It's hard to forget you're poor at Carleton. My family happens to be below the poverty line. We live in a government subsidized apartment and receive food stamps. My finances keep me up at night sometimes. I envy those students who just always have money in their bank accounts and never question who puts it there. I hate it when rich students (who, to be clear, are well intentioned) advise me on how I need to start putting my money in a Roth IRA account as soon as I start my first job. It's funny because I literally have no savings. It must be so easy to just start putting money away when you don't owe anyone anything.
One Carleton experience sticks with me. I was tabling for something in Sayles during winter term of my senior year. A student who has admitted to paying full tuition in the past was telling a friend of his how he had no employment after college and it was "to the unemployment office with" him.
Let's just clarify something. I have been to the unemployment offices in Chicago COUNTLESS times with my parents since I immigrated when I was 6. I know what the people who go to those offices are like. They are people like my dad who can't find jobs because no one wants to hire a foreigner. They are people like my dad who became discouraged about ever finding a job. They are people like my parents who left everything behind to start new lives only to realize no one in America wanted anything to do with them. Many of the people who go to unemployment offices are the products of the cycle of poverty in America.
YOU, SIR, a white man who jokes about going to the unemployment office after graduating from one of the most prestigious and elite colleges in the U.S. know NOTHING about the struggle of the immigrant, the black man, or any minority who cannot find a job. You, sir, are so incredibly privileged that you can afford to pay over $200,000 for your education, which means you come from a family that is connected and networked within American society. How can you be so ignorant to make light of such a massive source of struggle for so many poor and hardworking Americans? Chances are that you will never have to visit the unemployment office. You will probably never see the oppressing sense of hopelessness in that office. You will probably never have to interact with an unhappy government worker who has no good news to offer you about the prospect of employment.
You know nothing of the poor man's plight in America. So don't joke about it.
- Dilara Akgunduz
One Carleton experience sticks with me. I was tabling for something in Sayles during winter term of my senior year. A student who has admitted to paying full tuition in the past was telling a friend of his how he had no employment after college and it was "to the unemployment office with" him.
Let's just clarify something. I have been to the unemployment offices in Chicago COUNTLESS times with my parents since I immigrated when I was 6. I know what the people who go to those offices are like. They are people like my dad who can't find jobs because no one wants to hire a foreigner. They are people like my dad who became discouraged about ever finding a job. They are people like my parents who left everything behind to start new lives only to realize no one in America wanted anything to do with them. Many of the people who go to unemployment offices are the products of the cycle of poverty in America.
YOU, SIR, a white man who jokes about going to the unemployment office after graduating from one of the most prestigious and elite colleges in the U.S. know NOTHING about the struggle of the immigrant, the black man, or any minority who cannot find a job. You, sir, are so incredibly privileged that you can afford to pay over $200,000 for your education, which means you come from a family that is connected and networked within American society. How can you be so ignorant to make light of such a massive source of struggle for so many poor and hardworking Americans? Chances are that you will never have to visit the unemployment office. You will probably never see the oppressing sense of hopelessness in that office. You will probably never have to interact with an unhappy government worker who has no good news to offer you about the prospect of employment.
You know nothing of the poor man's plight in America. So don't joke about it.
- Dilara Akgunduz