The United States of Anger: The Haves and the Have-Nots of Covid are Going to Collide

~ Laura

From the newsletter

Nearly two years ago, the nation realized that a VERY nasty virus was about to overtake our country, so politicians shutdown all but the most vital services and built portable hospitals in Manhattan. Workers went home, downloaded Zoom, and rearranged their bookshelves. Kids got a permanent snow day. To keep people amused while sequestered in their homes, The New York Times produced chipper little pieces about making sour dough bread and learning how to knit. People got checks from the government and were told to stay at home. It was a scary time, because people were dying, but — let’s be honest — a lot of people enjoyed it, too. 

But not everybody was happy in those hazy days of spring 2020. With my roots in the disability community, I knew how much that group would suffer without schools, therapy, and community support. Mothers had to sooth crying babies and pass Cheerios to toddlers during their morning team Zoom meeting. Seniors, like my parents, went for months without hugging their grandchildren. 

Two years into the pandemic, the battle lines have grown stark. Those who have carried the biggest loads this past two years are exhausted and angry, while others continue to do their jobs remotely from vacation cabins in Vermont. The haves and have-nots are not just economic or racial; the new divisions are between people who are doing okay in this new COVID world and those who are not okay. The anger between these two groups is real and could have lasting political implications.

Because education is my specialty, let me focus for a bit on what I’m seeing going on in schools and with parents and teachers. Schools might be open here in the suburbs, but things are far from normal. Kids aren’t learning, socializing, or existing as they should. With the 2 year anniversary of COVID coming soon, I’m not seeing a way out of this mess.

Schools are struggling to function without low wage workers to substitute their classes and drive their busses. In special education, which has been hit especially hard by staffing issues, classes are more warehouses than places of learning. Students are shell shocked from neglect and isolation. They are behind academically and behaviorally. Rather than additional supports for students to make up for lost time, there are actually fewer supports, because so much budget money has gone to masks, filters, plastic shields, and bonuses for substitute teachers. 

Teachers are angry. Reddit’s chatroom for teachers — r/teachers — has 304,000 members most of whom use the forum to rant about everything from substitute teachers to special education students to low wages. (More about r/teachers in this Yahoo article.) And they hate parents. One post begins, “I love how you become an education expert and a public health expert once you’ve shat out a kid.” Some want to return to remote education and hate being back in the physical classroom. (A reporter recently waded into that angry forum and was trashed by participants.) 

Parents are angry. They are organizing locally and nationally through social media. Two years without schools is killing the middle class. Their kids are a mess. (Check out this super sad high school girl in England talking about how her life has been derailed.) Mask mandates have been super hard for younger kids, who are developing speech disabilities and reading issues without the ability to see people’s mouths. There’s an army of angry moms who are going to be a serious force in the next election. Pay attention to them. 

But not everyone is unhappy. Some people are still living their best lives. If you don’t have a kid whose life is being destroyed, or a job that has become harder in the past two years, then there are other things to think about, other policies to promote. La-la-la, let’s do this forever. I am particularly fond of childless pundits at national newspapers, who pen long opinion pieces that finger-wag at parents and accuse them of having wrong and slightly racist attitudes. I practice self-care and do not read those screeds.

The anger is real. And I feel it, too. My kids have not thrived in the past two years, and nobody seems to care. There are no remedies. No rescue plans. No bailouts. Just a kick in the ass and a good luck. I have friendships that have grown more wobbly in the past year, because I have trouble drinking beers with people who don’t care about kids like mine. I fantasize about selling our house and building a family compound in rural Vermont, where the four of us will make our own artisanal goat cheese. Rather than paying crazy taxes here in Jersey, I’ll pay for private therapists for my son; the boys can work at the farm, rather than doing some horrible entry-level remote job from their bedrooms. Or maybe I’ll stay here and get more involved in advocacy, as I see many other mothers doing. 

What happens when a group of people are angry for a very long time? Then change happens, but it often happens explosively and suddenly; results might not be neat and fair. I would rather we worked through these issues calmly as a nation. The angry side needs to talk openly, not just on twitter and reddit, and the not-angry side better make some concessions soon.

Published by Laura

83 thoughts on “The United States of Anger: The Haves and the Have-Nots of Covid are Going to Collide”

  1. “I fantasize about selling our house and building a family compound in rural Vermont, where the four of us will make our own artisanal goat cheese.”

    Ours is a pottery studio/forge + retreat centre where I can write, my kids can produce art, and we can run classes and retreats a few times a year. (Writing, art, martial arts, meditation.)

    I fall with the front-line people here, I think, but my husband is in the work-from-home-forever category. I agree it’s a bigger and bigger division. I’ve lost a friend who felt that my business should *never open again* because it brings people together physically. (Or at least, not yet, but we would never reopen.)

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  2. “Some people are still living their best lives”

    I feel like I don’t really know anyone in this category. The weight of covid on science academics has been heavy, even among those who don’t have kids. Social relationships have disrupted and travel significantly changed, health has been harder to manage.

    I think many people are seething with anger. I’d interpret part of the dynamic as those who can be financially comfortable while working from home and choose personally when they engage with the world and their dismay about the world not being normal when they engage. Anger over showing vaccine cards, wearing masks, restaurants being slow for lack of staff, . . . . Also, I know, anger at the disruption of schooling, essential services for aging people, people with disabilities, . . . .

    And the people who provide all those services that make life work for those who don’t have to leave their homes to do their work are absolutely seething with anger over the expectations, the low pay, the abuse, . . .

    Some of those services are provided by government employees whose work taxpayers have already paid for, and that has taxpayers seething.

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  3. “What happens when a group of people are angry for a very long time? Then change happens, but it often happens explosively and suddenly; results might not be neat and fair. I would rather we worked through these issues calmly as a nation. The angry side needs to talk openly, not just on twitter and reddit, and the not-angry side better make some concessions soon.”
    I am one of the cozy ones – retired, and in a community where the dominant mindset is, well, preening chatterati. What I see is bewilderment and anger at the voters who failed to elect the clubbable Terry McAuliffe. I see more inclination to shove their teeth down their throats than to really listen to the folks who shifted from Biden votes to Youngkin votes. Yes, does not end well.

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  5. Complicating the situation, there’s a large fraction of the country that’s been living pretty normally since May 2020, with occasional breaks for surges.

    Our kids went remote like almost everybody else March-May 2020 and then our youngest went to in-person therapy starting around June 2020. Pre-vaccines, that was a risk and there were a number of we-had-a-case-in-the-clinic-and-we’re-shutting-down-for-a-day-or-two episodes, but we rolled the dice on it and it was worth it during a summer where there almost no normal summer options for kids. Services and therapy haven’t shut down universally across the country.

