I can’t think of a better way to word this or title this, but I read an article a while back written by a black writer saying that educated, middle class white democrats are feeling what it is like to be a black American under the Trump administration.
Police officers can shoot you in public in front of tons of witnesses, and there will be no accountability.
You are outnumbered in a society where the majority of voters hate you and want to make your life worse.
Politicians who represent the majority of voters actively campaign on making your life harder and more miserable.
Your civil rights are constantly being targeted. Social programs that benefit you are targeted.
You realize the government not only doesn’t represent you, it represents the majority group, who are people who want to cause you pain, suffering and make your life harder and more miserable.
Things like that. Basically people will say ‘This isn’t America’ when they talk about America under Trump, but this has always been American for black people. When people say America isn’t a dictatorship, America was a dictatorship for black people up until a few decades ago. Slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, etc.
My impression is educated middle class whites are used to being insulated from the dangers of America and what it is capable of. Yes there are minority groups within that rank like LGBT, Jewish, etc who know what it is like to be a minority and a target. But I feel like a lot of people who are used to being protected by their race, education, income, class, etc are seeing the dangers for what they have always been.
Supposedly this is one reason Sanders was a candidate of educated white liberals, and not working class POC. Educated white liberals can afford to gamble on a potential utopia that will likely never materialize because if it fails they are protected by race, class, education and wealth.
But people who aren’t in that group need concrete, incremental reforms and protection from mistreatment from people actively trying to harm them.
I’m a recently retired middle/upper class white guy. I don’t think I ever voted for a republican, because this mess that we are in is what you get.
My BIL an upper class middle aged white guy thought that the riot/inserection was very bad. I’m sure he has somehow found a way to blame it on Obama/Biden.
My step(?) cousin can’t even talk to his father anymore. My cousin has his head screwed on straight. My BIL does not.
All caused by one man. A racist, bigot, rapist. And I think that’s what MAGAs like about him.
I am middle class, but not white. I think it’s a great thing that middle class white men are starting to feel what it’s like to be marginalized and have a target on their backs. It’s about damned time.
In all honestly, I look like another run-of-the-mill MAGA Arkansan when I’m out in public, so I’m not really worried about being marginalized or threatened with violence. I was a little worried during COVID, because I’d go places on occasion and I was one of the few people who was wearing a mask. I stood out like a sore thumb and while I got what I thought were the occasional dirty looks nobody bothered me directly about it.
Agreed, thats the point. Normally middle class whites (esp white men) are used to being protected by race, gender, class, education, income. Now that we/they are also targets, the illusion of what America is supposed to be is falling apart and people are seeing it for what it is and always has been.
One would hope that in the long run this results in reforms. But this being America, its impossible to tell.
Yeah, I know the feeling. People have tried to find items like that but nothing universal has come out.
I get ousted as a ‘liberal’ because of my piercings.
I get confronted enough that I now take them out if interacting with the public that might have RWNJs. (Opposed to something like the Ren Fair whereas I never see MAGA)
I’m an old straight white guy who grew up in farm country and worked in law enforcement. I’ve never experienced any noticeable amount of marginalization or bigotry directed at me.
But I don’t need to be the target of marginalization or bigotry to know that they’re wrong and to oppose them. And to be aware that other people have been unjustly targeted in this coutry.
I’m not about to compare whatever marginalization I’ve had in my life with that felt by a woman, a person of color, a person with a disability, or even someone with a funny accent, But I cast my first vote for George McGovern and have consistently voted Democratic ever since.
The Republicans are not and never have been the party for “middle class white” (or any other person in the middle class) Americans.
Aged middle class white woman here, who in my youth experienced being stalked by a salesperson in a women’s clothing boutique because she assumed based on my clothing that I must be a shoplifter. It opened my eyes: Crikey, if this one incident made me feel crappy and disrespected, how the hell do Black folks bear up under this shit every day? Currently I live in a blue area of a blue state; and while yes, there are random Trump bumper stickers and such here and there, I’ve never felt harassed, disrespected, or marginalized, other than the usual lifetime’s accumulation of what every woman endures. Of course, being a somewhat frumpy old white woman brings with it its own protective shield of invisibility to male harassment; but given my life experience I know I move in a shell of protection that’s thinner than what middle-class white guys expect but still there.
Thank you for this proviso - I, like many members of the Tribe with appropriate looks or names have indeed not taken it for granted though we’ve also benefited in that we could normally pass if we were willing to be silent and keep our heads down.
