Let’s begin with an insignificant anecdote: I went to buy a car. The salesman asked me where I worked. I told him at a university. He looked at me, and then he asked, “Are you a coach?”
Here’s a second insignificant anecdote, one that took place ten years after the first: I went to buy a car. The salesman asked me where I worked. I told him at a university. He looked at me, and then he asked, “In maintenance?”
After both instances I looked at my wife and asked, “Am I the antithesis of a college professor in appearance?” In a slight blow to my ego, she said, “Yes.”
Looking like a professor isn’t in the cards for me. Apparently, I could put on all the herring-bone jackets I want and drape myself with the most exotic of scarves, but “professor-like” just isn’t going to pop out of my first impression. But, as I mentioned above, I don’t believe either anecdote is a significant tale, though both might be telling-tales.
I’ve had many non-professor jobs, so my attitude about work is that any job has dignity. I’ve been a garbage man, janitor, road construction worker, painter, jack hammer operator, carpenter, stone mason, consultant, researcher, and textbook collaborator. I’ve proofed articles, theses, books, and dissertations far too numerous to remember. I had fun doing all those jobs. I was where I was when I was.
And that’s a secret about dignity in work. Be where you are when you are where you are. We make our own dignity by the way we approach what we do.
As a professor, I had the opportunity to teach many different courses in two different academic departments. That, the specialists might say, made me a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. But such “jacks” can have great fun and do some good in the process. Is it true that a certified electrician might wire a house better than a carpenter? Yes. But that doesn’t mean a carpenter can’t wire a house. And a professor can also be a coach or a builder.
One doesn’t have to look like Indiana Jones to be an archaeologist. And one doesn’t have to take offense if a stranger makes a mistake from a first impression. All of us probably do a little first-impression judging. It’s probably built into our survival system: In strange dogs, bared teeth seem to indicate an angry dog; a wagging tail suggests a friendly one.
And that brings me to another anecdote. In 2002 Prince Philip visited Cairns, where he asked indigenous Australian performers, “Do you still throw spears at each other?” Of course, the media has made a big to-do about the comment, suggesting that the Duke of Edinburgh is a royal racist. He’s white, isn’t he? And that seems to be the topic du jour, all this white privilege stuff. And who could be more privileged than a prince?
But Warren Clements, one of the people who was throwing boomerangs and spears when Philip saw him, explained that the group wanted to attract the prince’s attention because they had been caught up by some “royal fever.” Clements said, “They waved and we were showing off. I think Prince Philip took that in and that’s why he said it. He’s been taken out of context.” The meeting became personal because Philip went over to shake hands with the group, impressing the Australians with aboriginal roots. And then Clements made the statement that applies here: "From that moment I had a deep respect for him. People should not judge someone unless they have met them and, most importantly, do research before they start creating media sensationalism."
Of course, this will do nothing to prevent the next “car salesman” from looking at me and seeing someone who probably works in a blue-collar job. Neither perspicacity nor knowledge exudes from a pair of jeans and T-shirt to indicate the nature of my work. And the royal pomp and circumstance that inexorably follows a prince does nothing to quash the negativity of media eager to cast aspersions on anyone with a modicum of fame and the appearance of wealth. It’s the nature of people of all times, really, that is, to judge and conclude without knowledge. But that nature has been driven to a magnitude beyond anything that occurred in the past because of those who have only the knowledge of agenda plus the backing of an anonymous platform and a supportive coterie.
And then there’s Warren Clements, someone of aboriginal heredity, being taken as an “aboriginal” only by a media eager to label. In labeling the prince, the media indirectly labeled Clements. And that’s one of the problems with any judgment based on first impressions. The judgment reveals more about the nature of the one judging than it does about the nature of the one being judged and labeled. And when loosely labeling someone a “racist,” the labeler also loosely labels the race and reveals a hidden racism.
