#105 Unpaid Internships
July 20, 2008 by clander
In most of the world when a person works long hours without pay, it is referred to as “slavery” or “forced labor.” For white people this process is referred to as an internship and is considered an essential stage in white development.
The concept of working for little or no money underneath a superior has been around for centuries in the form of apprenticeship programs. Young people eager to learn a trade would spend time working under a master craftsman to learn a skill that would eventually lead to an increase in material wealth.
Using this logic you would assume that the most sought after internships would be in areas that lead to the greatest financial reward. Young White people, however, prefer internships that put them on the path for careers that will generally result in a DECREASE of the material wealth accumulated by their parents.
For example, if you were to present a white 19 year old with the choice of spending the summer earning $15 an hour as a plumber’s apprentice or making $0 answering phones at Production Company, they will always choose the latter. In fact, the only way to get the white person to choose the plumbing option would be to convince them that it was leading towards an end-of-summer pipe art installation.
White people view the internship as their foot into the door to such high-profile low-paying career fields as journalism, film, politics, art, non-profits, and anything associated with a museum. Any white person who takes an internship outside of these industries is either the wrong type of white person or a law student. There are no exceptions.
If all goes according to plan, an internship will end with an offer of a job that pays $24,000 per year and will consist entirely of the same tasks they were recently doing for free. In fact, the transition to full time status results in the addition of only one new responsibility: feeling superior to the new interns.
When all is said and done, the internship process serves the white community in many ways. First, it helps to train the next generation of freelance writers, museum curators, and director’s assistants. But more importantly, internships teach white children how to complain about being poor.
So when a white person tells you about their unpaid internship at the New Yorker, it’s not a good idea to point out how the cost of rent and food will essentially mean that they are PAYING their employer for the right to make photocopies. Instead it’s best to say: “you earned it.” They will not get the joke.
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Apparently you don’t understand the point of this website or the ironic humor of this posting. Being a college educated white guy with a corporate job (oh and I am the son of a lawyer by the way) I get it and think it is hilarious (as are all the other posts on this site). Unpaid internships are retarted, I did one at a little community newspaper between my sophmore and junior years of college and found it to be completely useless so I ended up leaving before the summer was over because I was tired of being treated like crap. My first job out was college was essentially a paid internship and that lasted a month because again, I’m not willing to put up with being treated as subhuman by power hungry white people. That’s all that an unpaid internship is, a means for power hungry white people to feel supior to their unpaid interns and feed their ego by bossing them around. In addition, in order to be able to do an unpaid internship for longer a couple of months means that you are a privledged white kid with well off parents and you most likely never held a real job so working for free during or directly after graduating from college is your only way of having any “experience” on your resume-if that is the case, shame on you, I’ve actually had real minimum wage jobs and believe me, they really do suck, it made me value my self worth and education enough to realize that I deserve to be paid for my work.
Hi,
I mostly agree with your opinion.
I am also from a working class, but I don’t think unpaid internships are just for rich white hipsters (I’m an Asian-by the way). Sometimes to leap up high, you need to lower yourself temporarily. Because if all you have in your resume is tutoring some kids or being a part time in Dunkin donuts, some jobs will never be in your reach.
In unpaid internships you get taken out to amazing lunches and dinners and parties sometimes. Interns can do very little in a high profile company so they are doing us a favour by giving use exposure to it. It’s not slavery， ｍｏｒｅ ｍｉｎｉ ａｐｒｅｎｔｉｃｅｓｈｉｐ， because it helps you get a better job in the future. in some places you might be treated really badly and sleep under the desk ａｎｄ ｈａｖｅ ｎｏ ｗｅｅｋｅｎｄ but it shows commitment and makes a difference when it comes to actually getting a job. ｉｆ ｉｎｔｅｒｎｓ ｗｅｒｅ ｏｎｌｙ ａｌｌｏｗｅｄ ｉｎｔｏ ｐａｉｄ ｗｏｒｋ ｅｘｐｅｒｉｅｎｃｅｓ ｔｈｅｒｅ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｂｅ ｖ ｌｉｔｔｌｅ ｏｐｐｏｒｔｕｎｉｔｙ ｆｏｒ ｙｏｕｎｇ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ．
Hi Peter,
I 100% agree with you. This is a class issue, it’s mainly upper middle class or wealthy, white, hipsters that love unpaid internships and also giving stuff to charity instead of selling it. I know many working class, white people who would never work for free. So unpaid internships are a sign of wealth and privilege.
(I’m Black and something about working for free makes me think my ancestors might roll over in their graves and even rise up from their coffins.)
Recently I had an experience that really touched on this subject in an indirect way:
So I’m moving to Europe for work because I can’t find a decent job in the U.S., in this awful recession we are having and I have been under employed/unemployed for a while.
At any rate, I mentioned to a friend of mine that I’m selling my tv and my car since I’m moving. The important word here is “selling.” My friend meant well, but she jumped up and said, “Donate it to charity or just give it to Goodwill.” Now donating to charity is something she has the luxury of doing because:
a.) she has a fulltime job (and I don’t right now) and
b.) both of her parents are doctors with money.
It never even occurred to her that maybe I need the money from my car and my tv and that I don’t want to just donate it to charity. I still think she’s a wonderful person but there is definitely a class issue there and she can’t see it. Most of the wealthy I’ve met in my life (regardless of race or religion) are not aware of their social class in America.
Peter, I have noticed that a lot of the lists on this blog are really about white hipsters as I think you’ve mentioned.
I grew up in a working class community of Whites and Mexicans and no one was bragging about an unpaid internship (which is really slavery), everyone worked very hard and wanted to earn a decent paycheck so they could pay bills and feed their kids.
So I agree with you and a couple of other commentators on this blog who share a similar opinion.
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