A Failure to Grasp Privilege

There are some things that I am hoping Benjamin gets experience at before he goes to college.

One of those things is work experience.  I think he needs to know what it's like to work for other people, to have a boss and a schedule, to respond to the public and co-workers, and to get this experience before he gets involved with college work/study programs and internships.

To do this, he will have to get a job.  He could "pound the pavement" as my mother always urged me.  He could do whatever assertive thing it is that teenagers do to get jobs.  Unfortunately, that's not in his nature.

And I can't complain much.  Because it's not in mine.  Never has been, never will be.

I reflect back on my own early jobs, and I find not my own noble efforts, but the influence of what is now called white privilege.  Every early job I got, I got because my Dad paved the way and used his connections to help me get something.

I don't know if it was simply because he was white.  My Dad was the high school principal.  He was well-liked and well-connected in the community. 

My first job he obtained for my junior year was at Dixie Tool & Dye, where I assisted in the shipping department.  I worked after school for several hours a day.  I wasn't horrible, but I was mediocre at best.  I was slow, and I did make mistakes.  My salary was low and remained low while I was there, about two years until I went off to the University of Michigan.  My replacement was a friend of mine who lived near me, Randy Bloomfield.  In the course of the time that Randy had the job, he nearly tripled the hourly wage.  He was much more competent than I was.

My next job, coming home summers from college, was one my Dad also got for me.  It was working night shift at the Vlasic Pickle Plant.  It was hard work, but I was steady, and I got along well with co-workers.  After two summers there, they offered me a permanent supervisory job if I left college.  That wasn't gonna happen, but it was nice to be wanted.  At that point in my life, I did not realize how rare that kind of acceptance and job success would be for me.

My last summer job was at Saginaw Steering Gear, a GM plant.  That had a high rate of pay.  I accumulated enough money to get my first car.  How id the job itself go?  Well, I lasted the summer.  And then was told that they would never, ever hire me again.

The first time I ever so much as had to interview, it was for a teaching job after I graduated from college.  I can't say that it didn't help that my Dad was so well known throughout the state (he was the head of the Secondary School Principal's Association).  Whatever his connections were, they were not enough to save me in the job itself.  After my first year teaching was complete, I was not asked back for a second year.

After I moved to Georgia, I finally got jobs on my own.  It wasn't easy, and I interviewed poorly for most jobs.  My work history has been mixed.  Not really bad enough to be called an outright failure, but not good enough to rise to levels where I was paid well and could take pride in my accomplishments. 

So, the job process has been torturous for me.  And now I find myself in the same position as my father, where I could use privilege to help my son get a job.  And I'm letting him down big time.  I have no real inside tracks anywhere, and I am still an introvert.

I'll try to straighten out and help him.  It won't be easy, for him or to me.

Anybody got any ideas?