Eventually I'm gonna make an entry about this job (Sort of my version of a 90 days review). Until then here's a general entry about white people in social services
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OMG, this applies for white people in management too!
Reminds me of the couple I worked for @ the Real Estate company. They started off as DE, then WS and it disintegrated into M. ("Sure I'll take your laptop and self-help books thank you very much but you could have just given me a raise!! You want me to do what for free?!?")
Your posts are like cardio+core training for my mind.
Sigh....why haven't we written a book yet? How to Survive the Non-Profit Social Service Industrial Complex w/o Cutting a Bitch (or Losing Your Soul). I love how I open this post at the exact same moment the WS/DE co-worker next to me goes on another one of her "save the darkie children, even though they're pathologically flawed" rants. She also likes to use terms like "achievement gap." I'm not sure which category that would fit under - I guess maybe DE. But now that I'm around a lot of Teach for America acolytes I'm also noticing a trend of white folks who talk in this weird coded language they've developed to discuss (or not discuss) the problems facing marginalized communities. There's NO analysis at all, so instead they talk about poverty as if it exists in a vacuum or achievement gaps as a catch-all term to sum up everything wrong with our kids.
I'm also noticing a trend of white folks who talk in this weird coded language
...yeah, that's pretty much... for everything.
It never ceases to amaze Pollyanna-me how overwhelmingly white these orgs are. I guess because everyone I know who works for them is of color, and maybe because they typically SERVE POC, but... Erghhh... Y'all *should* write a book.
" How to Survive the Non-Profit Social Service Industrial Complex w/o Cutting a Bitch (or Losing Your Soul)."
No, seriously. We really really should. I could do at least a chapter on WS alone. I know that type WAY too well.
"There's NO analysis at all, so instead they talk about poverty as if it exists in a vacuum or achievement gaps as a catch-all term to sum up everything wrong with our kids."
The thing that always frustrated me the most about the WS/D-E people I met (and I should edit the entry to add this) is that they talked such a good game. I guess sorta opposite to the ones you encountered, they "got" that it wasn't within a bubble and could speak in such an on-the-money way that you might even get excited. But it all fell flat when it came to understanding themselves and how they contributed with their self-serving ass ways.
I can't believe (in that way that I totally *can* believe) that all the white folks you have worked with fall into these categories. I don't know *why* I would think social services/orgs would be any different from the rest of the world (perhaps skewing liberal, but still). I guess it's that same naivete that has me still a tiny bit surprised that white people who grow up in multiracial families or went to my high school are so friggin' clueless
( ... )
"And that's another thing I don't get-- I bet it's not uncommon for these places to do "racial sensitivity training" or whatever, but I guess it doesn't stick."
It's a few things: 1. Some are scared too death of even having a "racial sensitivity" training and do all they can to make it not happen
( ... )
Man, I hate to be like this, but the picture that just flashed into my mind was a bunch of foxes teaching hens how to hatch their own eggs and raise they own chicks.
Oh my fuckin god, Jonathan!! LOL Yes, everyone please be aware that this entry could not have been made without Jon's *extensive* contribution of the world "assimilation."
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Reminds me of the couple I worked for @ the Real Estate company. They started off as DE, then WS and it disintegrated into M. ("Sure I'll take your laptop and self-help books thank you very much but you could have just given me a raise!! You want me to do what for free?!?")
Your posts are like cardio+core training for my mind.
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Aaawww. Yay! But sad times that other fields have these same personalities. 'Cause dealing with these fools is a separate job in and of itself.
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...yeah, that's pretty much... for everything.
It never ceases to amaze Pollyanna-me how overwhelmingly white these orgs are. I guess because everyone I know who works for them is of color, and maybe because they typically SERVE POC, but... Erghhh... Y'all *should* write a book.
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No, seriously. We really really should. I could do at least a chapter on WS alone. I know that type WAY too well.
"There's NO analysis at all, so instead they talk about poverty as if it exists in a vacuum or achievement gaps as a catch-all term to sum up everything wrong with our kids."
The thing that always frustrated me the most about the WS/D-E people I met (and I should edit the entry to add this) is that they talked such a good game. I guess sorta opposite to the ones you encountered, they "got" that it wasn't within a bubble and could speak in such an on-the-money way that you might even get excited. But it all fell flat when it came to understanding themselves and how they contributed with their self-serving ass ways.
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It's a few things:
1. Some are scared too death of even having a "racial sensitivity" training and do all they can to make it not happen ( ... )
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Yes, everyone please be aware that this entry could not have been made without Jon's *extensive* contribution of the world "assimilation."
Sorry bastard.
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