On July 4th, journalist Heather Bryant published an important article on Medium that I think everyone should read and think about. Her story should make all of us uncomfortable, not just about the state of journalism, but also about how each of us thinks about class and the people around us doing under-appreciated, but vital work.
Below are some excerpts from the piece, but it’s worth reading the entire thing.
I was talking to this person whom I’d just met. They told me about their job and where they worked. They asked me about mine. I told them I’d worked in public media in Alaska before moving to the Lower 48. I was a couple of months from wrapping up my time as a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford. They asked about what I worked on and I explained my research around collaboration in journalism and that I intended to continue working in this space after the fellowship ended.
“Well, what does your husband do?”
“He’s a truck driver and a mechanic.”
“…Oh.”
“Yeah, right now he drives for a trash company.”
“That must be…an interesting perspective to have around.”
While they didn’t explicitly say it, the person was very much thrown off by the nature of my husband’s work. I was left with a very strong feeling they were expecting a more middle-class answer than a garbage worker. Their facial reaction has been stuck in my head for a while now. Surprise. A little confusion. And just enough distaste to notice. Obviously, this one instance isn’t representative of an entire industry. But it is a symptom.
Journalism has a class problem. We know this. The best internships are for students with the resources to work unpaid or with low pay in some of the most expensive cities in the country. Conferences are expensive and often hosted in expensive cities making it difficult for smaller newsrooms to send reporters. The bulk of the jobs are clustered in major metropolitan areas. That’s not to say people without means don’t make it into journalism. They do. But it’s a longer, rougher road with far fewer people making it to the end.
She touches on something truly fundamental to journalism these days. Why is it that so many of the fellow journalists she interacts with have a similar reaction when they find out what her husband does? It’s partly because so few of them have spouses, parents, siblings or close friends who perform these sorts of jobs. For instance, let’s say Heather one day bumps into a journalist whose brother who is also a truck driver. Think about how differently that conversation would go. There’d be an instant connection and understanding. Instead, it appears most other journalists she comes across react with near shock that someone who drives trucks somehow could be married to a journalist who went to Stanford. This is in fact, pretty troubling.
The ironic thing about all this is that so many white-collar jobs employing highly educated ivy leaguers are, to borrow a phrase from David Graeber, total bullshit jobs. Jobs that exist for little obvious reason other than to keep people busy or extract rents from society. Then here’s a guy who’s performing a physically exhausting function that actually adds clear societal value, and he’s looked down upon. What does that tell you about our culture?
While the above is troubling, the following paragraph is the one that really stuck out in my head.
There’s a recurring theme in the work stories he shares with me. His routes take him all over the Bay Area. Through the nice neighborhoods of the upper middle class and the extremely well off gated communities. Through the working class communities, the rougher parts of Oakland and the areas where the businesses are surrounded by the homeless. It’s fascinating how people treat him based on only their knowledge that he is the trash guy. The vast majority of disrespect, rudeness and condescension happens in what many would call the nicer neighborhoods. Kindness and appreciation, people giving him a cold drink on a hot day or just saying thanks happens most in the rougher neighborhoods and the working class areas.
I can’t say this surprises me, but it’s still depressing. It’s those people who have the least to give, and the least ability to be generous, who are most kind and generous to the truck driver. It also hammers home a theme I have been increasingly focused on in these pages — that the positive impact of simply being a nicer person in your every day interactions cannot be overstated.
Most of the wealthy people who treat the trash guy disrespectfully don’t think twice about it. They definitely didn’t think about how it might have affected his day, and that he might take that feeling of disrespect home with him which might then affect his entire family. That negative energy might then become transferred to people his extended family go on to interact with in the hours and days ahead, and so on. The negative impact of seemingly trivial acts of rudeness reverberate far beyond the initial act itself.
In contrast, what if members of the wealthier communities had treated him with unmistakeable kindness? This feeling would reverberate in the exact opposite manner. In other words, every action, no matter how seemingly insignificant, has real world consequences, both good and bad. All of this behavior clearly had an impact on Heather, otherwise she wouldn’t have written the article in the first place. If we think about life every single day from this perspective, it will help all of us to become far more conscious of how we behave.
She ends the piece with the following.
When he and I are meeting a new group of people in my industry, he asks me how to talk about his job. Because he knows that sometimes it’s better to say something generic like “trucking industry” than “garbage man.” He worries that he might embarrass me in front of other journalists.
