Your unpaid internship is a racial justice issue
Recently, a post I shared on LinkedIn got over 18K impressions and over 250 likes. For someone with a low-key LinkedIn profile (too cheap to invest in the professional version) clearly, this stirred something for folks. The post was about how the current class of White House Interns were fully paid for the first time. Comments on the post included how people worked multiple jobs to get through college and wished they could have taken on unpaid internships. How DC and other metro areas are so expensive. And how interns are expected to work full time without compensation. The nonprofit organization Pay our Interns, and its co-founders have worked relentlessly to earmark funding and highlight the long term impact of the unpaid internship.
What is not said explicitly, however, is that unpaid internships perpetuate racial inequity. Why and how? Well, it requires us to dive into US history briefly. Three main points shape this story:
- The GI Bill: In 1944, President Roosevelt signed the GI Bill, designed to provide returning World War II veterans with housing, education and unemployment insurance. Over 1.2 million Black WWII veterans were denied access to these benefits. The GI bill paved the way for white families to build and accumulate wealth and equity through housing, pay for their own education and therefore their children’s and set them on a path to upward mobility that continues to benefit today’s generations of their families. You can read more about racism and the GI bill here.
- Racial Wealth Gap: Due to the racism in the distribution of the GI Bill’s benefits, the benefits of that bill were not afforded to Black and other people of color. The GI Bill and 400 years of chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation and structural racism. Black, Indigenous and People of color (BIPOC) have been excluded from economic mobility in the US. According to Brandeis University, the racial wealth gap has been impacted in the following areas:
- Unemployment, which is much more prominent among African- American families
- A college education
- Inheritance, financial supports by families or friends, and preexisting family wealth
- Years of homeownership
- Household income
3. So who can afford to work for free? Only those with disposable income due to the benefits afforded to them in #1 & #2. Let us add in our definition of racism: A system of advantage based on race (David Wellman). And while your unpaid internship might be an opportunity that you did not intend to perpetuate racial inequity, the assumption of neutrality assures the replication of oppressive systems. That means those living with the most marginalizations will be losing out on this benefit. Black, Indigenous and People of Color, people with disabilities, people who are trans, undocumented or new English speakers will not be able to advance in the same way as white people with advantages. Often poor white people are unable to avail unpaid internships as well.
If we are imagining a society that is fair and just, can we find the funding to have paid internships? In the emails I get promoting these unpaid internships, I usually see a signature that says the person/organization is against racism. If this is the case for you, then your values and practice may be misaligned. And that is ok, this takes work. If you didn’t know this, that’s ok, we aren’t mad at you. But NOW you know, and you have the opportunity to do something.
If we are imagining this radical, bold world, what is one small commitment you can make right now to lean into your racial justice practice? Please share in the comments.