    I’m not really angry at anybody, although I am wondering how close to the Nov. 2022 election the Biden administration is going to get before dropping federal mask requirements for planes, buses, ferries, transportation terminals, etc.

    The US has given out 533 million vaccine doses already–where is the off-ramp?

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    1. Well, for me, the off ramp is pretty clearly at something less than 2000/deaths per day, which would be 730,000 deaths per year. But, the omicron surge does seem to be turning around in a wide swathe of the NE and I am hopeful for lower deaths. The data suggesting that individual vaccination & masking is largely protective to the masked, vaccinated individual is promising, too.

      But, I would see masking in public transport as one of the lasts things to go. It’s too bad that there’s so much politicization and I am wondering how we ever ended smoking on airplanes.

      What is your off ramp?

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      1. bj said, “Well, for me, the off ramp is pretty clearly at something less than 2000/deaths per day, which would be 730,000 deaths per year.”

        Can you put a number on how many lives airplane masks are saving? If we don’t know the answer to that question, it’s hard to even have the conversation.

        There’s also the question, how many vaccinated adults’ lives does transportation masking save?

        “What is your off ramp?”

        Now, actually, although on some level, I would like to see Democrats take a beating in November for the policy.

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      2. What kind of evidence would you need to see to have a number of deaths prevented by masking? I’ll give a back of the envelope calculation: A study of adult masking (before omicron) in schools in Germany suggests a four-fold reduction in secondary transmission. So, let me go with 1/4 reduction of cases (there would also be reduced tertiary and further cases). We’d have to have an estimate of how much spread we have in transport (and we don’t), so my next estimate would have to make a guess for that variable (1/4?, that makes the math easy). So, at the peak of delta, w/ 160,000 cases/day, a 1/16 reduction in cases and a CFR of 1% would get us to 100 lives a day saved. 1/4 is a high estimate, but it would take into account tertiary and further cases (i.e the nursing home worker who takes public transport and infects patients where he works).

        How many lives saved do you think would justify requiring masking?

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      3. “Now, . . . ”

        So, that logic here must be that you don’t think masking saves many lives, right? or are you willing to see 2000/deaths per day indefinitely? Before I heard people talk of flu level deaths (100-200 deaths a day) as an off ramp, which to me is reasonable. And, if deaths go up? would that change the response? I do think that we need to be willing to experiment. I also think schools should remain open and that we should treat them like an essential service, like hospitals.

        I’m glad I live in WA state, and that we are still managing the 5th lowest death rate per capita (cumulative). I am happy to keep wearing masks in doors for a while.

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      4. bj said, “CFR of 1% would get us to 100 lives a day saved.”

        CFR is not currently 1%, though. It was, but it’s not now.

        Throw in the fact that all you need to be considered masked is a cloth mask, and you can take mask breaks while eating and drinking–and I have a lot of skepticism about the additional protection that American-style masking provides on planes.

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      5. bj wrote, “So, that logic here must be that you don’t think masking saves many lives, right? or are you willing to see 2000/deaths per day indefinitely? Before I heard people talk of flu level deaths (100-200 deaths a day) as an off ramp, which to me is reasonable.”

        Right. I don’t think cloth masking saves any lives at all, I think surgical masking provides a tiny benefit, and I think that actually effective high quality masks a) are pretty expensive for the general public to use (the Biden administration is giving each American roughly one n95) b) are often counterfeit c) require fitting and training to use effectively and d) are not going to be effective if worn by an unmotivated person (I saw a study that said that a gappy N95 is less effective than a surgical mask) and e) are painful to wear effectively. Plus, it’s an open question how much benefit even effective masking provides vaccinated people. And you also wonder how much additional benefit vaccinated children in particular get from masking…There’s also the question of how safe N95s are for kids.

        My take on masking at this point is that the feds should provide high quality masks to high risk people who want it (which will mean a lot more than one per person per year)…and leave everybody else the heck alone.

        Likewise, there should be a lot more effort poured into boosters for high risk people and more protection for nursing home residents. Also, aside from NYC, there has been little effort to provide isolation for people who need to isolate away from large, dense households. As one of my (very lefty) public health guys says, resources not restrictions!

        Flu level deaths was also my thought in summer 2021, but it doesn’t look realistic anymore.

        2,000 deaths per day is the current mortality peak, driven by a very brief mid-January peak of 800,000+ cases a day. It’s bad, but we’re not going to spend a long time at that peak. Also, I don’t have the numbers at my fingertips, but a very large share of current COVID deaths are among unvaccinated people. It doesn’t make a ton of sense to make huge, perhaps ineffective sacrifices for unvaccinated adults.

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      6. Therapeutics are a big piece of the puzzle.

        We’re in a position right now where we have a number of highly effective therapeutics that can save the vast majority of patients…but we don’t have enough doses.

        In a month or two, we should have much better supplies of the therapeutics, and that would be another opportunity to have the exit ramp conversation.

        It would also be nice, though, if our vaccine wasn’t for a version of COVID from 2 years (and several major variants) ago!

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      7. I disagree about the usefulness of masks and think the current real world evidence supports my view. I will change my mind if the data convinces me otherwise.

        I remember when you accepted flu level deaths as a goal. What numbers now? I also agree that we’re probably seeing a peak, but am looking for a decrease before I rely on that hope.

        I am fortunate that my community is comfortable with public masking. Without mandates, I would try to use services that required vaccines and masks. Am currently avoiding Starbucks because they dropped their vaccine requirement for workers after the Supreme court decision.

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      8. bj said, “I disagree about the usefulness of masks and think the current real world evidence supports my view.”

        I think the recent surge with 400+ cases per day per 100k in a number of strict states demonstrates that community masking is not very effective.

        You’ll notice that the conventional wisdom has been (finally) moving against cloth masks and in the direction of N95s…which are not practical for young children or effective when used by unmotivated and/or unskilled people. There’s a reason why the US public health apparatus was so ambivalent about community masking at the very beginning of the pandemic in the US–they knew the evidence was not good for low quality masks. If high risk or anxious people want to mask effectively of their own free will, by all means, the resources ought to be there for high risk people–but we are in the zone of diminishing returns for required masking.

        “I remember when you accepted flu level deaths as a goal. What numbers now? I also agree that we’re probably seeing a peak, but am looking for a decrease before I rely on that hope.”

        The US has definitely peaked, although not all communities have.

        I really can’t speak to mortality going forward. I think it’s going to be better or not worse going forward because there’s so much immunity in the population, especially with the current wave. One thing that I have noted is that the 1918 flu lasted from Feb. 1918 to April 1920 (around 26 months) as a pandemic. We are in that ballpark right now.

