of our own stories in order to hold up the status quo. Not seeing the equivalent numbers of non-white heroes does that. Constantly seeing white people get away with racist slurs (and worse*, I could include more examples but there's only so much I can take) because "they didn't mean it" or are "good people really" does that.
But yes, the blackface skit itself was clearly innocent in this post-racial world we live in - it didn't make anyone go out and kick people to death directly.
I am disappointed, and annoyed most of the referencing seems to come from Wikipedia. Wikipedia! You took months to pull quotes from Wikipedia?
I am also reaching that stage where I can only initially react to each new indignity/ horror/ outrage with a strenuous round of swearing. I also imagine myself wolfing out (particularly the bit where I get giant fangs) and ripping the perpetrators to shreds, but that's mostly to cheer myself up.
* Trigger warnings for descriptions of violence.
RATS!
RATS LEAVING THE SINKING SHIP!
Seriously, though, this is the first to hit me emotionally. We literally started together. We didn't get to become close, working in different offices, but I thought we were pretty good friends considering. I like her. At our last meeting she gave me a hug before I left to catch my plane, which really touched me.
I sent her an email when I read the announcement, saying we should keep in touch once her month's up. I guess we can only see if that actually works out.
This is particularly hard considering the current group demographics.
8 of us were hired mid-February, for the Business Development Graduate program for Wolfram & Hart. Of those:
- 5 graduates are male, 3 female
- 5 graduates are white, 3 Asian (1 Sri Lankan, 1 Korean, 1 Chinese-Australian)
I know it's not all about me, but I'm kind of getting sick of facing these odds. Every. Single. Day.
But leaving isn't a consideration - not at this stage, in any case. The knowledge that I'll have to submit 1.5 times more CVs in order to get the same number of interviews is still with me (and who knows how many interviews to get the same number of job offers), and yes, it's difficult, but this could also be my chance to prove myself.
Thinking about this reminded me - I got a response from ACMA a while ago (about the Channel 9 blackface skit), I never got round to posting about it. They basically said that Channel 9 was not in breach of the relevant clauses, because it didn't
"provoke or perpetuate intense dislike, serious contempt or severe ridicule against a person or group of persons on the grounds of age, colour, gender, national or ethnic origin, disability, race, religion or sexual preference" (emphasis added)
To which I say, well, that's a fair point but racist depictions don't need to provoke that kind of reaction to have an insidious, long-lasting effect that eventually desensitises individuals to more and more blatant acts of racism. Not talking to your children about race and valuing colour-blindness will have that effect. Constantly seeing white heroes does that, especially when they wipe us out of our own stories in order to hold up the status quo. Not seeing the equivalent numbers of non-white heroes does that. Constantly seeing white people get away with racist slurs (and worse*, I could include more examples but there's only so much I can take) because "they didn't mean it" or are "good people really" does that.
But yes, the blackface skit itself was clearly innocent in this post-racial world we live in - it didn't make anyone go out and kick people to death directly.
I am disappointed, and annoyed most of the referencing seems to come from Wikipedia. Wikipedia! You took months to pull quotes from Wikipedia?
I am also reaching that stage where I can only initially react to each new indignity/ horror/ outrage with a strenuous round of swearing. I also imagine myself wolfing out (particularly the bit where I get giant fangs) and ripping the perpetrators to shreds, but that's mostly to cheer myself up.
* Trigger warnings for descriptions of violence.