A Bohunk in the Ivory Tower

Danusha Goska, an American of blue-collar Polish parentage, blogs scathingly about her experience as a college student, graduate student, and faculty member in an academic world given over to any minority except the one she represents:

There are offices on campus devoted to African American students, gay students, Hispanic students, Native American students, international students, returning women students, veteran students, physically handicapped students, cognitively impaired students … there are special scholarships, parties, speakers, monies, procedures, counselors, deans, days, cafeteria tables, recruiters, retention experts, dedicated to making all of the aforementioned students' lives easier, their graduation assured, and their post-graduation employment a cinch.

There is no campus office for me, or others like me, though, poor, white Christian ethnics are among the most discriminated against and unwelcome students on elite campuses like this one.

That sounds about right to me. My own background was rather similar to hers, save that my parents were Irish instead of Polish. And with one other, crucial difference: I was a student in the 1950s, before America began to obsess over designated, privileged minorities. I particularly liked Danusha's anecdote of having to work as a domestic servant in order to earn the money that a middle-class classmate got in grants simply because of the color of her skin. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford