What I’m trying to say is that even if nobody is actively corrupt, it’s a structurally classist system.
Yep … this.
Whether there are lies or nepotism or completely inapplicable experiences or just confirmation biases … the very idea of the internship to get your foot in the door is classist.
The idea that you have time to burn for free for the sake of your career is classist. The idea that an economic system premised on everyone being employed somehow should work by having those employees constantly “hustle” to get employment is classist. To speak of these notions as universally applicable without acknowledging their classism … is classist.