And Justice For All

I guess I never thought I'd see the day I would write something like this but I had to get it off my mind.

This past week on Craigslist, a part-time job was listed for folks who might be interested in working for an organization that gets sponsors for vulnerable children overseas. I sent along my resume and got a call asking me to come in for an interview in which I would be expected to talk for one or two minutes about a subject that I was passionate about.

Now I think I know some stuff about vulnerable children. And I actually know alot about how parents get painted into a corner and are left feeling they have few or no choices. Indeed, in some desperate communities overseas, parents may end up sending their kids off to what they think is a better life, only to discover they have been exploited. We all grieve for this type of thing - as Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "there is no such thing as other people's children." I think as single mothers we all know that.

Anyway, to prepare for the interview, I looked at some websites, in particular UNICEF's. I was going to go in there and really know my facts in my passionate speech: 148 million children engaged in child labour. 1.2 million children trafficked every year. Malnutrition. Disease. Psychosocial illness. Boys forced into armed conflict. Girls forced into prostitution.

It was a big group interview, run by a fundraising consultancy, and it started out with a little slide show depicting the type of people they hire, pointing out how diverse they were in their hiring. My heart sank when I saw the photos. In each one, there were about five beautiful young things, and what appeared to be one token old folk.

When it came time for each of us to give our "passionate" talks, all the other candidates were vague. What came out was stuff like, "Oh, I walk around town having chats and loving people up." Or "I really believe in inclusiveness." Or "I met a little girl in a foreign country who made my heart glow." The director of the interview (who is also a company director) actually said that her big moment of revelation for doing this kind of work came when she met a mother of nine or so kids - the experience, she said, had her feeling "pain."

I - who have ugly, brown un-streaked, un-cut hair (it costs alot to get your hair highlighted!), who was wearing my friend's too-baggy blouse, who woke up at 3 am worrying about the interview because I so need the money to feed my kid, who practised the passionate speech 20 times because I didn't want to flub it or forget anything - didn't get hired. 

I am sure they hired the beautiful, bubbly blonde lady who said that she doesn't need another boat or car but thinks it's about time she did something for others. And they probably also hired the gorgeous young university kid who went to Thailand last summer for a holiday and felt guilty. Or the other twenty-somethings who arrived late and said they have already visited nine countries and have parents still living who can help them. Who they probably didn't hire was the woman with a broken tooth who said she just got laid off. Why do I know this? Because the director mentioned she's from a marketing and business background and for all her flowery yak about helping others, I sensed marketing and business would trump everything.

I cry hypocrisy! My gut feeling is that if you are fundraising and advocating for social justice, you should practise it in your hiring policies. Give the job to the type of person you're trying to help. Are not those who know what it means to be a vulnerable family, and have internalized it, the best to explain and sell the need for help to others? Alas, down on their luck people don't tend to be hired to help down on their luck people.

Well, my four dear readers, that's my rant. I went home, ate a huge bag of nacho chips and cried all over my dog. Lord help us all.