<p>Something I’ve come to notice, more and more, is a tone of what I’ll call “petulant fatigue” from some people who reside within this country’s majority racial demographic, ie., white people. I can’t pretend to know with absolute certainty what causes this tone to arise. I can only piece together a composite picture based on the gist of what I’ve heard and read in the context of discussions over race, class, sex and privilege, and try to note consistently recurring themes. Here, in no certain order, are some of the impressions I get without fail:</p>
<p>1). A smoldering, sometimes barely contained anger with having to address these issues in the first place. I get the impression that much of it has to do with the feeling that, inherent in any such discussion, is the accusation that they themselves are actively engaged in some form of social oppression, or at the very least, are complicit in the same. They view themselves as basically good people who subscribe wholeheartedly to America’s egalitarian ideals. They believe they have been unfairly lumped into groups of racists, classists, sexists, etc., merely based on the fact that their skin happens to be white, they happen to be male, or happen to reside within the social upper-class. Feeling that their individuality has been summarily dismissed, they thereby feel disinclined to view any “ism” charge as truly legitimate.</p>
<p>2). They believe most people with whom they associate are like themselves, and therefore the reported prevalence of racism, sexism, classism, etc., is wildly exaggerated.</p>
<p>3). They believe since most people are like themselves, “the playing field has now been leveled”. Slavery was more than a century ago. Jim Crow is a relic of the age of black and white cinematography, vacuum tubes, transistor radios, and telephone land lines. In the wake of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Brown vs. The Board of Education Supreme Court decision, all that the Constitution guarantees has now been afforded every citizen. Even the President of The United States is a black man. Doesn’t that say it all?</p>
<p>4). Because the playing field has now been leveled (or almost entirely so), the complainers and agitators need to take a good hard look in the mirror and stop playing the victim card. They need to stop having babies out of wedlock, take advantage of their educational opportunities, stop using/dealing drugs, and get a frickin’ job, for heaven’s sake! </p>
<p>5). The complainers and agitators have a political/social agenda that has nothing to do with real oppression, and everything to do with self-aggrandizement and pandering to the victim class.</p>
<p>6). Anecdotal accounts of racism can often be explained as incidents in which the purported “victim” has assumed racism where none actually existed, and in any case, incidences of real racism are isolated and infrequent.</p>
<p>7). Nowadays, “reverse racism” is more prevalent. White males are now the most oppressed demographic in America. Affirmative Action in both higher education, and hiring now places whites at a decided disadvantage compared to blacks and other minorities (save those poor, hardworking Asians, who are possibly getting even more shafted) They can give accounts of how whites have suffered racial discrimination at the hands of some other minority, and point out that you never hear about such things “in the media”.</p>
<p>8). They have it rough getting through life, too, and don’t feel particularly privileged over anyone else. Their mortgage is under-water, their teenaged daughter cuts herself, they have a two hour commute both ways, to and from work, and their elderly parents need assisted living care three states away. They are just trying their best to slog through life in this contemporary age, just like everybody else, and have no time for added guilt, thank you very much!</p>
<p>9). They are beyond tired of the whole discussion, wish people would just “move on”, and stop talking as if nothing has changed in America.</p>
<p>I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but I think the above covers most of my impressions of petulant fatigue. It’s one of the reasons any discussion of “privilege” falls on deaf (fatigued) ears.</p>