Inconvenient Truths and Realities: When I Tell Black People and Women How Little I Earn...

With all due respect Shogun, that's a silly question to ask.

I know we established yesterday that I am apparently more polite and open than a lot of you when it comes to speaking to complete strangers, but no I don't just walk up to random people who I don't know and start speaking about my salary.

I'm talking about people I know, or people who I meet in a public or professional capacity, who ask me questions relating to my work and my financial circumstances. Personally, I'd prefer not to divulge such information, out of shame and a sense of politeness that says 'one should never discuss what one earns', but if someone asks me a question, I feel obliged to answer it.

Funnily enough, I suspect they often end up regretting asking me such questions once they've asked them, or their brains are whirring and trying to come up with a rational justification for how someone who is more educated than them, older than them, more skilled than them, harder-working than them, and who comes from a poorer and less advantaged background than them, can still be doing so badly and without anyone giving them a helping hand, as they seem to be getting.

I think it puts them through a weird sort of cognitive dissonance, albeit one that probably doesn't last terribly long (seeing that most individuals tend to be shallower and less willing to get to grips with their own responsibility, guilt and sense of privilege than I am).

I mean pounds sterling.

So approx. 35K in US dollars.

What's that supposed to mean?

If I am such a massive beneficiary of white and male privilege, and I work harder and do longer hours than my colleagues, and have higher qualifications than many of them, without the privileged socioeconomic background they do (meaning, I had to work harder than them to get those qualifications), why isn't it shocking to you that I'm so low paid?!?

The same wind does now blow on everyone. That's feelgood bullshit designed to cover-up systemic unfairness.

I should add a very important fact that I did not mention in my OP.

I have several mental illnesses, many that were first diagnosed when I was in pre-adolescence.

And thus, I have been the victim on several occasions of abeist discrimination.

Maybe one day, after we've sorted out systemic racism and systemic sexism, we'll move on to tackling systemic ableism, and thus start guaranteeing automatic GOOD jobs to the disabled, they way some companies and institutions now do with POC and women. But I suspect I'll be old, if not dead, by then, and so it won't be much use to me and my life will thus have been wasted.

This guy's Wind philosophy Blows.

I'm not complaining about my salary, period. I'm complaining about my salary compared to other lawyers/people with the same experience, skills and qualifications as me.

The law is still very lucrative, particularly for someone from my lowly background, and I don't even want to be mega-rich. I just want to get by. But I'm barely doing that at present.

I don't want to benefit from white or male privilege. White and male privilege should NOT exist. They're hateful. And I actually understand why we need forms of affirmative action to counterbalance those forms of systemic privilege.

I support affirmative action. I've even voted for it.

But what some people don't understand (I'm not referring to you here), is that there are various other forms of discrimination apart from racism and sexism, and they aren't being considered and addressed.

Also, the biggest beneficiaries of white and male privilege tend to be wealthy and well-connected men from powerful and privileged families. If you're some white boy growing up with a single parent on a council estate or some glorified shack in Appalachia you're probably no better off than many black people and/or women. And if you've got a disability, mental or physical, or you're the victim of some form of abuse, or you're on the LGBTQ spectrum, you've probably got added issues to contend with, even if you're a white male.

I think you understand that. You're a very smart poster. One of the more reliably smart ones here. But I needed to make it clear what the grievance is.

I'm not blaming black people or women. I'm saying that they have been the unfair victims of discrimination. I'm simply saying that they're not necessarily the only ones.

I agree.

But if I'm white, I'm male, I'm educated, I've got decent public people skills (never mind the complete headcase I really am behind-the-scenes, as most of you here are all too well aware), I'm experienced, and so on, I suspect most average people would expect me to be doing well.

Unless I was a complete slacker. And I'm not. I don't even play video games.

I quit a job a while back that was well-paid. It was my first job post-college, and I learned later that I was getting paid more than some of my colleagues who had been working at the place for longer (then again, I had more qualifications than them, I'd been in the specific role longer than them, and I was promoted very early on, by a female boss I hasten to add). Suffice to say, they weren't exactly happy.

But it wasn't the job I wanted. I was well-paid. I liked my colleagues. And I could afford the stuff I wanted. But I hated the industry and what it stood for, and I wanted out, so I quit. Plus, I was studying part-time for the career I did want.

Unfortunately, no-one had ever given me credit for following my integrity and for working hard (i.e. working full-time plus over-time during the week, and attending post-grad school on the weekends), when everyone was slacking during the week/had their weekends off, or were studying full-time (mainly because someone, most likely a relation, was paying for their education).