        My question is, do the sacrifices that the authorities have chosen for us make sense anymore? Is there a strong relationship between masking 2-year-olds on transit and in daycares and reducing COVID mortality among unvaccinated adults and frail elderly people? In my opinion, the benefits and the harms are completely out of whack. There’s also the ridiculousness and hypocrisy of strictly masking toddlers and preschoolers while unmasked adults hit the bars and restaurants in the same communities.

        “I am fortunate that my community is comfortable with public masking. Without mandates, I would try to use services that required vaccines and masks. Am currently avoiding Starbucks because they dropped their vaccine requirement for workers after the Supreme court decision.”

        Omicron transmits very readily from vaccinated people. That’s got to be at least part of why they dropped the requirement–the public health argument for vaccine mandates has been destroyed by people’s experiences with Omicron.

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  6. “I fantasize about selling our house and building a family compound in rural Vermont, where the four of us will make our own artisanal goat cheese.”

    Not Vermont, right? which comes out at #3 on the total tax burden charts (even higher than NJ, at #7) (though individual burdens might vary). New Hampshire, maybe? (#46), if the goal is to deploy saved tax dollars personally. But, that means you think you can pay for the services you desire with those savings.

    I am considering becoming even more of a hermit, but I haven’t figured out what my hermitage would require.

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  7. I’m also seeing fear as a significant factor.
    And neither fear nor anger are rational emotions. Or, rather, experiencing either tends to disengage the rational part of the brain.

    Fear, from those who believe that their lives are at serious/imminent risk from Covid – and then anger expressed that those they perceive are acting ‘selfishly’ which increases their potential risk.

    And also fear from those who see their livelihoods destroyed (just about anyone involved in tourism or hospitality, here), or families split apart (heart-rending stories of mothers separated from toddlers for more than 2 years, children not able to bid farewell to a dying parent, dying people not able to come home to be with family, etc), or health and education issues ignored (many school children, just about anyone with an urgent health condition), or seeing treasured freedoms infringed or removed.
    And that fear also flashes into anger – expressed at those who are perceived as sitting smugly at home, with nothing to lose.

    Both sides simply cherry-pick from the reported science to support their position. Neither has any possibility of convincing the other – because neither fear nor anger can be reasoned with. Both regard the other as wilfully ignoring the ‘evidence’.

    People have talked about existing divisions in society becoming greater. But I’m also seeing divisions which *weren’t* significant, becoming major (within families, workplaces and society in general).
    A hardening of attitudes. Where, if you don’t agree with me, then I’m going to just shut you out of my life, at a personal level. With people being fired over vaccine mandates, or teens being excluded from social activities. And different ‘camps’ openly expressing hatred towards each other.

    I do wonder (as a historian) if this is the same sort of social environment that we see during wars – with little tolerance towards a differing opinion, and little or no nuances in understanding of the situation.

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    1. I’ve been thinking about the war comparison, too. Spent a bit of time reading about WW2 in the US, in which 500,000 Americans died. There was certainly opportunism (i.e. profit taking by test manufacturers, draft avoidance, . . .) and there must have been dissent (though I think we’ve suppressed the reporting of the dissent).

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      1. Right now in NZ (or at least ‘now’ before Covid) there’s been a lot of revisionist history about Conscientious Objectors in WW1. These were men who refused to be conscripted into the army and were subsequently sent to prison camps

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  8. Darn, it – I hate it when that happens. Hit the send button accidentally.

    Rest of the story….

    WW2 as well.

    There was a *lot* of societal hatred expressed towards them. From families who had had ‘their’ men go off to war – and especially from those families whose soldiers had been killed.

    There was lots of understanding about people like Quakers (whose religion specifically forbids them from fighting) – and who typically volunteered for ambulance corps (which was often a lot more dangerous than actually being in the trenches)

    But the association of ‘Conshies’ with ‘Cowards’ was really strong.

    Now that the majority of people directly affected have passed on – it seems as though society is willing to examine this and judge them in a more nuanced way.

    However, the left-leaning liberal historians I know, get really irate when I compare some of the anti-vax protesters with the conscientious objectors…..

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  9. Who is happy? Who’s benefiting from the status quo? Qui bono? That’s always the ultimate pol sci question and one that I avoided in this piece, because I didn’t want to deal with the backlash. But let me be a little less cowardly in the comment section.

    Who benefits? People like my husband. If we were childless, we would absolutely be winning right now. He’s a mid-level worker who doesn’t crave a whole lot of social interaction. He gained 3 hours a day by not having a commute. That’s 15 hours a week, almost another full day per week. That’s huge. His job transferred to home without a hitch, because it mostly happened on the computer anyway. He started going back two days in November, but the omicron shut everything down and he’s full remote again. I think he’ll go back 3 days a week in February.

    I know friends, who never really liked teaching anyway and who haven’t lived in the same state as their college in two years.

    I know people who are far on the on the anti-social side of the socialization spectrum, so being alone doesn’t hurt.

    There are people who have bought their way out of the problems that are plaguing kids like mine in public schools. Their kids are old enough to mostly ignore the covid rules after school and are socializing like normal. Their sports and clubs are still operational (all the disabled stuff closed down). Their lives haven’t changed much, except for the use of a Old Navy face masks.

    What do I want? Well, my college kid needs administrators and professors to know his name and to send him emails to check on his well being. He needs hope for a job when he graduates. He’s been told that his gender and skin color will be a major barrier to employment. My autistic kid needs an education, desperately. He need social activities. He’s rotting at home and at a school program where he plays video games for five hours a day, because they can’t get a program off the ground. All the federal money for education? Not one cent made it to my kid. Not one. I am in the process of fighting to get him one extra hour of reading tutoring. They are torturing him with tests because they really, really don’t want to give him an hour of reading per week. I could go on and on. Things are very bad here. Lawyers are chewing through our vacation money right now. I need to get my kids on the right path, so I can get a proper job.

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    1. Laura wrote, “They are torturing him with tests because they really, really don’t want to give him an hour of reading per week.”

      Oh my goodness!

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    2. The other sector of society that really benefits from lockdowns is older people.
      Generalizing here, but: Already living a more socially restricted life (yes go out to local restaurants, but not going to mass gatherings – apart from church) – so social gathering limits have a much less serious impact; Have a guaranteed income which is unaffected by lockdowns (pension, savings, etc.); Not working, so not impacted by the massive disruption that businesses are facing. And they are, by a long way, the group which is most in danger from Covid.

      Yes, some of them are affected by not seeing family. But they tend to see this as their ‘sacrifice’ and fail to realize that the rest of society is making far larger sacrifices, primarily for their benefit.

      And, they, by far, are the group most likely to be complaining about services not being up to par, when they venture out of isolation.

