#47 Arts Degrees
February 1, 2008 by clander
When white people go away to college, they tend to study what are knowns as the Arts. This includes actual Art, English, History, Classics, and Philosophy. These can of course be broken down further into Film, Womyn’s Studies (yes the spelling is correct), Communications, Gender Studies, and so forth. It is important to note that a high percentage of white people also get degrees in Political Science, which is pretty much like arts, and only seems to have the word “science” in it to make white people feel better about themselves.
These degrees enable white people to spend four yeas of their lives reading books, writing papers and feeling great about themselves. It is a known fact that Arts students firmly believe that they are doing you/society a favor by not getting a job and reading Proust. They use this to protest for reduced tuition, more money for the arts, and special reduced student rates on things like bus passes.
But what about the white people who study Science, Engineering or Business? Unless they become doctors, they essentially lose white person status (and can only be regained by working at a non-profit).
So why would white people spend all that time studying and working to get into college if they are just going to read books that they might have read in their free time? Because white people have it made. They can take that degree and easily parlay it into a non profit job, an art gallery job, or work in publishing. If the pay is low, no problem, their parents will happily help out with rent until they magically start making six figures or non-magically turn 40.
White people can also take that degree and go to graduate school (future post) and eventually become a professor or adjunct professor where they will still require parental support.
If they are REALLY ambitious and need to make money, they can take that degree and go to Law School.
But the real reason white people need these degrees is so that they can sound smart at parties. Of course it trickles down to making connections, getting hired, knowing rich people, and so forth. But ultimately it all begins by saying “reading Henry James was the most rewarding part of undergrad.”
Using this to your advantage can be very difficult as attempts to talk about the books they skimmed while hungover can expose you. It is best to say that you were a first generation college student and your parents demanded that you study math, chemistry, economics or computer science. You had to read Joyce on your own.
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What about those of us who get BFA’s in Art? Or better yet, Graphic Design? Then we get cool jobs in advertising, wear ironic t-shirts to work everyday, listen to indie bands like Vox Trot and Wolf Parade and eventually date an Asian girl.
…and eat sushi while driving to Whole Foods in our Priuses, wearing pea coats and getting offended?
I have a poli sci degree. Needless to say, a degree in poli sci is essentially a degree in bullshit, which lets you spot when someone is full of it (and preps you well for sales positions by the way). I’m not saying that it isn’t a useless degree, because really it is. Ultimately though, very little of what you learn in school regardless of major is going to translate to your work in the field as experience is the real teacher. So let’s stop being all high and mighty shall we?
Well, this is kind of off. It’s actually more like something a WASP-y white person would like.
For us foreign white people (i.e., Italian), to study anything arts-related means that you automatically become the black sheep and the weirdo. Family members will talk in hushed voices about you at get-togethers and will be extremely vague on your arts major of choice, preferring to talk about your cousin, who has a degree in business and law and is doing very well.
My grandparents were farmers, my parents got to go to college and became economists in an Eastern European country, my brother is a senior economist with a PhD from Hahvahd and I’m twiddling around studying anthropology and German at an above average university in the US because my parents shipped me here in the hope of a better future. My dream, however, is to become a great chef. Oh, the travesty!
I have a BS degree in engineering. The intent was to design automation equipment. Well, unfortunately, most of those jobs moved overseas and after about 5 years of working in the field, I went to law school, trying to capitalize on the degrees and be a patent lawyer.
I spent three years listening to pretentious lib arts major how much better and smarter they were and that I would not succeed. Well, I graduated magna from a top 10 (T14) law school in the country, worked in big law and after a few years joined a .com start-up. All the code jockeys who were white were lib arts majors, who ended up having to acquire technical skills. The rest of the code jockeys were some of the smartest people I ever met, foreign engineers.
I truly felt sorry for all the lib arts majors who had dreams of exploring the greater meaning of life and yet those dreams were crushed by 20 hr work days 7 days per week.
The real question is why does society allow liberal arts colleges to deceive impressionable young kids with the utter ridiculousness that a lib arts degree has a value of any kind.
[...] things like non-profit organizations (#12), microbreweries (#23), the Sunday New York Times (#46), arts degrees (#47), and threatening to move to Canada (#75). Soon the site was logging millions of visitors, and [...]
This is the first of SWP posts that has a bitter streak. More than a bitter streak, it was actually not fun to read because it was uncomfortably close to being mailicious. What’s up with that?
And P.S., I’m white (Jewish, though) and got a degree in Literature/Writing with a minor in French Lit. College took me over five years cause I worked full time through all of it, and I got a job working at a software engineering company as a technical editor two weeks before I even graduated. I make $60k, have awesome benefits, and go to grad school part time at night for a degree in Rhetoric, just because.
That said, I still would have enjoyed this post if it hadn’t seemed so damn bitter.
Since I’m European I don’t understand all the cultural references named in this discussion. But after reading this post I got guilty feelings because I’m leaving my moderately well-paid office job for doing a badly paid PhD in language history. That’s so white, isn’t it? I guess it is so white to do something you really like as linguistics research instead of making the owner of my company richer (such a snobbishly leftist statement).
You forget that irony is also a very white thing to indulge in
Wow. I wish I had parents who would pay for my rent. Nope, this white person went to college, got a science degree…yes REAL science…and realized it doesn’t matter if you are white or not. You will not make more than 8.50 an hr. Unless you get really lucky beg the hirers and make a great whopping 10.50. And all that does not pay back all the loans I have. Because I did not have college paid for and no scholarships.
Did you get your “REAL science degree” from I’m A Fuckin Idiot College? 8.50/hr was the best you could do? I’m a receptionist at a biotech and I make 17/hr + benefits and bonuses. Your parents must be really proud.
yea, where the fuck are you making 8.50 an hour with a college diploma under your belt? are you sure you went to college because you sound retarded to me.
thats such bull shit I make 15 dollars an hour and I just graduated high school, you must be stupid to accept 8.50 an hour i made that much when I was in middle school
What’s funny about this item is that it conflicts with liberal white America’s love of all things European. You see, in European educational systems, and educational systems inspired by Europe, Arts degrees are considered… B-List degrees. Smart kids get technical degrees, engineering, math, medicine, etc., and “dumb” kids get literature degrees.
The British have by far the strongest tradition of holding the arts and classics over science and engineering. Margaret Thatcher was chopped off at the knees early in her career for having studyied chemistry. Alan Turing (solved the nazi enigma machine) was discouraged by all his teachers from pursuing math.
But white people’s love of all things European is conflicted, because on the one hand they have all this cool stuff (old architecture, leftist politics, great fashion, study abroad programs) but on the other hand they’re the foundation of all our white guilt. It’s a weird relationship, James.
Two comments:
1. Clarifying that I have no degree and nothing that would qualify me for an intelligent comment, that being said, the receptionist in my office has an art degree. She makes 10.50 per hour.
2. I think the justification and offense driven comments are nearly as funny as the post itself. Although… aren’t online blogs/posts deeply loved by white people? I’m feeling less and less white upon completing each additional post.
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