Square Peg, Round Hole

At my first mock job interview with a faculty member from my home institution, I was informed that I would appear “too white.” (My dissertation examined the uses of rock music and culture in American prose literature of the last 50 years, and white men have created the lion’s share of the source material.)

Having been white my entire life, however, I was unsure how to amend this shortcoming in the three weeks that remained before the real interviews at the Modern Language Association convention. Am I efficient? Yes. Able to fill a niche? I think so. White? Without a doubt. —Charles A. Goldthwaite, Jr.

—Square Peg, Round Hole (Chronicle)

At first I was going to blog this article with a different quote

I’m the rare square peg that fits into a round hole — i.e., a recently minted Ph.D. in American literature who earns his living as a freelance writer specializing in science and medical articles. I’ve been able to use the skills that I honed in graduate school to forge a path into the private sector.

…but that passage just affirmed something I already know. The quote I chose is much more challenging and, in my opinion, blogworthy.

Sadly, I think a name like “Charles A. Goldthwaite, Jr.” probably runs the risk of triggering a “class” stigma on top of the “white” stigma and (though Goldthwaite doesn’t mention it) the “male” stigma.