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      1. This is an interesting question, whether retired people (older people?) approve the COVID restrictions (mask mandates, vaccine requirements, etc). My quick search of mask mandate polling suggests that as of December at least, there was fairly widespread support of mask mandates (70% in a FOX poll, 80% in a NewsNation poll, even while people say the pandemic is not their most important concern); Also support of the vaccine and teacher and student masking

        Intriguing, because I was buying into the idea that there was widespread opposition; I guess as with many other issues there are probably significant divides among different regions and different groups of Americans, potentially in ways where the majority will does not determine political deecision making.

        I can imagine that retired adults would be less troubled by lockdowns (which we simply don’t have in the US and haven’t for quite a while, and certainly not anything that resembles lockdowns in other countries).

        But older Americans are a significant group who requires care.

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    3. It seems to me that some conflicting interests have been laid bare: teachers who are enjoying the bunny slipper commute benefit, the kids lose out, parents who had a cozy expectation that the teachers were basically on their side have reassessed their views. Lots of office workers like your husband benefit. Retirees are doing fine, those who provide them with inhome services not so much. And this leads to looking for one’s champion in the political sphere, and there are more parents who are inclined to blow up the cozy union-school board alliance than there were.

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      1. I really don’t know any teachers who are enjoying the bunny slipper commute, though I know some exist on the internet. I do think there are teachers who are appreciating a more relaxed attitude towards evaluating students and the opportunity to teach topics without tests in mind and that some (parents, but also others) are pointing out that this attitude might result in children being left without skills they need learn, work, and thrive.

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    4. “He’s been told that his gender and skin color will be a major barrier to employment.”

      If an employer has directly told him that his gender and skin color will be a major barrier to employment, you should gather receipts and out the employer. There’s definitely a story there.

      Usually, experiments find significant discrimination against Blacks:

      From Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-truth-about-anti-white-discrimination/

      “Consider an experiment by sociologist Devah Pager, who sent pairs of experimenters—one black and one white—to apply for 340 job ads in New York City. She gave them resumes doctored to have identical qualifications. She gave them scripts so that the applicants said the same things when handing in their applications. She even dressed them alike. She found that black applicants got half the call backs that white applicants got with the same qualifications.”

      The Scientific American article says a meta-analysis of such studies showed “Across two dozen studies, black applicants were called back 36 percent less than whites with the same qualifications. Not a single study found a reliable anti-white bias. Most sobering of all, the rate of discrimination is the same today [2009] as in the 1980’s.”

      It would be worth knowing if for a subclass (white, male, college graduates in a particular field of study) discrimination had changed in the last five years since the meta-analysis was done.

      I met someone at a party who ran an experiment himself, sending his resume to companies here in my liberal city with a black name and a white name; he got callbacks when he used the white name, but not with the black name. In spite of my knowledge of the studies, I was still naive enough to be shocked that the effect was appearing in my liberal city, with people I know in charge of the hiring.

      The Scientific American article also cites a study ((Norton and Summers, “Whites See Racism as a Zero-Sum Game That They Are Now Losing”) that shows both Whites and Blacks seeing anti-Black bias decreasing from the 1950s to the 2000s, but with Whites perceiving a concomitant increase in anti-White racism, to the point that by 2000 Whites thought there was more anti-White bias than anti-Black bias. So, hearing a White person say that a white male faces major barriers would be in line with those perceptions, but I see little formal evidence of discrimination against white males in the literature I follow.

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      1. Race is always a difficult topic to engage on, but in light of your willing to say what is on your mind, I do feel a need to respond though I think it is probably the issue on which I diverge most significantly from at least some of your more casual comments.

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      2. BTW the assessments of bias were done in 2000 — Whites and Blacks thought there was substantial bias against Blacks in the 50s when asked now, not in the 50s.

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    5. “I asked the question because I fit in many of those categories and am still can’t imagine saying I’m happy. Of course there’s the problem of the people I care about who are certainly not happy (even if they are doing OK), but even personally, I’m not happy. Certainly everyone is not equally unhappy or affected, but I don’t think very many people are happy. Am I benefiting from the status quo? (I love hearing that is a default political science question) I really don’t think so, though I am not being damaged by it as much as others. Incidentally, “who is benefiting from the status quo?” is also a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) question, though usually asked as “who is benefiting from our current systems?”

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      1. It’s often a shock when kids who are told “major in engineering/comp sci/business and you’ll have no trouble being employed” have to land that first job. Suddenly good grades don’t matter (to a point – a terrible gpa can cause issues but often the corporate world only cares that your gpa is decent.) You have no network. Your interview skills are undeveloped or you’ve been counseled by out of touch career center workers. It CAN take a while.

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      2. Marianne said, “It’s often a shock when kids who are told “major in engineering/comp sci/business and you’ll have no trouble being employed” have to land that first job. Suddenly good grades don’t matter (to a point – a terrible gpa can cause issues but often the corporate world only cares that your gpa is decent.) You have no network. Your interview skills are undeveloped or you’ve been counseled by out of touch career center workers. It CAN take a while.”

        Yeah.

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      3. I’ve been thinking about how to get our (not super social) math BS college daughter career-ready, and I feel pretty skeptical that the college career center is going to have much to offer her. I think we have to talk to the math dept. people and ask them how and where graduates are getting jobs.

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    6. He’s been told that his gender and skin color will be a major barrier to employment.

      Been told by whom? Tucker Carlson? I am involved with hiring for my employer and I assure you that we are hiring quite a few white dudes. If you have the skills we need then this is no impediment.

      I am old enough, though, to remember a time when mediocre white guys with no real skills were able to fall into jobs through networking and personality. It could very well be that that demographic is having a harder time of it but I don’t really care a finger snap for such people in the first place so whatever.

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  10. bj,

    The threading was getting hard, so I’ll drop this here.

    If you look at France (which has been a lot more restrictive than us in some ways and has given 1st doses to 80% of their population), their CFR is pretty low, but they are still experiencing mortality that would be the equivalent of more than 1,000 deaths a day in the US.

    The UK is at 78% 1st doses and their mortality is also running the equivalent of about 1,000 deaths a day in the US.

    I think the US can get its COVID mortality lower than the current 2,000 a day…but unless Omicron has gifted us bullet-proof immunity, or until the therapeutics come through for us, flu-level mortality is not in reach yet.

