無薪實習的囧相

克里斯蒂安·蘭德爾（Christian Lander）貼出了他的博客文章《白人們喜歡什么》（Stuff White People Like）的第一部分。之后不到兩個月，他便與蘭登書屋出版社（Random House）簽署了出版協議，據傳出版社預付了30萬美元。

無薪實習，與其說是白人世界中司空見慣的潛規則，還不如說是現今競爭激烈的社會中的共同現象，聽聽過來人以反諷口吻大吐苦水……

So I figured Washington DC. I have an entry on unpaid internships. And I feel like there’s a battle between Washington DC and New York for the most unpaid internships in the United States combined with the highest rent. It’s a fantastic situation.

In most of the world， when a person works long hours without pay， it’s referred to as slavery or forced labor. For white people this process is referred to as an internship and it’s considered an essential stage of white development. The concept of working for little or no money underneath a superior has been around for centuries in the form of 2)apprenticeship programs. Young people， eager to learn a trade， spend time working under a master craftsman to learn a skill that would eventually lead to an increase in material wealth. Using this logic， you’d assume that the most 3)sought-after internship would be in areas that lead to the greatest financial reward. "

Young white people， however， prefer internships that put them on the path to careers that will generally result in a decrease of the material wealth accumulated by their parents. For example， if you represent a white 19-year-old with the choice of spending the Summer earning $15 an hour as a plumber’s apprentice or making zero dollars answering phones in a production company， they will always choose the latter. In fact， the only way to get the white person to choose the plumbing option would be to convince him it was leading towards some sort of end of Summer pipe-art installation.

White people view the internship as their foot into the door of such high-profile， low-paying career fields as journalism， film， politics， art， non-profits and anything associated with museums. Any white person who takes an internship outside of these industries is either the wrong type of white person or a law student. There are no exceptions. If all goes according to plan， an internship will end with an offer of a job that pays $24，000 a year and will consist entirely of the same tasks they were recently doing for free. In fact， the transition to full-time status results in the addition of only one new responsibility: feeling superior to the new interns.

4)When all is said and done， the internship process serves the white community in many ways. First it helps train the next generation of 5)freelance writers， museum6)curators and directors’ assistants. But， more importantly， internships teach white children how to complain about being poor. So when a white person tells you about their unpaid internship at 7)The New Yorker， it’s not a good idea to point out how the cost of rent and food will essentially mean they’re paying their employer for the right to make photocopies. Instead it’s best to say， “You earned it.” They will not get the joke.

于是我統計出了華盛頓特區的數據。我這里有項關于無薪實習的條目，而我覺得華盛頓特區和紐約市似乎正在較勁，看誰才是全美地區無薪實習最多且房租最高的城市。這種情況真是棒極了。

在這個世界的大多數地方，如果說一個人長時間工作卻沒有報酬，那通常指的是奴隸制度或強迫勞工。然而對于白種人來說，這一過程指的卻是實習期，而且它對于白種人未來的發展還是個必不可少的階段。在前輩的手下工作卻只能拿到很少的薪水或者干脆無薪，這樣的觀念已經以學徒的形式存在了數百年了。那些急切地想要學成某種手藝的年輕人都會花時間在某位熟練工匠的手下工作，從而學會某種技能，以便最終能增加自己的物質財富。根據這一邏輯，你就能夠推斷出那些最受歡迎的實習工作往往來自于將來財富回報最多的領域。

不過時至今日，年輕的白種人更喜歡的那些實習工作通常會讓他們在將來走上工作崗位以后，不是增加而是減少由他們的父輩們積累下來的物質財富。比如說，如果你向一個19歲的白人提供兩份實習工作讓他選擇，一份是在整個夏季跟著管道工做學徒，每小時能掙15美元，而另一份則是在某制作公司做無薪接線生，他們總是會選擇后者。