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I may have told this story before, but when I was a PNM and we were chit chatting on the sidewalk before one of the parties, I asked another PNM what her dad did for a living, and she and another PNM is my group exchanged knowing looks.
I was actually only asking because she had moved around quite a bit and I was curious about the career field. But it can be a really loaded question because many people take it to be about income level and social prominence even when it's not asked as such.
Looking back, I would have been better off asking, "was your dad or mom in the Army*?" if that was what I was thinking.
Similarly, I think the rec writer providing the information could give the chapter a lot of valuable information that really wasn't just a proxy for social class but that it would be helpful to provide that context, rather than just the "her dad's a doctor."
*ETA: not that everyone who moves around a lot is in the Army.
Last edited by UGAalum94; 04-29-2008 at 05:16 PM.
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