# Racist stereotypes, the white working class and ego-driven abuse **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 5, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512 "2019-05-05T14:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/21 "2019-05-07T01:58:46Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > And this sort of thinking was purposefully instituted _with support from law_, in order to fight against the possibility of poor blacks and poor whites uniting to combat the rich and powerful who were screwing them both. It wasn’t always like that – Virginia (around 1700, IIRC) had mixed marriages, lots of free blacks and even land-owning blacks, before the laws changed such that they had to leave and segregation/white supremacism/race-based-chattel-slavery became much more ingrained as the law of the land. This was engineered by those in power, at least partially – it wasn’t a “natural” state of affairs in any way. Exactly. As Lyndon Johnson said (as quoted by Bill Moyers): > [@](#): > > If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/22 "2019-05-07T02:24:34Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve heard lynchings were more common in areas without reliable law enforcement. Which again, makes sense because without the police around people take justice on themselves. [Black people accounted for 72.7% of U.S. lynchings.](https://www.naacp.org/history-of-lynchings/) Maybe the police _chose_ not to be around. ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/23 "2019-05-07T06:50:13Z")
Of ego and classicism, I recently came across an old discussion on the web wherein the participants mentioned parts of some major city in a southern state, stating what high school they went to determined their class and how good they were as a person, even later in life. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/24 "2019-05-07T08:50:50Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > 4: Any theories as to why there was more opposition to trade in manufactured goods between Japan and the US than between Germany and the US? Because the influx of Japanese goods was much more sudden, tended to compete more directly with American goods, and was undergirded by a far more aggressive trade policy. It’s pretty clear that Japan has been superseded as main trade rival by China at this point though, after the “Lost Decade”. Speaking as someone of East Asian descent, most resentment against trade competition from East Asian countries is driven by genuine economic factors with racism being only a supporting cause. ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/25 "2019-05-07T12:35:14Z")
China is more of an assembly origin. The chunk of parts making up a circuit board come from Taiwan, Japan or Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/26 "2019-05-07T16:46:29Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Because the influx of Japanese goods was much more sudden, tended to compete more directly with American goods, and was undergirded by a far more aggressive trade policy. Timeline point. In 1972 I had never hear of Toyota, Mazda, or Nissan/Datsun. There was a Honda motorcycle dealership in St. Louis that displayed [a tiny little car](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Civic_(first_generation)) that my friends called, “a motorized shopping cart.” By 1975 a Ford dealer in Paducah, KY also sold those cars. He added the Accord in 1976. Finally, he sold the Ford dealership and concentrated on Hondas. It was that fast. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/27 "2019-05-14T03:50:40Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > 1: It’s occurred to me that a fair number of stereotypes which are applied to ethnic minorities, especially blacks, seem to apply to the more dysfunctional parts of the white, especially rural, working class. Is this just a false impression I’m getting? If it’s a false impression, you’re not the only one that’s getting it. [https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tom+hanks+black+jeopardy&view=detail&mid=7EB867A1EAA8AA8D017B7EB867A1EAA8AA8D017B&FORM=VIRE](https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tom+hanks+black+jeopardy&view=detail&mid=7EB867A1EAA8AA8D017B7EB867A1EAA8AA8D017B&FORM=VIRE) ETA this is just a little levity ---
**Author:** ![fedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@fedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512/28 "2019-05-14T20:24:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Let me point out that the l[ynching of Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit), the inspiration for the song _Strange Fruit,_ occurred in Marion, Indiana; and that Donald Trump is from New York. also, during early 20th century Indiana was like aa KKK HQ, and Oregon had KKK legislative, so racism is not just southerners; LA had restrictive covenants forbidding selling to Jews or Blacks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racist-stereotypes-the-white-working-class-and-ego-driven-abuse/833512.md?page=1)