Should White Males Bother with College?

Earlier this week I posted a video (above) of a college applicant’s rejection video (a popular TikTok trend). Many people assumed he got rejected because he is a white male. Let’s assume they’re right. Generations of Americans have been conditioned to believe that the only pathway to success is a college degree (preferably one from an Ivy League school). What if we were wrong?

Studies have shown that 50% of corporations discriminate against white men. Those same studies show that 20% of hiring managers have been specifically instructed to deprioritize white men altogether.1 Just this week the CEO of Aviva Insurance (a global insurance company with 22,000 employees) announced that she must personally approve the hiring of any white male—her stated goal is to ensure as many positions with her company be ‘diverse’ aka non-white-male.2 In fact, in the years since the BLM riots 94% of all new employees in the S&P 100 have been so-called people of color—white men have received fewer than 2% of corporate jobs.3

With white males representing just 33% of college graduates today and corporate America under overwhelming pressure not to hire those who do graduate it is essential for white men to be practical about their careers. Attending college is an expensive investment of time and capital with the average cost of room & board at a top university coming in at $380,000 taking 4.5 years—for that a graduate would have to repay $2,700 per month over 20 years. My unpopular belief is that the future of work for most white men resides in the trades and not college.

Today the average electrician, plumber, welder, or mechanic can earn $100,000 per year as an employee with just a year or two of experience. For those tradesmen who are entrepreneurial starting out on their own takes little more than a truck and some tools - a relatively small investment compared with a college degree. Striking out on one’s own can pay handsome dividends with average earnings topping $250,000 per year. Reinvesting that income over just ten years to hire additional employees could turn a simple tradesman into a millionaire.

In the United States there is a massive dearth of tradesmen—and an overpopulation of gender studies experts and lawyers.4 Given the reality of systemic racism and sexism against white males it is important to be rational by finding a career where the woke have no interest or influence.