If that conference interaction is how a journalist responds to my husband’s job while idly chatting, how do they cover the sanitation worker that ends up in a story they are working on? If talking about someone to that person’s spouse isn’t enough to cause one to mask aversion, how do they talk about people to whom they feel even more distance from? What does this mean for our audience’s ability to trust us?
While one of the most important takeaways from her piece is certainly the undeniable fact that journalism has an elitism problem, there’s another, perhaps even more important message.
Try to treat everyone you meet with the same degree of decency and kindness. Whether they are rich or poor, clean or dirty. Whether they have a graduate degree from Harvard, or dropped out of high school. Whether they can help you, or are in need of help. The world would certainly improve if we all did that, and it can’t hurt to try.
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Yes, this kind of classism is so depressing among “professional” people. They have SO LITTLE REAL KNOWLEDGE of the world yet they make tonnes of value judgments. I was a professional music librarian, making a good salary and working in several prestigious institutions of research over the years. My colleagues thought that all kinds of things that happen in the real world are unlikely and impossible. Their life experience was suffocatingly restricted. They never were in the military (as I was, in the Navy), never saw the Third World, hardly ever got so much as a glimpse of a slum, etc.
I lived in a really bad slum as a little child. I was one of only two white kids in an otherwise all black school. We actually went to WATTS, Calif., to shop for daily needs, because our own town, next to Watts, was so much worse. Fortunately, my family had some good breaks and we got out of that misery. I went into the Navy after high school and saved enough money, plus part time work, etc., to go to university, not at an Ivy League school, but at city and state colleges and universities that really did offer quality studies in my areas (music and librarianship). I managed to attain to what my “white bread, suburbia” colleagues took for granted.
You know, so much of what those folks value is worthless and irrelevant. They are in for a big fall, major disillusionment, and their lives and backgrounds have not prepared such pampered souls for the suffering that is ahead. They will perish. Their world will collapse. Mine might do that, too, but I can take it, at least to the extent that old age permits it. At least, I shall not be surprised at what is ahead.
Poor upper middle class. Poor privileged class. You’re TOAST!
You can also take advantage of the situation that the journalist describes. Pretend as if you are -, or your surrounding is, a bit different than expected when you talk with a stranger. Wait for the reaction by the stranger by which means you can determine if the stranger could become your friend because he or she has an open mind or not.
I did that when I was young (and recalcitrant) for some time, but stopped doing it, because the reactions that I received were mostly negative; people either did not believe me (in fact they were right to not believe me, because I was lying to them..), or treated me as if I had a highly contagious disease (those reactions were not nice to receive).
From which I learned that people, even friendly people, don’t like to be surprised with stories that are different than expected. And therefore I changed gears from that moment onwards and behaved as people would expect a person to behave in my situation. Then later, if we became friends, we could stop pretending and show our real characters to each other and explain where we were really from and what we really think.
The journalist, whether her story is true or not (a journalist whose husband is a garbage man is a bit strange, or not what you expect), is experiencing this ‘negative/I cannot believe you’ reaction from people who just do not like surprises. That is a completely normal reaction, and has nothing to do with her husband being a garbage man. If she would say to people that she is married to a multimillionaire or a rock artist, reactions would probably be the same.
Still, it would be much better if we should stop judging each other on what we do and what we have, but only judge one another on what we are. But such a fearless open mind is not given to many people, maybe for good reasons too, or because we are indoctrinated to fear ‘strange situations’ like meeting a journalist who is married with a garbage man.
> we should stop judging each other on what we do and what we have, but only judge one another on what we are
Definitely sounds nice, but is it realistic?
Say, can we judge mrs.Clinton by not what she did to facilitate ISIS and corrupt media but for what she is – a trembling loving woman and a devoted mother. At least I think she does think of herself that is exactly shat “she is”. And down with irrelevant “what she does”.
“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” (James 2:1-9)
Some things never change.
Great article and additional comments from Mike, I appreciate it.
The long and short of it is I own a septic service ( Yes I literally deal with peoples shit, Yes, Yes I do) up here in the high county of Colorado, my areas of operation are Summit county (think Breckenridge Ski Resort) & Park county (think the working class that serves the former).
The article above is my everyday experience to the Tee. There are of course some exceptions with a few of the affluent types I deal with and after speaking with the ones who actually are willing to give me the time of day, I find out that at some point in their lives they did have to work hard to achieve what they have. I respect those types of well to do folks completely. The appreciation and generosity comes from those who at some level can at least relate to hard work.