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    1. That is a point of view, that you think mitigation measures are ineffective enough and onerous enough that we need to tolerate substantial deaths; in the longer run that might be true, biology, virology, and epidemiology are all messy and we can’t predict outcomes even simply from a scientific point of view (even without considering culture and society and what we are willing to do). I’m not ready to concede that our mitigation measures (including masking, which I conclude from the studies has a clear and measurable impact, though not necessarily proven in every situation in which we currently require them and vaccination are useful mitigation measures),

      I might end up with an off ramp at what i would consider unacceptable levels of deaths if we find that the majority of deaths are among the voluntarily un-vaccinated (i.e. accept that some people want to live free or die according to their own rules). The epidemiological problem with that choice is that every infection provides a host for the virus to evolve; it’s a reason why world wide vaccination is necessary to control viruses. But, we may have no other choice. We don’t have the power (and I do not desire to have the power) to approve mandates that go against the will of the people, even if it means people die.

      The Economist reported on an analysis of the effect of vaccine requirements: Different Canadian provinces enacted mandates at different times (including mandates to use public services) and the authors analyzed the effect of those “natural experiments”. The mandates increased vaccination compared to predictions without the mandate, substantially. Another paper examined effects of requiring evidence of vaccination in Europe and estimated that they saved 6400 lives and $11.2 billion.

      I believe in data and would believe evidence that convinced me that masks weren’t an effective mitigation (and, in real life conditions, with a very transmittable virus, they could stop being so, even if they were in earlier steps in the pandemic,); I will continue looking at the evidence and updating my opinions and hope people keep doing the studies.

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      1. bj said, “That is a point of view, that you think mitigation measures are ineffective enough and onerous enough that we need to tolerate substantial deaths.”

        It’s not a question of “tolerating” substantial deaths as much as accepting reality. Until natural immunity is high enough and/or until therapeutics come online in large quantities and the public health people figure out how to get them into sick people in time, we are going to have substantial deaths. France is having 360,000 new cases a day and substantial deaths with 80% vaccination rates and strict use of vaccine passports. (Their reported cases would be the equivalent of something like 1.8 million cases a day in the US.)

        In happier news, two of my unvaccinated 70ish relatives got sick, dillydallyed a long time, felt really bad, finally went to ER, tested positive for Omicron, and then got given the monoclonal antibodies that work for Omicron. They seem to be doing fine now, despite one of them being pretty vulnerable and making a lot of questionable choices. We may be closer than we think to the end of COVID as a mass killer.

        “I might end up with an off ramp at what i would consider unacceptable levels of deaths if we find that the majority of deaths are among the voluntarily un-vaccinated.”

        We’re probably there right now.

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    2. I’ve been thinking about how to get our (not super social) math BS college daughter career-ready, and I feel pretty skeptical that the college career center is going to have much to offer her. I think we have to talk to the math dept. people and ask them how and where graduates are getting jobs.

      The career center may be better than you realize; however, speaking with professors is a great idea. Recent alums should be happy to speak with her (likely they’re getting referral bonuses). Most college math clubs invite speakers for recruiting/education. That’s where I learned about my profession.

      I’d be shocked if a math major with a 3.0 or higher couldn’t get a good job, but communication skills are the stand out. And not the super social kind but a professional email, following up, asking questions…

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      1. I’d be shocked if a math major with a 3.0 or higher couldn’t get a good job, but communication skills are the stand out. And not the super social kind but a professional email, following up, asking questions…

        It has never been a better time to graduate with a math degree. Just slap some version of “data science” on your cv, learn some coding, and acquire some veneer of interest and experience and you are good to go.

        The “learn some coding” (and at least feign some interest in it) is crucial. If you ignore that step then the number of employers that will take you seriously these days in any sort of data-related field rapidly approaches zero.

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      2. Yeah, a friend’s kid is graduating from SUNY Bing with a math degree. She was hired last week for a full time job after graduation and able to negotiate her start time until after a trip to Europe after graduation.

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      3. Lee Silverberg wrote, “The career center may be better than you realize; however, speaking with professors is a great idea.”

        That sounds good.

        “I’d be shocked if a math major with a 3.0 or higher couldn’t get a good job, but communication skills are the stand out. And not the super social kind but a professional email, following up, asking questions…”

        The college kid is a sophomore and currently has a 4.0…but she really, really hates talking and communicating with people. We’re hoping that she will get more relaxed about it as time goes by and she gets more practice.

        Jay wrote, “It has never been a better time to graduate with a math degree. Just slap some version of “data science” on your cv, learn some coding, and acquire some veneer of interest and experience and you are good to go.”

        Hee! I am not a STEM person myself, but I was going through the math course offerings and even I could see the shared territory with computer science.

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  11. Re: white dudes out college Facing barriers to employment.

    Jonah hasn’t hit the job market yet, so doesn’t have any personal experiences. However, his former classmates in high school and college are coming back with stories. I know a 4.0 engineering student who hasn’t found a job. A 4.0 business student can’t get an internship. They have been told that their demographics are an issue. There’s not a whole lot of good jobs for high flying college grads right now. So, that is making the competition fierce. Lots of anger in that group.

    Also, I’m hearing from people in mid level positions in big businesses in Manhattan that they are under a ton of pressure to diversify. Fair enough. But they are doing all the diversity hires for the entry level position. They are telling me that if given identical resumes, they will always chose the POC or have to explain themselves to HR.

    Is my information scientific? Hell no. It’s not even basic level journalism. But I’m hearing lots of chatter about this. Worth a mention deep in a comment section.

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    1. I know a 4.0 engineering student who hasn’t found a job. A 4.0 business student can’t get an internship.

      I can’t speak to the business student. I don’t really consider business degrees real degrees and I don’t care how much they struggle on the job market. Certainly I can see someone getting all A’s in fluff “marketing” courses and business “calculus” and not having any sort of real, tangible, useful education, either in terms of specific skills or more general things such as an ability to write, read for content, or think critically.

      But the engineering students I know who did well aren’t having any sort of trouble landing work. And the ones I know are predominately of the white dude variety.

      It is more plausible that in the case of *identical resumes* the tie these days is going to the POC. And this is especially the case where the jobs have nebulous skill requirements. But so what? If you want to be hired you need to give the hiring manager something to make an argument on your behalf. This speaks to what I said before, which is that white dudebros previously coasted into certain jobs on the basis of a B+ average, a certain personality, and the right friends. Now they are having to compete for that which they previously got for free and they are overly whining about it.

      My sympathy, zero. The rules are different now. Adapt or die. My message to my two (white) sons is that there is no more free lunch and they are going to have to earn everything they get. I don’t think that message has been sufficiently internalized elsewhere. Certainly, from what I am seeing in the real world, the white dudes who are actually achieving tangible things are doing just fine.

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      1. Jay – I am often struck by your comments about college students that you seem to have real hate and disgust for a whole lot of students at your college, particularly those who aren’t A students in STEM. If a business degree is worthless, shouldn’t you be fighting with administrators to shut down the major which is effectively stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from students for what you are telling me is a worthless piece of paper. The students are real people, who have been ripped off by your institution. Instead of being mad at your university, you are disgusted with the students for being suckered into getting this degree.

