“I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it, and I was alive.” –W.W. I had to wait until the finale of “Breaking Bad” but at last, Walter White admitted that he was in to the meth cooking for the money. I’ve been frustrated since season 3, by that time the […]
About Julie Withers
Poem: White Trash Beaner (to my 11-year-old confused self)
Grama says I’m Indian. Mama says my dad was “a Mexican” and that if he really loved me like “Mexican daddies do” he woulda found me by now. Grama says we’re Indian, mama says ‘no’. Sis calls me a “wetback” and a “beaner” (“mom said it all the time”). Brother teases me about getting pregnant […]
Silver Linings Playbook: Class themes in Oscar nominees #3
Movies about mental illness are a favorite of the Oscars. The nominees are often serious affairs with sad endings and a key point: it sucks to have a mental illness. Underlying that key point is the idea that having a mental illness creates an outsider status of not being normal where one lacks access to […]
Classism in Academia
A little over two years ago, a student called me a ‘cunt’ in front of 38 other students. My academic employer did little to protect me and allowed a local, “progressive” paper to attack me in a newspaper/Internet article. I believe this had everything to do with my being a popular but adjunct, community college […]
How working at a community college is like working retail
Expectations are a pain in the ass. There’s an old saying, “plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.” Yep I did it, planted and am now disappointed. I teach Sociology at a rural community college; I love teaching, but I don’t love that adjunct teachers like me are temporary, at-will employees. Who knew that the working […]
Why don’t schools do more to stop bullying?
I have been reading (I am sure you have too) about the many cases of bullying and the awful consequences of being a target for bullies. Kids and young adults committing suicide, suffering chronic depression, choosing to be home-schooled, or quitting school altogether: there’s no doubt that being bullied negatively shifts how a person experiences […]
