From time to time I've wondered if I'm racist.
My dad would say, "everyone has prejudices, but if you recognize them and don't let them affect the way you treat people, you're doing better than most people."
But this isn't what I'm talking about. I am starting to believe that the biggest -ism that threatens to make me an -ist is Ageism.
In my job there are a lot of young associates. I've encountered a lot who went straight from undergrad to law school and started at the first since graduating in 2004. Note: This makes them 26 years old. As in, two years older than me, the same age as my boyfriend, and younger than Erica's brother. I was stuck working with one such lawyer last week, into the evening on Friday. She graduated from Bates in 2001. She pronounced "Iroquois," "Ear-rack-waas." She was in charge of telling me what to do and frankly I thought she was too young. And maybe too dumb. But also dumb because she was young. Erica hung out with her friend from high school and his friends, they are 2Ls at NYU. They sit around and play video games and smoke pot and in a little over a year- they will be lawyers. This is silly.
However, one day I will be a lawyer. And granted I'll be 28 instead of 25. Will I be biased against myself? Will I be skeptical of my own competence? Have I been exposed as the raging Agist I am? Um, probably not since I know how to pronounce Iroquois.
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6 comments:
I don't think you're a racist, but you sure do hate Jews!
Well, you just made me feel much better about the fact that I am far and away the youngest person in my office! Thanks Sarah!
Yeah I get the "oh you're 23! You're just a baby. How cute. Look at you in your work clothes, all professional. I can't believe I am talking to a 23 year old!" all the time. It's very annoying. not that i really wish to be older, just more respected...
You know I really wish I was a young proffessional. Instead I am merely a marginally employed assistant JV lacrosse coach at my hometown high school.
I am an anti-ismist... any -isms is bad for the health...100% people fighting in wars just now all over the world are fighting for some -isms...they are stupid. Smart ones are in it just in it for the money...and they're the only one's who know why there are fighting for...
And then there's the other end of the spectrum. I occasionally have to deal with members of our Board of Trustees who are, shall we say, past their prime. The woman I have the most contact cannot grasp the idea of the internet, loses pens the second you hand them to her, and has never addressed me by name. Reflexively, I treat kind of like a kid who is hard of hearing. Never mind the fact that she single-handedly founded a (relatively) successful non-profit and has a masters degree in art history from Yale.
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