There’s dignity in work of all kinds and dignity in people of any makeup, from being a garbage man to being an Australian indigenous performer, to being a car salesman and to being a prince—and yes, even to being a professor with eclectic interests.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/03/prince-philip-not-racist-spears-remark-says-indigenous-australian/
Here’s a second insignificant anecdote, one that took place ten years after the first: I went to buy a car. The salesman asked me where I worked. I told him at a university. He looked at me, and then he asked, “In maintenance?”
After both instances I looked at my wife and asked, “Am I the antithesis of a college professor in appearance?” In a slight blow to my ego, she said, “Yes.”
Looking like a professor isn’t in the cards for me. Apparently, I could put on all the herring-bone jackets I want and drape myself with the most exotic of scarves, but “professor-like” just isn’t going to pop out of my first impression. But, as I mentioned above, I don’t believe either anecdote is a significant tale, though both might be telling-tales.
I’ve had many non-professor jobs, so my attitude about work is that any job has dignity. I’ve been a garbage man, janitor, road construction worker, painter, jack hammer operator, carpenter, stone mason, consultant, researcher, and textbook collaborator. I’ve proofed articles, theses, books, and dissertations far too numerous to remember. I had fun doing all those jobs. I was where I was when I was.
And that’s a secret about dignity in work. Be where you are when you are where you are. We make our own dignity by the way we approach what we do.
As a professor, I had the opportunity to teach many different courses in two different academic departments. That, the specialists might say, made me a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. But such “jacks” can have great fun and do some good in the process. Is it true that a certified electrician might wire a house better than a carpenter? Yes. But that doesn’t mean a carpenter can’t wire a house. And a professor can also be a coach or a builder.
One doesn’t have to look like Indiana Jones to be an archaeologist. And one doesn’t have to take offense if a stranger makes a mistake from a first impression. All of us probably do a little first-impression judging. It’s probably built into our survival system: In strange dogs, bared teeth seem to indicate an angry dog; a wagging tail suggests a friendly one.
And that brings me to another anecdote. In 2002 Prince Philip visited Cairns, where he asked indigenous Australian performers, “Do you still throw spears at each other?” Of course, the media has made a big to-do about the comment, suggesting that the Duke of Edinburgh is a royal racist. He’s white, isn’t he? And that seems to be the topic du jour, all this white privilege stuff. And who could be more privileged than a prince?
But Warren Clements, one of the people who was throwing boomerangs and spears when Philip saw him, explained that the group wanted to attract the prince’s attention because they had been caught up by some “royal fever.” Clements said, “They waved and we were showing off. I think Prince Philip took that in and that’s why he said it. He’s been taken out of context.” The meeting became personal because Philip went over to shake hands with the group, impressing the Australians with aboriginal roots. And then Clements made the statement that applies here: "From that moment I had a deep respect for him. People should not judge someone unless they have met them and, most importantly, do research before they start creating media sensationalism."
Of course, this will do nothing to prevent the next “car salesman” from looking at me and seeing someone who probably works in a blue-collar job. Neither perspicacity nor knowledge exudes from a pair of jeans and T-shirt to indicate the nature of my work. And the royal pomp and circumstance that inexorably follows a prince does nothing to quash the negativity of media eager to cast aspersions on anyone with a modicum of fame and the appearance of wealth. It’s the nature of people of all times, really, that is, to judge and conclude without knowledge. But that nature has been driven to a magnitude beyond anything that occurred in the past because of those who have only the knowledge of agenda plus the backing of an anonymous platform and a supportive coterie.
And then there’s Warren Clements, someone of aboriginal heredity, being taken as an “aboriginal” only by a media eager to label. In labeling the prince, the media indirectly labeled Clements. And that’s one of the problems with any judgment based on first impressions. The judgment reveals more about the nature of the one judging than it does about the nature of the one being judged and labeled. And when loosely labeling someone a “racist,” the labeler also loosely labels the race and reveals a hidden racism.
There’s dignity in work of all kinds and dignity in people of any makeup, from being a garbage man to being an Australian indigenous performer, to being a car salesman and to being a prince—and yes, even to being a professor with eclectic interests.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/03/prince-philip-not-racist-spears-remark-says-indigenous-australian/
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