        You are likewise dismissive of students who have less than a perfect grade average. If they get a BA from your college, it is worthless without the perfect GPA. So, again… why aren’t you mad at your college for taking money from these poor saps? If the BA is worthless without a perfect GPA, then your college shouldn’t be giving out those degrees and charging students hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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      2. ” If a business degree is worthless, shouldn’t you be fighting with administrators to shut down the major which is effectively stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from students for what you are telling me is a worthless piece of paper. ”

        Well, that’s not the way things work, at least at my university. I’d be out of a job if I tried that. 😀 But I was on the phone with a few people in our business program in the last week or so and their enrollment is going down so badly. I’m not really sure why, but since they are the business people, I’ll let them figure out why they can’t sell their product.

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      3. I am often struck by your comments about college students that you seem to have real hate and disgust for a whole lot of students at your college, particularly those who aren’t A students in STEM.

        Well, I left academia quite a while ago so whatever my attitude towards some students (which I wouldn’t characterize as “hate” or “disgust”) they are not students I am paid to prepare for life (aside from a few stints when I adjuncted to scratch the college teaching itch). When I was in academia I was happy to be teaching at a liberal arts college with no business school so even then the dean would have been quite confused if I had gone into his office to have the conversation you suggest.

        My oldest son is going to college this year and while I did not direct him where to apply and one of the schools he could have gone to is our flagship state school (with a business college) I am overjoyed that he is going to a school with no adjuncts, no business school, and no fraternities. He will not be majoring, in all probability, in a non-STEM field, so I have clearly gotten past whatever bias I had there. To the extent that I am biased towards STEM degrees, it is because that is the world I live in and am familiar with and my observation that the students majoring in these subjects seem to have no trouble getting jobs, with us or elsewhere.

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      4. “He will not be majoring, in all probability, in a non-STEM field, so I have clearly gotten past whatever bias I had there.

        Sorry, typo. He *will* be studying a non-STEM field.

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      6. FWIW I am also not a fan of business schools, fraternities, or universities that rely on adjuncts. If we had a do-over, I would have sent Jonah to a small private that was probably a step below his abilities, so he could have gotten grants. He needed more attention and support than he’s gotten at his flagship college with its transient faculty. The pandemic made a mediocre situation into a nightmare. Nobody should be doing their senior seminar in zoom. So depressing.

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    2. “They have been told that their demographics are an issue. ”

      Like Jay, I wonder WHO told them this.

      If it’s potential employers, they should be sued/whatever actions one takes in cases of employment discrimination. But obviously, it’s not employers, who generally know better than to say things like that out loud.

      Maybe it’s advisors or career services staff, in which case they should also be reported/sued/fired. They’re making excuses for their own failures to prepare students for interviews. And these days, blaming brown people is a surefire winning excuse. Most people will fall for it, but I am surprised you seem to believe this.

      (Also like Jay, I am skeptical of business degrees, except when they’re my students getting them, in which case I wholeheartedly support them. 😀 )

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      1. Yeah, you are wrong about employers not saying it. We live in a community with lots of people who are in middle to high level positions at major businesses and institutions in NYC; they are responsible for hiring young people for entry level positions. Give them one beer and they’ll tell you that demographics pays a big role – but not the only one — in their hiring decisions.

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  12. See my comment to Jay above about business degrees.

    White boys, who are recent college graduates, are at a disadvantage on the job market in the NYC area, for large businesses or corporations. I know enough people who hire for positions in those fields who tell me — off-the-record, of course — that they are under pressure to hire POC. Like I said, that might be fair to rectify years of injustice, but tell that to jobless 22-year old. IDK, I think a lot of young people are going to move to red states to get jobs. Between the fact that their school didn’t close and the massive breakdown of life in cities like NYC, there’s going to be a massive exodus from areas like here.

    Like I said, this is just low level buzz. Not worthy of even a blog post, just a buried comment in a blog thread.

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    1. “White boys, who are recent college graduates, are at a disadvantage on the job market in the NYC area, for large businesses or corporations”

      If that were true (and not just that white people are saying it to other white people after a few beers), I want to see the data, as Temple Grandin said in her NY Times interview (she cited the resume studies, which she found shocking and fascinating). In the redline in the interview, a 2021 resume study that shows discrimination against black-named applicants is cited (the article suggests that 10 resumes may be able to detect bias by individual companies). And, I said in my previous comment, there is no evidence in support of bias against white men.

      The fact that white people are saying this to a bunch of other white people after a couple of drinks doesn’t mean its actually happening and is in just as much in alignment with the increasing belief by whites that there’s more bias against whites than blacks than that bias is actually happening in those firms.

      For example, are less than 17% the entry level folks at New York finance firms going to be White males? (Rutgers is 35% white, 50% male, so 17% White male). Maybe they are seeing bias because there are only 17 white men and they’re not used to that?

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    2. I know enough people who hire for positions in those fields who tell me — off-the-record, of course — that they are under pressure to hire POC. Like I said, that might be fair to rectify years of injustice, but tell that to jobless 22-year old. IDK, I think a lot of young people are going to move to red states to get jobs.

      Like I said before, we are hiring tons of white men at the entry level. Deservedly. And I live in one of the bluest of blue states. White men with actual employable skills are having no trouble on the market. If there are any who are struggling (and like bj said, show me the data) it is the ones who went to college for the parties and the football games and are not coasting into the jobs that they would have previously based on their social class and personality. Color me not that sympathetic to that demographic.

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    3. I wonder if this is a difference between New York and “real America.” Out here in “real America,” there’s still plenty of bias against non-whites. I bet if Jonah had shown up at a restaurant anywhere within a 100 mile radius of me he would have gotten a job in an instant over one of my black male students, because employers and customers would have been more “comfortable” with him. I suspect this is true of most jobs in this area, though this is just a guess (based on what my students say; and they are sweet! just great kids. The continued bias is heartbreaking).

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  13. “They’re making excuses for their own failures to prepare students for interviews. And these days, blaming brown people is a surefire winning excuse.”

    And, the employers are giving an easier excuse than the talking about the qualifications of the applicants (and their weakening power in making their own hiring decisions based on who they know).

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  14. There was buzz like this going around about getting into the International Baccalaureate program at my local high school. When my son got old enough to apply, I looked at the process and I have to tell you…in that particular case, the reason all the spots were going to ‘diverse’ (read: non-white) students is that those kids were working 10 times harder than my kid, taking extra language classes and getting 98% averages. I had that moment where I was like “I have not prepared my kid!” But he’s fine.

