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I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

theatlantic.com

31–40 of 292 posts

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#31
post #15

> It’s been healthy for me, a fair-haired Anglo-Saxon with a Roman numeral in my name (John Austin Murphy III) This is what assimilation looks like. Someone with an Irish name calling themselves Anglo-Saxon. It’s like a Hispanic person calling themselves Latinx, proof that they have lost all organic connection to the culture of their ancestors.

The damning thing about Latinx though is how forcefully it was hoisted onto Hispanics by whites who knew little to nothing about their cultures. They simply saw an opportunity to make latinos conform to their world views and now identifying yourself as latinx signals that you are one of those fully assimilated hispanics that has bought into white culture, and who can be expected to be agreeable on certain topics with…

I don't blame them. If you are offered an executive role at a successful company because you can help with PR, it may be good for your career. I don't see how that is any different than someone with an climate science degree joining a company to help them "go green". Obviously the role exists partially for PR, but there may still be positive things you can do.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#32

> It’s been healthy for me, a fair-haired Anglo-Saxon with a Roman numeral in my name (John Austin Murphy III) This is what assimilation looks like. Someone with an Irish name calling themselves Anglo-Saxon. It’s like a Hispanic person calling themselves Latinx, proof that they have lost all organic connection to the culture of their ancestors.

I'm majority Anglo (like, actually from England), but I have a Spanish last name from one of my grandparents, who in turn is a patrilineal native American whose family adopted Spanish naming some time in the distant unremembered past. The author's terminology could easily be correct in reference to himself, irrespective of his name. That said, I question the relevancy of this comment to the story.

Someone trying to well-actually a writer's self-proclaimed ethnic identity is hackernews af though you have to admit.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#33
post #26
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every argument against Amazon-the-employer I have read recently seems to pretend that the people who work there have no choice but to work for Amazon, as if they didn't pick the job for themselves out of the array of possible options available to them. I have a lot of issues with the way Amazon operates, but precisely nobody is forced to work there. This article does a good job of pointing that out.

People get forced to work in jobs they don't want to all of the time. The array of possible jobs could be one or none. If a basic income existed your point could be true. That's not reality today.

I believe that in the USA you would have a much harder time finding an able-bodied person who cannot find an available job vs. someone with multiple options. My news this week is full of stories of employers who cannot find enough labor. We are very far away from a jobs crisis.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#34
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please can you explain more? I’m interested

An Irishman of the hundred years centered on 1900 would have responded with amusement or indignation at being called "Anglo-Saxon", a term referring originally to the peoples of Great Britain east of Wales and south of Scotland. The Irish regarded themselves rather as Celts, and ones that I had received bad treatment at Anglo-Saxon hands.

And as we all know, ethnic identity is fully static and never changes over time, you are morally obligated to identity in a way that would be accepted by your ancestors. lmao.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#35
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are not all white people Anglo Saxon? I don’t bother to call myself anything other than white, Anglo Saxon, European, Caucasian. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. I have Irish, English, Italian, and post world war 2 immigrated Polish direct ancestors. I don’t know what else to call myself nor do I particularly care. I don’t have a strong personal sense of identity tied up with any of those things. They are just words…

No you probably come from a slav tribe. Saxons were a tribe in Germany. Anglos a different tribe. Take an ancestry / 23andme/ myheritage test and see what comes up. You would be surprised.

Just realize those generic tests are designed more for entertainment than scientific rigor. They are looking at associations between genetic traits and groups, but it’s not like those groups where clones of each other or even genetically isolated.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#36
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The damning thing about Latinx though is how forcefully it was hoisted onto Hispanics by whites who knew little to nothing about their cultures. They simply saw an opportunity to make latinos conform to their world views and now identifying yourself as latinx signals that you are one of those fully assimilated hispanics that has bought into white culture, and who can be expected to be agreeable on certain topics with…

I don't blame them. If you are offered an executive role at a successful company because you can help with PR, it may be good for your career. I don't see how that is any different than someone with an climate science degree joining a company to help them "go green". Obviously the role exists partially for PR, but there may still be positive things you can do.

Nothing good comes from a culture that perpetuates whitewashing other cultures just to please whites and their visions of an ideal minority.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#37
post #12

> Lurching west in stop-and-go traffic on I-80 that morning, bound for Berkeley and a day of delivering in the rain, I had a low moment, dwelling on how far I’d come down in the world. Then I snapped out of it. I haven’t come down in the world. What’s come down in the world is the business model that sustained Time Inc. for decades. I’m pretty much the same writer, the same guy. I haven’t gone anywhere. My feet are t…

This section resonated with me too. I can learn a lot about how to have an honest yet positive appraisal of my circumstances from Austin.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#38

> It’s been healthy for me, a fair-haired Anglo-Saxon with a Roman numeral in my name (John Austin Murphy III) This is what assimilation looks like. Someone with an Irish name calling themselves Anglo-Saxon. It’s like a Hispanic person calling themselves Latinx, proof that they have lost all organic connection to the culture of their ancestors.

[deleted]

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#39
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are not all white people Anglo Saxon? I don’t bother to call myself anything other than white, Anglo Saxon, European, Caucasian. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. I have Irish, English, Italian, and post world war 2 immigrated Polish direct ancestors. I don’t know what else to call myself nor do I particularly care. I don’t have a strong personal sense of identity tied up with any of those things. They are just words…

Those are fighting words in Europe. We are very serious about our ethnicism. Akin to saying that someone from Philly might as well be from LA, it’s all just a city. Or that the Warriors might as well be the New York Yankees, it’s just sports. PS; this is why Italians, Irish, Polish etc weren’t considered white until pretty late into the 1900’s in USA – not anglo-saxon

>Italians, Irish, Polish etc weren’t considered white

methinks, the Protestant elite wanted to keep out the Catholics

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#40

> It’s been healthy for me, a fair-haired Anglo-Saxon with a Roman numeral in my name (John Austin Murphy III) This is what assimilation looks like. Someone with an Irish name calling themselves Anglo-Saxon. It’s like a Hispanic person calling themselves Latinx, proof that they have lost all organic connection to the culture of their ancestors.

You know people typically only inheret names from male ancestors, right, and 50% of ancestors are female?
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