4 ms·

My travels in white America – a land of anxiety, division and pockets of pain

12 points by kushti 9y ago

chmaynard 9y ago
From the article: "Increasingly, for many white Americans, their racial privilege resides not in positive benefits of work and security but in the sole fact that it could be worse – they could be black or Latino. In other words, their whiteness is all they have left."
- ashleyn 9y ago
  I've never been a believer in "racial privilege", however I think having the economic rug torn out from under white America has been instrumental in the meteoric rise of white advocacy and identity groups in the past few years. Middle-class America has been the big loser in the push for freer, more liberal trade since the end of the Cold War. This is exemplified in the so-called "elephant curve", a measure of income distribution that strikingly illustrates the stagnation of the (predominately white) middle class since the era of globalisation: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/hottest-chart-economics-means https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/hottest-chart-economics... Lower percentiles, which have been historically "browner", are seeing tremendous gains thanks to a freer global market. This is the wonder of capitalism and how it has begun to level a playing field which was rigged, particularly in the pre-1964 American South. This newfound power "correction" may create the illusion that public policy favours ethnic minorities over a white majority, because the demographic which has not seen progress since 1991 or so is predominately white. Therefore, progress is seen not as a function of merit, but as a function of what demographic curries the most special favours from government regardless of merit. Therefore, the rallying cry of the alt-right is for whites to vote in aggressive defence of white rights exclusively, and with callous disregard for the concerns of any other demographic. Because if they are seemingly doing it, and seemingly winning, you must be a sucker for not doing it yourself. All the while the notion of "equal before the law", a inscription carved within stone on the front of the Supreme Court, disappears in the wind of tribal identity and the elevation of the lowest X over the most qualified Y.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    > the demographic which has not seen progress since 1991 or so is predominately white I think "demographic" is the key - how much deviation is in that group? Does a poor white care that "on average" his demographic is doing well, because of all the rich whites? Who decides how to carve up society?

12 points by kushti 9y ago

From the article: "Increasingly, for many white Americans, their racial privilege resides not in positive benefits of work and security but in the sole fact that it could be worse – they could be black or Latino. In other words, their whiteness is all they have left."

ashleyn 9y ago
I've never been a believer in "racial privilege", however I think having the economic rug torn out from under white America has been instrumental in the meteoric rise of white advocacy and identity groups in the past few years. Middle-class America has been the big loser in the push for freer, more liberal trade since the end of the Cold War. This is exemplified in the so-called "elephant curve", a measure of income distribution that strikingly illustrates the stagnation of the (predominately white) middle class since the era of globalisation: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/hottest-chart-economics-means https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/hottest-chart-economics... Lower percentiles, which have been historically "browner", are seeing tremendous gains thanks to a freer global market. This is the wonder of capitalism and how it has begun to level a playing field which was rigged, particularly in the pre-1964 American South. This newfound power "correction" may create the illusion that public policy favours ethnic minorities over a white majority, because the demographic which has not seen progress since 1991 or so is predominately white. Therefore, progress is seen not as a function of merit, but as a function of what demographic curries the most special favours from government regardless of merit. Therefore, the rallying cry of the alt-right is for whites to vote in aggressive defence of white rights exclusively, and with callous disregard for the concerns of any other demographic. Because if they are seemingly doing it, and seemingly winning, you must be a sucker for not doing it yourself. All the while the notion of "equal before the law", a inscription carved within stone on the front of the Supreme Court, disappears in the wind of tribal identity and the elevation of the lowest X over the most qualified Y.
- Chris2048 9y ago
  > the demographic which has not seen progress since 1991 or so is predominately white I think "demographic" is the key - how much deviation is in that group? Does a poor white care that "on average" his demographic is doing well, because of all the rich whites? Who decides how to carve up society?