    In Canada it does help that we have health insurance and tuition is not yet completely nuts. I would like more places for average people and less reliance on internships and stuff.

    But…I get the feeling. My (talented, hard-working artist of a) son is applying for an internship with a prestigious streaming service that kinda rhymes with magnetics. I *hope* he is lucky enough to have his resume down to the final decision, and as his mom I hope he gets it. But the streaming service does need other voices and he will have other pathways to success, even if it means teaching or a non-arts job and doing his work on the side, as so many people have done before him.

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    1. No way to make it up to the chemistry PhDs who spent their working lives as Pullman porters because Black. Nor is there any obvious justice to screwing the perfectly benign White kids graduating today as a mechanism for redress. Targeting of race preferences to other than the descendants of enslaved is pretty imprecise. I like John Roberts’ “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” – but I am aware, easy for me to say.

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      1. It’s definitely not that easy to just “stop discriminating on the basis of race.” I supervised a master’s thesis written by an Army captain on advancement in the military, and the military does a fabulous job of equal treatment up to a certain, pretty high rank. Then it gets trickier, because part of succeeding is social and all sorts of other non-quantifiable things. (Even so, the military does a better job than most.) But in any job where it’s not just, take this test and see how high your score is, there are so many other factors at stake. And there’s also the “did you start on third base” question: if person A is “more professional” than person B, does that mean that person A should get hired because they have greater potential to be professional? Or as they as professional as they’re going to get?

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      2. “Targeting of race preferences to other than the descendants of enslaved is pretty imprecise. I like John Roberts’ “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” – but I am aware, easy for me to say.”

        Well… I think my perspective on this comes largely from having worked in media and in classical music. In both of those contexts, there’s been a lot of ‘sameness’ because the stories told and covered and the music performed (and performers given access to top-tier training) have been predominantly mainstream, white perspectives. Certainly when I was working in media, at the time, we would have said that we were trying to be diverse but…we only had a few people of colour at the table and frankly, we failed over and over. If I have any big regrets about my career other than that it wasn’t a great match for the last 3 years, it’s that it took me a long time to come to that understanding. Really only in the last two years was I working to boost up the suuuuper talented people around me who were facing systemic barriers.

        At that time the way in to magazine publishing (now a kind of dead thing anyway, especially in Canada) was often via unpaid internships, and also masters degrees in journalism. (I came in via the digital side door that opened briefly.)

        I’m good with flipping that for a while, because you can’t get people up the ladder without getting them onto the rungs, and so it’s a transition period.

        Business-wise…where I live (east Toronto), we are a minority in my kids’ schools, so if media outlets, streaming media, music schools, etc. want to stay relevant, they are going to need people on the team who know what the customers want.

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      1. Didn’t have a chance to look at the study, but the pressure to hire POC is really new. Just in the past year or two. If this study isn’t based on data since 2019, then it doesn’t capture what’s going on right now. And it may entirely be a NYC thing. All I know is that managers are telling that there is pressure and that people are counting numbers of new applicants and background.

        Also, the secondary point is that whether or not if it is true, people believe it. And that’s fueling anger (which is the main point of this point). Anger doesn’t have to be based on a real truth, just a perception of a truth. And anger, even misplaced anger, can have a huge impact on elections.

        Just talking about this stuff with a friend. We think the Dems are in trouble. I see a backlash brewing. It won’t be MAGA types. The backlash is going to come from people in my backyard. They’ll flip states in 2024. Harris doesn’t stand a chance.

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      2. And anger, even misplaced anger, can have a huge impact on elections.

        It’s true that “shut up and stop whining” wins few, if no, arguments. But that doesn’t mean that it is never the advice most grounded in reality.

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      3. “We think the Dems are in trouble. I see a backlash brewing. It won’t be MAGA types. The backlash is going to come from people in my backyard. They’ll flip states in 2024.” Exactly right that what people THINK is happening will have a lot more impact on votes than whatever is happening. Laura, your state almost elected a Reep for governor this last November – mine actually did – and my guess is that if the Congressional election were held tomorrow here the Dems would do poorly.
        It’s a moving target, each party is trying very hard to come up with some story which will cement its advantage before November. I live in a very Dem town, we are all kind of bewildered as we look out beyond the Beltway, but at the moment, here, it looks like it’s the Reeps who have the wind at their backs.

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      4. Also, the secondary point is that whether or not if it is true, people believe it. And that’s fueling anger (which is the main point of this point).

        I do have to admit that it shouldn’t surprise me by now, but I am constantly amazed at how upper middle class parents and kids, by all measure among society’s winners, consistently find ways to deem themselves victims.

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      5. I’m simply not willing to make decisions on whether to move forward on full inclusion and representation and equality for all Americans based on the effect it will have on elections. And, if people are being racist, or biased, I am going to tell them so, even if it loses votes. I’ll do it with data and grace and the hope that minds can be changed and that people can learn. But, silence is not an option.

        If truth loses elections, it will be a cost we’ll pay going forward, just like the civil war was an enormous cost to end slavery and the loss of the South was a result of forward movement on civil rights.

        “First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” MLK

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  15. https://mobile.twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1485695982117425153

    Apologies, as I’m not caught up with the thread, but I wanted to share this chart that Eric Topol posted. It’s weekly COVID death rates for different populations for the week of Dec. 4: 9.74 unvaccinated deaths per 100k population, 0.71 for fully vaccinated, and 0.1 for fully vaccinated plus booster.

    I feel like that’s pretty relevant to the question of how hard we should be going with mitigation from now on.

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    1. This is also being messaged in WA, with >90% of the people in hospitals being unvaccinated. I think the health care workers are seething, too, at that, that the people wouldn’t be there if not for being unvaccinated. Hospitals? I’m less sure about after having heard an NPR report about how they are paid for procedures and have optimized their revenue for that model.

      I do agree that the omicron surge ending & vaccination being personally protective change what can be mandated. But, I want masks on planes, and don’t see why they are more significant than seat belts on planes. Really, how many lives do seat belts save? I’m sure masks save more lives than airplane seatbelts.

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      1. bj said, ” I’m sure masks save more lives than airplane seatbelts.”

        I’m pretty sure that masking 2-year-olds and bigger autistic kids with sensory issues on planes isn’t worth it.

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      3. bj said, “But, they’re willing to wear seatbelts?”

        With a 2-year-old, you can just wrestle them into the car seat, snap them into their 5-point harness, and then you’re good.

        A mask requires ongoing cooperation.

        And yes, I have had trouble with one of my bigger high-functioning autistic kids staying well-belted in in the car. This kid had a tendency (even during the early elementary years) to flop in the seat so that the shoulder belt wasn’t actually protective but was more of a neck belt. When I was driving the car and the kid was in the row of seats behind me, it wasn’t something I had a lot of control over or really even see most of the time.

