class ramble
I'm exhausted and should be asleep four hours ago, but instead I'm gonna ramble here.
Okay, I read some thread on s-o about political identity that turned into a discussion about class and privilege, class privilege vs. race privilege, that kind of thing.
I have a middle class background and an extended family with money (at least one doctor, one accountant, one retired government agent, one capitalist, most of the rest have money through their kibbutzim or similarly wacky means). It seems like everyone's made it or not on their own, or with their spouses. (If they don't live on a kibbutz.) One of my mom's sisters married a Yemenite immigrant who, last I checked, worked in a supermarket. They are, no kidding, poor. I dunno what this aunt does. My mom's OTHER sister married the capitalist/entrepreneur, not sure what he does either, and they have a huge, nice house that they remodeled themselves after he started making money . . . I remember their old place being a complete shit hole. My parents struggled financially for most of my childhood but in the past few years they've really hit middle class. You can tell because my mom redid the bathroom and bought a shed, and she keeps telling me how well they're doing. My mom didn't finish college and my dad never tried, but it also doesn't seem like it was (viewed to be) as necessary in their generation.
So now I'm working this job (which I am probably technically overqualified for but I don't feel like analyzing that at the mo) at a supermarket, with bona fide, even self-identified working class people.
And they make me think things like, yeah, wow, class revolution is a stupid and hopeless idea.
No, there's no union or anything like that.
When I was working in the deli the one guy there who I didn't get along with at all would joke about having a strike for better wages. The way he joked, he clearly did not understand the concept of a strike. He talked about "inviting" people to strike with him. At some point I told him, you know, that's not how it works. He asked me, well, how does it work? But there wasn't actually space there behind the deli counter to get into it, or so it seemed to me. Also . . . . this guy is just a shithead, I didn't feel like talking to him, fuck it.
When I moved to the bakery, at some point a company owner decided to nix our muffin cart. That is, to get rid of these cart displays for the bakeries in all the Shaws/Star Markets where they were. This guy in the bakery with me says, "How can they do that! You know, we employees own the company too."
"No," I informed him, "We do not." Hello! Do you really think your wage is a sign of ownership? WTF?! He was serious, too.
Older people never talk about things like this, that I've heard. Do they know better or something? My current manager is a college-educated underachiever like me. The cake decorator is apparently a registered Republican. The management in the deli would never mention anything about working conditions or class or whatever . . . I don't know, everyone seems to take for granted that this is the way things are.
And it's not bad, but I only think that because it's Massachusetts. If I lived in another state I wouldn't be able to afford their damn health insurance and then I'd be pissed off.
So . . . . yeah, I dunno, why are my young colleagues so ignorant? What is up with this?
Oh, there's also this guy I like in the deli, the youngest full-timer there, who also has another part-time job and sends the money to his family in . . . I forget what country, I'm a bad person. But he's cool, and even though we've never had a discussion like, "Hey, isn't it unfair that other people own everything and make money off of your work?" it seems like . . . it just doesn't matter. Even if he realizes that it's unfair -- which he actually does, I mean, a lot of things are unfair, like even the fact that I got to move to bakery was some fucked up combo of racism/class privilege/GENDER STEREOTYPES (for real, like they thought I'd make prettier flowers out of frosting because they think I don't have a dick, I shit you not) . . . he just does what he has to do and enjoys life with whatever time he has left over.
Man, I want to leave this Shaw's and tell them to put him in the damn bakery.
Okay, I read some thread on s-o about political identity that turned into a discussion about class and privilege, class privilege vs. race privilege, that kind of thing.
I have a middle class background and an extended family with money (at least one doctor, one accountant, one retired government agent, one capitalist, most of the rest have money through their kibbutzim or similarly wacky means). It seems like everyone's made it or not on their own, or with their spouses. (If they don't live on a kibbutz.) One of my mom's sisters married a Yemenite immigrant who, last I checked, worked in a supermarket. They are, no kidding, poor. I dunno what this aunt does. My mom's OTHER sister married the capitalist/entrepreneur, not sure what he does either, and they have a huge, nice house that they remodeled themselves after he started making money . . . I remember their old place being a complete shit hole. My parents struggled financially for most of my childhood but in the past few years they've really hit middle class. You can tell because my mom redid the bathroom and bought a shed, and she keeps telling me how well they're doing. My mom didn't finish college and my dad never tried, but it also doesn't seem like it was (viewed to be) as necessary in their generation.
So now I'm working this job (which I am probably technically overqualified for but I don't feel like analyzing that at the mo) at a supermarket, with bona fide, even self-identified working class people.
And they make me think things like, yeah, wow, class revolution is a stupid and hopeless idea.
No, there's no union or anything like that.
When I was working in the deli the one guy there who I didn't get along with at all would joke about having a strike for better wages. The way he joked, he clearly did not understand the concept of a strike. He talked about "inviting" people to strike with him. At some point I told him, you know, that's not how it works. He asked me, well, how does it work? But there wasn't actually space there behind the deli counter to get into it, or so it seemed to me. Also . . . . this guy is just a shithead, I didn't feel like talking to him, fuck it.
When I moved to the bakery, at some point a company owner decided to nix our muffin cart. That is, to get rid of these cart displays for the bakeries in all the Shaws/Star Markets where they were. This guy in the bakery with me says, "How can they do that! You know, we employees own the company too."
"No," I informed him, "We do not." Hello! Do you really think your wage is a sign of ownership? WTF?! He was serious, too.
Older people never talk about things like this, that I've heard. Do they know better or something? My current manager is a college-educated underachiever like me. The cake decorator is apparently a registered Republican. The management in the deli would never mention anything about working conditions or class or whatever . . . I don't know, everyone seems to take for granted that this is the way things are.
And it's not bad, but I only think that because it's Massachusetts. If I lived in another state I wouldn't be able to afford their damn health insurance and then I'd be pissed off.
So . . . . yeah, I dunno, why are my young colleagues so ignorant? What is up with this?
Oh, there's also this guy I like in the deli, the youngest full-timer there, who also has another part-time job and sends the money to his family in . . . I forget what country, I'm a bad person. But he's cool, and even though we've never had a discussion like, "Hey, isn't it unfair that other people own everything and make money off of your work?" it seems like . . . it just doesn't matter. Even if he realizes that it's unfair -- which he actually does, I mean, a lot of things are unfair, like even the fact that I got to move to bakery was some fucked up combo of racism/class privilege/GENDER STEREOTYPES (for real, like they thought I'd make prettier flowers out of frosting because they think I don't have a dick, I shit you not) . . . he just does what he has to do and enjoys life with whatever time he has left over.
Man, I want to leave this Shaw's and tell them to put him in the damn bakery.