Christmas and Privilege

How I realized the connection between my yearly Christmas discussions and privilege.

Christmas (replace it with your family's favorite holiday) dinner. You meet with your family and more distant relatives you normally don't see much. Saying hello to everybody takes a while, because - of course - you chat a bit here there. But then it happens. Again and again, year after year.

Do you remember these awkward situations when your partner's aunt or grandparents ask your partner:

"What are you studying again?"

"Civil engineering."

"Ahhh, great! Great responsibility, don't make any fatal mistakes!"

"And you, Adrian?"

"Physics."

"Ok… and what can you do with that?"

In my case, this happened both with my partner's and my own uncles and aunts, grandparents and even parents. While these situations mostly provoked laughter, it was an excellent opportunity for science outreach and I'd usually spend a long time explaining them physics, quantum computers, some principles of quantum physics, then diverging to the big questions about life, the universe and everything. I'm always enjoying these evenings. And it seems that I haven't been the only one since I often got the feedback that they also enjoyed listening to me and asking questions.

Do you remember such evenings too? If you've experienced it, sure you do. In my case, this sparked and intensified my passion to explain complicated matter in simple words to people that are not used to complicated science words. My initial reflection explored the connection between my passion for outreach and its connection to my relatives. However, I realized that there's a good chance you, dear reader, don't remember, because you didn't experience it - at least not in the family setting. The reason is social mobility.

As far as my partner and I know about our families' history, we were the first since generations to obtain a 'higher education entrance qualification' (European baccalaureate). We both stem from traditional blue collar families who mostly conform to what statistics find about political orientation, attitude towards food, immigration, climate change etc. of that social group. This is to give you an idea of our environment. However, there is an exception. One of my '1st cousin once removed' migrated to Australia a few decades ago. His story used to be told here and there, almost with a sense of mysticism and definitely admiration. Wow, he is brave! I vaguely remember he initially emigrated to do something with cars.

For some of you, it is hard to imagine, that my cousin was the most interesting relative to talk about at our family gatherings. The most out-of-the-box-thinking relative, the most brave and consequential. Yet, it just reflects social mobility. Even though Switzerland is not as bad as the US when it comes to social mobility, still about 80% of all children stay in their social strata. Children whose parents have one or more PhD degrees, are more likely to attain one themselves. At top-ranked US universities nearly 40% of faculty have a parent with a PhD, making them 40 times over-represented given the general population's PhD density of ~1%.

So here I am, the first since generations to go to high school, complete university with a PhD and pursue a scientific career. A straight, white male, I never thought I'd be underprivileged. But reflecting on that matter, I realized, I might partially be. Growing up with my family probably made me a better science communicator. Yet I was missing role models early on. There are countless lessons I had to learn through try and error. I wasn't taught how to carve out my niche in science and or how to build on my strongest interests. It was more about being perseverant, conscientious, hard-working and reliant. These are important values as well, but without the former this results in a tendency of blind work mania instead of strategic and smart resource planning, just to name one example.

I realized that more successful people are more successful in navigating through social strata, apart from many other qualities of course. This is a very important quality, that hasn't come naturally to me through informal discussions at family gatherings. Uncles, aunts, grandparents, and of course parents convey invaluable life lessons to their kids while they also serve as role models for a life that is attainable.

A weird side effect of my circumstances was, that as I moved on in my career, my relatives wouldn't understand my struggles or failures since 'I had achieved it all'. Certainly after I completed my Master's degree, they literally said I'd achieved more than they've ever dreamt for me. While this is a big compliment that warms the heart, it shows that they couldn't imagine a more distant dream, because they simply didn't know how it would look like. My closest relatives keep me asking how one becomes a scientist/professor, how the path looks like. The requirements and figures of merits that will eventually decide do not come naturally to them. If your parents earned a PhD, they are much better situated to accompany you up to that point beyond. This is a privilege to be valued.