7:15pm December 19, 2011

“Universities teach us to renounce our sense of identification with the poor; they teach us this by mainly ignoring the existence of poor people and by treating us as “other” when we do become the subject of discussion. Universities teach us not to care too much, because it will undermine our professional role. Universities teach that we are separate from where we came from, that we are “qualified” (which suggests our families and peers are not), that we are justified in having power over people, in speaking for the subjects of our study. Universities teach us that we are “too good” to wait tables and clean houses, with the implication that those who do those jobs are “not good enough” to deserve better.”

Megan Lee, Feminism for Real

My dad said that when he first made it to college, they were outright explicit about this. They gave them a speech saying basically that going to college would make them better than other people. As a farmer’s son who mostly wanted to carry on his family’s small farm (with a father who wouldn’t let him if he could help it because he didn’t want my dad to be as poor as he was), he was disgusted and demoralized, which led to him flunking most of his classes.

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