Racial disparities persist, and they aren’t only in police shootings.
By Nicholas Kristof
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/opinion/sunday/when-whites-just-dont-get-it-part-6.html
And THIS is the only rational explanation that I can come up with for the meteoric rise of a certain political figure.
White men, in particular, are constantly being told that they “don’t get it”. The problems are their fault, they are privileged, so advantaged above every other group of people. Acknowledge your privilege, white guy!
And yet…they are struggling too. They can’t keep up with the bills, they are losing their jobs, not getting raises. The cost of living is going up, their bank accounts going down, their debt is increasing. They can’t get ahead, they are being left behind. They are feeling that others are getting advantages that they aren’t. Getting this shoved in their face all the time, while they feel their lives suck, just like many other people’s do too. It’s got to be someone else’s fault, right?
So one group blames it on illegal aliens, the poor, racial hiring preferences. The other group blames in on “Wall Street Greed”, the wealthy. It’s all the same thing, someone else’s fault. Whether it’s true, or partly true, doesn’t matter. It’s the perception.
And I don’t think the solution is to attempt to educate people even further about how privileged they are, and how they still don’t get it. People are so tired of that, that in November, God help us all. Nicholas Kristof and other white privilege police, there’s your honest discussion. And thanks for nothing! 
@busdriver11:
While I won’t get into the politics of it, what you say is true, in that perceptions play into it. The part of the political spectrum you were told about were told for years that they lost their jobs because of affirmative action, that women and minorities were given ‘their jobs’ (when the reality is those jobs disappeared, either to automation, or cheap labor overseas). The same group does blame other people, they have finally decided for example that the ‘elites’ of the GOP were lying when they told them that tax breaks on the well off and corporations would bring jobs, so they have turned on them and are following someone who is preaching 'I am not owned by them".
The problem is that group doesn’t recognize that what they are facing is what blacks have faced pretty much throughout their history in the US. THe political entity you are talking about is now facing the prospects of little economic promise for the future as relatively well paying jobs have fled, they are faced with the breakdowns in the family blacks have seen all along, they are seeing rampant drug use (take a look at where Crystal Meth is a plague, and take a look at the rise of heroin), and they are faced with communities that cannot provide decent schools to get the better jobs. Their peceptions in this case are reality, backed up by statistics and hard facts, the problem is that they are still blaming other people, rather than the reality, that the American dream they were told to believe in has big cracks in it that no one has solved for them, they have lost hope.
The kind of racism the article is talking about is the racism of looking at a problem in a community and saying “that is their fault”, for decades we have heard that the problem in the black community isn’t discrimination, it is broken families, lack of education and other ills, rather than saying “whatever the problems cause, how do we address it”, where we is as a people.
The same can be said for the political group you are talking about, they have been fed a bunch of excuses on their loss of economic privilege they bought into, much as people bought into excuses for not helping the black community, and basically no one is saying the same thing “these are our fellow citizens, how can we help them?”, today you hear the same blame, that these people live in places that never spent on their schools, that depended on having jobs that matched their limited skill sets, and so forth (and sadly, this often comes from liberals who would bristle if it were said about the black community).
The article does show it isn’t all just perception, though. Did you notice in the article when they talk about jobs, how for example when a black candidate went up for a low wage job versus a white person who had a criminal record, the white guy got the job? Or that on interviews, whites were three times more likely to get callbacks for interviews? That shows given a similar job with similar background, that there is bias towards whites. What is interesting (not in a good way) is that many of these jobs likely in the past would have gone to a black candidate, since a white person in that time and place probably had better paying alternatives, now that whites are competing for the low wage jobs blacks would have taken, you see what is out there.
I agree with your post, musicprnt, however, I don’t think that someone publishing one more article on how white people don’t get it, and that it really is their fault helps at all (and that is what the article boils down to). The “us” vs “them” mentality that divides us only benefits politicians, it doesn’t help solve the problem.
I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that this isn’t working. And now look at what we might be facing.
IF this thread is going to drift political, it should address the unique issues of the orange skinned people.
Except that one of these groups is provably correct. Whose real income has tripled over the last 30 years? (Hint: it ain’t “illegal aliens”, minorities, or the poor.)
I’ve always thought that the conversation in the US should be about class, not race, since poverty is color-blind and is at the root of most of society’s ills.