I’ve learned to have a very thick skin doing what I do and although I used to be embarrassed by what I chose for a living, now I can truly see all people for who they really are in just a matter of moments just by how they react to the knowledge of what I do to keep my family fed. Colorado is an awesome place but it does have a large class divide and some of the pompous, entitled folks I have met up here are truly the worst types of people you can come across.
I appreciate all of you who are just real people, those who have removed your plastic masks and begun to ask questions, first of which began with yourself.
Black Cat, Thank you for your service!
The interesting truth is that garbage collectors have saved more lives and kept disease rates lower than doctors. Getting garbage out of the streets is very helpful for preventing all kinds of disease. Think about it!
My philosophy is to begin by treating (almost) everyone I meet with respect until I see there is no reason to respect them. For example, if people are kind, generous and trying hard to live a good life, what they do becomes only a point of interest in learning about something that I don’t know–something I don’t know about them and something I don’t know about what they are doing.
When people are cruel and thoughtless I often wonder to myself what brought them to that point. Why I may ponder this, I try to get away from them as quickly as possible because I know they will hurt me, or I will hear about some cruelty they did to others and it’s just hard to deal with that. The other option is to squarely face them down one on one or in a protest for social justice or to speak up forcefully in a group setting. This is very difficult and that choice must be made carefully IMO.
Prior to postmodernism, feminists used to point out that women’s labor, because it was largely unpaid labor, was considered beneath contempt. I still believe this is true. Taking care of the sick or children, and all that entails is still largely women’s work. Many people don’t think it’s even work at all because no one is getting paid and any idiot can do it, right?????
As a society, our value system is completely subverted. People with real skills, who do important work are often ignored and denigrated. That’s destructive of every person’s spirit. Work that is done well with the intent to help others is good work.
Thank you for this post on class Michael!
To be honest sometimes I feel as much or more pity for some ivory tower types as I do for the down and outs. Only one has no clue as to their human falibilities while the other is all too aware. Which one would you consider more honest in their demeanor and humanity? While the one may be desperate and steal from you the other could care less that you are living in the same time and space as you have no meaning at all to them.. I try to meet all heads up and straight in the eye as fellow travelers and make contact at that level and see how it goes from there.
There is another perspective on it.
I’d say “garbage man” is really a very acid test.
If it was about mere class snobbism – then it would be better if she could come with low end low income but still “Clean” job.
The thing is, aversion and disgust towards waste and trash are our animal instincts. Those that kept us all alive through animal evolution stages. That let as survive without sinking into countless diseases, the uncontrolled wastes tend to generate.
The same instinct that make people pay for regular removal of waste, makes them averse to ANYTHING connected to waste.
See, animal instincts are not surgical tools, they are strong but blunt. They are area-targeting weapons.
So, while for the spouse herself it really is disgusting, I believe the roots of those issues lie not in the class snobbism, but in pre-historic times perhaps predating the Homo Sapience first appearance.
Yep, it would be surely better if they could suppress those animal instincts, like we do suppress hunger and reproduction instincts, avoiding robbery and rapes, most of us. Still her diagnosis it as “class society” being the root cause I think is not correct.
You may be on to something. As a kid the ‘sanitation engineers’ were always a lot of fun. They’d call us boys girls “How are the girls today” to get our reaction. As a sometimes sullen teen I can remember a wink and a “How are the lads, or even men, today” which would trigger a more humane response from are general brooding as to “Good – how are you guys doing?’ You make your own or other’s situation better or worse with your own attitude. I always like running into the the ‘G-men.’
I have always referred to them as “G-men” as a form of salute which if anyone remembers was the connotation given FBI agents, with the later recognition of who was really more important and less subversive for society.
Reminds me of an infobabe who came into a soup kitchen where I volunteered. She was there to do a news piece. She asked the director, “Why are these people happy and laughing?” The director graciously responded, “you should come spend some time with us.” Her indignant reply was, “oh, I could never do that.”
In her liberal, narcissistic mindset, I suppose she’d rather a nameless, faceless bureaucrat care for them.
Even as a child I noticed that there are far more “poor” people who are truly happy most of the time, than “rich” people who are truly happy most of the time.
As I became an adult and went out into the world I began to realize the reason for that was simple.Most poor people own their money and possessions. Whereas most wealthy people are owned by their money and possessions.
As Meister Eckhart said, “The more we have the less we own”.
If you don’t understand why that is true then you’re doomed to life in a prison of your own making.
All that aside, just be nice and polite to people you interact with on a daily basis. If you have trouble doing that, then you’re the one who’s destitute.