Guess when this happened and put your answers below if you like. I'll edit this post tomorrow and give the year.

Edit: The year was 1988, the college was Sunderland Polytechnic in the UK, which goes to show just how long this madness has been going on for.

I took a day's holiday from my job as a builder's labourer and rode 70 miles on a motorcycle, in pouring rain, to attend an interview for a 2 year full-time course as a trainee youth worker. Before the interview proper, all the candidates were gathered in a meeting room and given a general introduction to the staff and the way the interviews would be conducted. Pretty much the first thing that was said was the following statement,

"If you are white, male, and from a middle class background, you are wasting your time."

This was my first face to face introduction to identity politics. I was completely non-plussed and felt disorientated, as if I'd been sucker-punched. Nothing in the course literature had indicated anything like this. I had applied assuming that my 4 years of voluntary youth work at the local youth club would mean something, and that the counselling I had given various young people in distress would demonstrate my interest in the field. I was certainly white and male, and depending on how you viewed my background you could think of me as either middle or working class. I went into the interview feeling that it had already been decided against me, and did not perform well, getting criticised for using insensitive language at one point.

I came out of the interview perplexed that almost nothing to do with young people had been mentioned, and was then given a piece of written work to complete, which we were told was 'voluntary'. I don't suppose anyone believed that, given that the whole experience felt like entering a trap. The question we were asked to address was whether or not there was any fundamental difference between men and women other than that of biology. I was utterly perplexed, having absolutely no idea what they were getting at, and felt like I had entered a lunatic asylum. I don't suppose they were very impressed with my answer, which affirmed my belief that men and women are different and that that is just fine and nothing to worry about.

That evening I was back at the youth club doing my normal stint, feeling somewhat dazed and rather depressed. I couldn't make sense of any of it and realised that I couldn't bear to study in that kind of an atmosphere even in the unlikely event that they offered me a place. As expected I did not receive an offer, and a day or two later I rang the other college I had applied to and cancelled my application.