Yes, white men are struggling, but less so than others.
(Trying to stay away from politics). We have some big problems right now. But pointing the finger at different groups of people because of race,religion, nationality is not going to solve anything and will only pull people further apart.
Cart before the horse.
That political figure is taking a page from political playbook which has been useful for many politicians and public demagogues trying to gain support by scapegoating marginalized groups in their respective societies for problems and policies gone bad which were really instigated by and/or supported by those demagogues and/or the dominant majority as they derived great benefits or at least believed they did before the negative effects became apparent.
Some examples from the last century:
Enver Pasha and the Armenians he blamed for the Ottoman defeats which were really a product of poor strategic planning and abysmally managed logistical supply situation which he was responsible for.
Erich Ludendorff and Jews, Pacifists, and other groups he blamed for the “stab in the back”* for the lost of the war which was really due in large part to his ill-conceived policies…including assuming he could knock the Western Allies out of the war before the Americans could arrive in force as late as 1918.
- Was the very first public figure to openly use the term to scapegoating groups marginalized by popular prejudices fanned by the German militarist elite to divert blame from themselves and their supporters for their own failed policies and responsibility for supporting them.
Incidentally, this “stab in the back” myth was already a concern for General John J. Pershing at the end of WWI. He felt ending WWI with an armistice without completely defeating the Imperial German Army on the battlefield was a mistake.
He was overruled, but in WWII, this issue was one key reason why the US and the Allies insisted on accepting nothing less than an unconditional surrender from the Axis powers so the militarist establishments could be completely and undeniably discredited.
"Except that one of these groups is provably correct. Whose real income has tripled over the last 30 years? (Hint: it ain’t “illegal aliens”, minorities, or the poor.) "
Yet how are you going to prove that those people whose real income has tripled over the last 30 years, are the ones at fault for other people’s poverty? One thing does not cause another. There is not a finite amount of money to go around, and because one person goes into a career field that is highly valued and well paid, means that another person becomes impoverished. Why would anyone blame their particular predicament on the fact that other people are getting a higher income than them?
It’s just trying to place blame on a group of people, instead of the far more complex set of reasons.
There’s a classic interview that oral historian Studs Terkel conducted with a former KKK member, called “Why I Quit the Klan.” And the gist of it was that the guy, a poor white in Civil Rights era south, realized that he had, as a Klan member, been manipulated by the town’s white elites, to take out his frustrations in life on African-Americans, rather than realizing where his economic barriers really came from.
I think about it a lot these days.
“Cart before the horse.”
No it’s not. You’re talking about the same thing I am. Everyone is just looking for someone to blame their problems on, and people are capitalizing on anger and promising to fix it. And when you keep telling people it’s their fault, they get angrier and want a new set of scapegoats even more. It’s all about power and utilizing whatever group of people you cater to, in order to get more power. And then nothing will get fixed, because it never was about solving problems. Same thing.
Ironically, one voice writing for the very elites which has traditionally played poor/working-class Whites in the last decades wrote the following article which seems like a Freudian slip providing a window into how they actually view that demographic:
https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/432569/father-f-hrer
Interestingly, the author here is turning the very scapegoating tactics traditionally used for marginalized minority groups against the poor/working-class Whites and thus, let off the main targeted audience of the NR…upper/upper-middle class conservatives who have historically played poor/working-class Whites to mobilize support for their favored political initiatives while secretly/not-so-secretly feeling heavy disdain and looking down upon them.
Actually, most mainstream economists…especially those advocating free-market capitalist economics will beg to disagree.
One critical gauge of the value of money is its relative scarcity in relation to the supply of goods it chases in the national and global markets. If money is limitless beyond a certain threshold…or merely perceived to be as such…money effectively becomes worthless.
Some examples within the last century:
The German Papiermark during the early-mid 1920’s when hyperinflation meant one needed a wheelbarrow’s worth of currency to buy a small loaf of bread.
The Hungarian Pengo after WWII(1945-46) when hyperinflation was so bad prices doubled EVERY 15 HOURS as communicated by national radio.
Nationalist Chinese Yuan during the latter parts of the Chinese Civil War
Communist Vietnamese Dong during the '90s
Zimbabwean Dollar which became the least valued currency unit in the mid-late '00s before it was completely demonetized by the country’s bank. Got a bunch of 20K and 30K Zimbabwean banknotes…still looking to pick up a Trillion Zimbabwean Dollar banknote.
and there’s likely more examples.
