During my field work at the terminal one ramp at John F. Kennedy, I noticed privilege truly existed in many forms. Terminal One employs many different types of people and professions. There are Port Authority police, security guards, ramp cleaners, aircraft cleaners, ramp agents, ground-equipment mechanics, fuelers, airline agents, and aircraft mechanics. The most obvious form of privilege at my field site, was based on the profession and position one held. Depending on your job and your duty on the ramp, you were more privileged than others. Not only did it exist among different professions, but privilege of age and experience existed for those of the same position. I, being an aircraft mechanic, am fully aware of my privilege over my subculture group, the ramp agents.

Being a mechanic, we are treated completely different than the ramp agents. Aircraft mechanics receive much more education and training than usually anyone else at the airport. We are in charge of the structural integrity of the aircraft. We are responsible for the safety of everyone who boards the plane’s, life. If the plane is out-of-service or damaged in any way, we make the final decision on the aircrafts air-worthiness. If we decide the aircraft is not safe to fly, then we are capable of grounding the plane, and cancelling the flight. If we deem a plane safe to fly, then an accident occurs, it is us mechanics, who will be held liable. With all those responsibilities, comes the privilege. The privilege is present at the ramp, where my position is valued. Receiving the extensive training, that other employees at the airport did not receive is what makes me privileged. Aside from how we are treated by other people on the ramp compared to the ramp agents, our privilege is present in other forms. We are often judged by other ramp professionals about the amount of work we do and how much we get paid. The aircraft we work on, for the most part, don’t break. That is unless, an accident occurs. Aside, from preventative and routine maintenance, our job is not difficult. On the other hand, the ramp agents work hard, every single day. Their duties are non-stop, and to top it off, they get paid very little. That is one of the most obvious privileges present on the ramp. We are privileged because of what we know and not, how much we do.

Privilege also exist amongst the ramp agents. The supervisor, who is more experienced than the other members of his crew, does the least work. The heavier, more physical work is often given to those with lesser experience. In my fieldwork research, I was able to avoid biasing my observation with my privilege. However, the privilege of being an aircraft mechanic can affect the observation of the ramp agent subculture in several ways, such as job relevance. Being a mechanic, I would normally assume my duties are more important than the rampees, making the job of the ramp agents less relevant. Also, my observation would be more technical than someone else’s, because of my understanding of the environment and the aircraft at a different extent. Privilege would also affect the observation, because we would not understand how the ramp agent feels about certain issues, because we do not suffer from the same problems. Privilege could affect my observation in many ways, but I did my best to put it all aside to fully understand the ramp agent subculture.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.