About a year ago, I was at the University of Virginia conducting interviews for my book. I had a lot of interesting conversations with students about dating, politics, and their goals for the future. But one interview in particular stuck out. When I talked to Max, a senior preparing to graduate, he casually expressed that while his employment prospects were good, some places would not want him because he is a “white guy.” He elaborated: “Every time you apply for essentially any job here, there’s a checkbox on the application for race, gender, disability. And I think a lot of people, you know, they see that and they’ll think ‘they don’t want to hire me.’”
A recent essay published in Compact Magazine reminded me of my conversation with Max. Jacob Savage’s “The Lost Generation” argues that, over the last decade, professional opportunities for white millennial men have been disappearing due to discriminatory hiring practices. Savage argued that as organizations sought to implement policies…