I’m not talking individual cases; I’m talking structural, systematic, policy decisions which have steadily tilted the whole playing field toward the wealthy. It’s undeniable that the wealthy have received massive tax cuts since 1981. It is also undeniable that the poor have received massive cuts to services in the same time frame. And it is undeniable that the middle class has stagnated or worse in the same time frame. One small example of the middle class being squeezed out is the real cost of public universities, 1980 compared to now. Or the busting of unions. Or the constant drumbeat to privatize Medicare, which would benefit a few already-wealthy insurance companies at the expense of millions of seniors.
ETA – I’m on my phone so linking is hard, but if you want i can give you evidence of all of that later when I get home.
ETA 2 – Though it’s not hard to find. Just Google wealth inequality or income inquality. It’s well documented.
"Actually, most mainstream economists…especially those advocating free-market capitalist economics will beg to disagree.
One critical gauge of the value of money is its relative scarcity in relation to the supply of goods it chases in the national and global markets. If money is limitless beyond a certain threshold…or merely perceived to be as such…money effectively becomes worthless.
Some examples within the last century"
We are talking about here, now, the United States, are we not?
There is not a direct correlation that because one person has an increased income, that therefore another person’s income always must go down an equal amount. Unless, of course, that one person gets the other person’s job. Some industries and their workers are getting left behind, due to many factors that are not because privileged white guys are getting all the available increases in income.
This is a red herring, and I think you know we’re not talking about individuals. We’re talking about the US economy.
The middle class as a group is stagnant compared to 36 years ago. Also, the middle class as a group is shrinking and it’s not because they’re moving up.
Do you dispute that?
@LasMa is correct.
“I’m not talking individual cases; I’m talking structural, systematic, policy decisions which have steadily tilted the whole playing field toward the wealthy. It’s undeniable that the wealthy have received massive tax cuts since 1981. It is also undeniable that the poor have received massive cuts to services in the same time frame. And it is undeniable that the middle class has stagnated or worse in the same time frame. One small example of the middle class being squeezed out is the real cost of public universities, 1980 compared to now. Or the busting of unions. Or the constant drumbeat to privatize Medicare, which would benefit a few already-wealthy insurance companies at the expense of millions of seniors”
Yet everyone can fill out the same tax forms. There is not a set of forms for white guys, and a set of forms for everyone else. You may have thought that a 70% tax rate was well and good…just imagine, add Medicare and state taxes, and it could be over 85% for some people, but I doubt many would agree that is something to strive for. Tax rates were slashed for everyone, one cannot pretend that it was only for the wealthy. Add in booming housing and investment markets, those who have houses and investments will profit.
I’m not so sure about the massive cuts to service that you are talking about. Expanded Medicaid, food stamps, millions more on disability, expanded unemployment insurance, these entitlements have been very expensive. I don’t disagree with expanding these programs even further, though. Yes, the middle class has stagnated, I agree about the cost of college and union busting being a reason. Don’t think the attempt to privatize Medicare is anything that harms people right now, though, as it is merely an attempt.
However, I don’t think that blaming the decrease in quality of life on the white guy (who is also severely affected, even if not as much as those in the black community) is really going to fix ANY of these problems.
"The middle class as a group is stagnant compared to 36 years ago. Also, the middle class as a group is shrinking and it’s not because they’re moving up.
Do you dispute that?"
Absolutely not. It is staggeringly obvious that this is happening, and it is very much why I think people are so angry right now. Life is getting more expensive, income is rarely increasing with any significance, yet people’s debt is growing.
I just don’t think that blaming this on any specific group of people is helpful to solving the problem.
The middle class whites who have lost jobs and seen wage stagnation for many years don’t give one whit as to what Nicholas Kristof has to say. To them he is one of those east coast snobs who talks about flyover country as though it doesn’t matter. These commentators, pundits, whatever have likely never met or spent any time with a coal miner from West Virginia or a rancher in Wyoming. They talk among themselves at dinner parties, read ‘studies’ and ‘statistics’ from other elite organizations and think they know everything and should lecture to the middle class. No wonder all their opinions are rejected.
The rebellion on both sides of the political spectrum is against elitism and people who think they are somehow superior and should run other people lives. This essay is one example.