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      4. Speaking from the hermit kingdom, where the chances of me flying ever again seem to be somewhere between fat and slim.

        But, in order to be at all useful, people would have to wear masks consistently and effectively the entire time they are on the plane.

        Compare this to seatbelt use, where you are required to belt up when taking off and landing, and at selected other times if the pilot encounters dangerous conditions. People know that at those times they are at higher risk of injury (being bounced around a plane is no fun)
        The rest of the time, you are free to unbuckle your seat belt – and even move around the plane.
        Technically, it would be safer if everyone was belted at all times on the plane – but the increase in safety doesn’t outweigh the increase in inconvenience.

        Mask usage is already ineffective. Unlike a seatbelt which is either on or off (with very minor variations) – a mask can be worn in a way which is completely ineffective (gaps in the sides, low grade fabric mask, etc.)

        If people are removing masks to eat (as they do on long-haul flights) – there is pretty close to zero benefit in remaining masked the rest of the time. One person on the flight with Omicron, will have had the opportunity to infect the whole of the plane, during the time it takes to eat their dinner.

        It seems to be very easy to get mask exemptions. But, unfortunately, you don’t get a Covid exemption along with it 😉 So some people will not be masked, whatever the ‘regulations’ (unlike seatbelts, for which there are *no* exemptions). And, even people who don’t have an exemption (but don’t believe in masks being effective) have strong motivation to wear them incorrectly (but more comfortably).

        If you are flying (or travelling by bus, for that matter), you’re choosing to increase your risk – being in close confinement with a cohort of strangers for an extended period. Mask-wearing (infrequent, inadequate and optional) does little to reduce that risk. Choosing, youself, to wear a high-grade, well-fitted mask, that you don’t remove *may* increase your protection. But that’s entirely up to you.

        And, finally, it’s completely counter-productive to issue instructions which you know a significant proportion of the population won’t follow (never give an order you know won’t be obeyed)
        We see that here – where mask-wearing on buses has been ‘mandatory’ for over a year – and is regularly flouted – with zero consequences.

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      5. AmyP said: “I’m pretty sure that masking 2-year-olds and bigger autistic kids with sensory issues on planes isn’t worth it.”

        One of our talking head scientists here has just come out with a call for the 2+ age group to be masked at day-care (and all other ECE centres).
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-outbreak-should-we-be-masking-2-year-olds/FXVGXJCNE76RNK4PCA5OPMXH4I/?c_id=1&objectid=12500609&ref=rss

        Feel profoundly convinced that he does not have children (or, at least, has never been responsible for their day-to-day care).

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      6. Ann wrote, “One of our talking head scientists here has just come out with a call for the 2+ age group to be masked at day-care (and all other ECE centres).”

        Good gravy, why is it that the powers that be so often get way more restrictive so late in the game, when the additional benefit is so small?

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  16. So, until I see some data that equally qualified white male 22 year olds are loosing out at jobs to POC, I’m not going to believe it’s happening. As I’ve said, people don’t see their own biases.

    But, if it were happening,, if POC actually had the power to influence hiring, white people need to tell their sons the same thing that those who faced measurable, documented discrimination for all of American history understand: you need to offer something that makes you stand out, you need to be better than the other applicants. Being average, filling in the blanks isn’t going to get you the job (even if it did in 2017). If POC now actually have the power to be advantaged in hiring, whining about the discrimination isn’t going to get a young white man a job.

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    1. Fun fact: When I was applying for jobs, I was actually and with full knowledge of my profession “discriminated against” for being white. (I was a white woman with a diss in African American lit at a time when English departments were making diversity a priority.) I didn’t whine, complain, or sue. I stepped back, looked at my strengths, thought about switching my specialization to Early American lit, took adjunct teaching jobs to increase my teaching repertoire, and eventually landed the job I have had for 19 years teaching general studies courses and incorporating my knowledge of African American Studies into everything I teach (because “general” does not equal “white”).

      dave said: “No way to make it up to the chemistry PhDs who spent their working lives as Pullman porters because Black. Nor is there any obvious justice to screwing the perfectly benign White kids graduating today as a mechanism for redress.”

      Actually, there is. But also, my being white was an advantage in getting the job I did, mainly because there were fewer Black people applying for the job I got because I had qualifications that I got because I was raised in an era when being white meant having that privilege. I do not understand why people cannot think historically.

      So, I teach media and communications studies courses and keep up with media industry stuff, and one of the things I’ve been teaching about recently is the economics of media, specifically the effects of streaming technologies. And I’ve been thinking about the increase in great media being created by Black creators, often first-time directors/creators. Sorry To Bother You is a brilliant film that was directed by first-time director Boots Riley. The Harder They Fall was the first film of director and co-screenwriter Jeymes Samuel. Quinta Brunson is the creator-writer and star of Abbott Elementary, her first tv show, which is both hilarious and adorable. I never watched Insecure, but Issa Rae apparently did an amazing job as a first-time creator/writer/star of that show. The economics of streaming (more content is good; more diverse content is better because it makes more people want to subscribe to your service) has brought opportunity to all these great new voices who would probably have been excluded from creating media content in a non-streaming world. I could also mention how the CW has been a network that has offered so many opportunities for directors and writers who are not white straight men; I don’t think it gets the credit it deserves for creating a pool of diverse and experienced directors, producers and writers.(I guess it’s trying to make up for creating Greg Berlanti, who has about 20 shows on the air at a time.)

      Most professions don’t have streamers’ economic necessity to hire *more* people. So they are less incentivized by the market to seek out Black employees. And I think that they would be missing out if we didn’t have some kind of social or internal (not sure what to call it; it’s not formalized) pressure to ensure diversity in hiring.

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      1. A lot of the black high flyers in the US these days are from Caribbean or African immigrant families (Obama’s dad was Kenyan, Kamala Harris’s dad was from Jamaica, etc.). I have especially noted the success of Nigerian immigrants in the US lately. Nigerians-Americans have higher than median US household income at this point.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Americans

        “In 2018, Nigerian-Americans had a median household income of $68,658 – higher than $61,937 for all overall U.S. households. In 2012, Nigerian-Americans had a poverty rate of 12.8%, lower than the U.S. national average of 14.9% and lower than the total African-American poverty rate of 27.2%.”

        We have a number of UMC Nigerian families just in my third grader’s class at our private school.

        I applaud Nigerian American progress–but at the same time, what would be the moral argument for favoring a Nigerian-American private school graduate whose parents were engineers or doctors over a white working class kid for college admission or hiring? Color is a very blunt instrument.

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