My partner, a middle-aged white cis-male, really wants to drive trains.
The recruitment process is insanely complicated and positions are only advertised once a year. There is rigorous psychometric and psychomotor testing. If one fails at a later stage of the recruitment process, they have to start over in a year.
Yesterday, my partner received a rejection email. He expected it. Why? Because female, LGBTIQA+, and indigenous hires are preferred due to higher government subsidies.
Don't get me wrong, it's FANTASTIC that female, LGBTIQA+, and indigenous hires are preferred. But it's not the government subsidies that should incentivise it but rather common decency, reason, and human rights.
Instead, we now do not favour middle-aged white dudes who just want to work hard until they retire (and after), but we STILL favour middle-aged white CEOs, politicians, and other people who have the real power.
Classism is the hidden "ism." People who would never say words to demean people who are gay or non-white have no trouble mocking people with rural accents or high school educations, and they readily throw around words like "redneck" and "flyover country." It solidifies the support for people like Trump, who really shouldn't have a single supporter anywhere, because they don't see Democrats as being "on their side."
So white working guys who don't have much access to power or money see other people without power as the enemy, instead of both groups focusing their attention on the power brokers who are playing chess games with human beings.
@EileenKCarpenter,
That's exactly right. Everyone at lower levels sees each other as the enemy and gets upset; we fight for scraps, we struggle, and instead of uniting against the actual enemy, we fight each other. Hunger games.