Which brought up a conversation I had with my wife in Trump 1.0 (and it echoes @EddyTeddyFreddy’s point). She is a general European “anglo” mutt who was brought up Christian (she isn’t anymore), and College educated, and raised at the upper end of working class. During Trump 1.0, when it became ever-more-clear that No, the adults in the room wouldn’t control him, she actually felt threatened. But as a woman, even one who was born in the 70s, she had always known she had to keep her head down and not stand out too much. She could be good and smart, but it was dangerous to be exceptional.
Of course, when Trump 2.0 was in beta (heh), she stopped giving me a hard time for comfort buying a spare box or two of ammunition. In fact, she encouraged it a bit, and didn’t try to talk me out of my first new firearm purchase in a decade.
Because while it won’t help if worst comes to worst, now that little extra expenditure makes us both feel a tiny bit better. And $25 for a box of 9mm HP (or two boxes of FMJ) is somehow cheaper than going out for a nice comfort meal!
Whatever vulnerability we/they may be feeling is, in my perception at least, a tiny fraction of what those who are really being repressed have been experiencing since forever. I think the comparison is liable to be odious to many of those people. I can easily walk around, old white guy now with a limp, and feel no threat whatever just be being out in public. I can drive and not get pulled over for nothing and end up dead. Maybe if I accidentally got in the way of an ICE operation I might have a problem, but that would be irrelevant to my race and education and class. In that sense, some of my privilege is at least temporarily gone, but it is in fact a small part and of small risk to me.
You asserted in the OP that the majority of voters hate me, but you have provided no evidence for that.
The politicians that are trying to make my life worse do not, actually, represent the majority of voters. It is a very united minority that is running things for now. I don’t know if that affects your thesis, because it’s “who’s in charge” that is the relevant question, not whether they are the majority. But the government does not represent the majority, due to various flukes in our electoral system and the failure of many people to vote.
Do I think it’s salutary that some kinds of repression are being spread around slightly more evenly than before? Maybe. If it leads to more people being against all repression against anyone. But it is more likely to lead to a kind of competitive repression, where each group seeks to step on the enemy group whenever they get into power. If that’s your goal, then you’re no better than the other side. What’s the point of defending liberal values if what you really want is to act like a thug against people who disagree with you?
I’ve been a target shooter since I was 11 years old. So I have a few guns. I was a little surprised when my wife asked me to teach her how to shoot.
I did. Lots of table top lessons, and range time. Now, we have both have taken a CCW (Concealed Carry) class. Make no mistake, neither of us want to carry, but it was good instruction. Next up, my wife is going to take a defensive handgun use class. They want everyone to bring 200 rounds of ammo. 200. Crikey. She’ll be shooting a .380, so it won’t be too punishing.
Anyway, it’s just an example of feeling a little worried about what MAGAs will do next. Trump wants voting records? Surely he wouldn’t use those to abuse people /s
If Trumps brownshirts start kicking in doors, we don’t want to be easy targets. A nice looking steel security screen door is getting installed in June (we wanted one anyway, but…)
Back on track. Marginalized? Let’s see, they murdered two (at least) white middle class Americans. No justice came forward at all. The brownshirts can do pretty much anything they want. I’m rather surprised that the No Kings protests haven’t seen violence.
I think I’m in the demographic in the title but wouldn’t compare my daily life to people that are oppressed. For example, my peers at work who are in protected classes got Medicaid payments denied this morning by my government’s discriminatory little vice president. I happen to not be on Medicaid but my govt just demarcated my coworkers and I from each other. I’m really trying to get the nature of the OP’s thread after having read the posts a few times each.
That’s the bitter joke. The Republicans have convinced this group that they are their champions. And they have fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.
This discussion makes me think of
Civis romanus sum—“I am a Roman citizen”—was one of the most powerful legal and diplomatic tools of the ancient world. Coined by Cicero, it functioned as a universal “safe word,” guaranteeing fundamental legal rights and physical safety across the entire empire.
(Wikipedia)
“I am an American citizen” used to mean that, at least on American soil. Not universally anymore.
Yep, it seems a large swath of middle class Americans have been convinced that any government help for them whatsoever, even something like universal health care, which pretty much every other advanced nation has, is (gasp ) Communism! a real American works hard and pays their fair way in life!
What they have been brainwashed not to realize is that Repubs are not creating a level playing field to give everyone a chance to succeed, they are tilting the playing field strongly toward the rich and power elite. Making the middle class nothing but wage slaves. This is what Democratic candidates should run on: We are the ones working to create a level playing field to give all Americans a chance to prosper!
I think of a variation on the old saying “the best trick the devil ever pulled is convincing people he didn’t exist”. My variation is “the best trick the Republicans ever pulled is convincing ordinary Americans that they benefit from the same policies that benefit the super rich”.
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
~ Not exactly John Steinbeck
) Communism! a real American works hard and pays their fair way in life!