White Anger!

In My Humble Opinion
21

If they do, it is to complain about affirmative action has made the field more unfair by giving preference to women and minorities. And the problem is there is actually a germ of truth in that, because affirmative action is designed to offer equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunities; that is, it is intended to ensure that there is something like proportional representation of minorities in colleges, business, et cetera via imposed quota rather than to ensure that college recruiters, employers, et cetera actually treat everyone fairly and give opportunities and advancements to people based purely on merit.

Of course, you can’t legislate away prejudice and bigotry as much as you try, so as imperfect as it is, affirmative action at least offers a foot in the door, albeit not nearly enough to achieve any real equality. But it also fails to address the bigger structural problems of inequalities in education, generational wealth accumulation, impeding social mobility via redlining and other exclusionary practices, and so forth. And these are inequalities that are not easily seen (or at least, are easy to conveniently ignore), and so it makes it easy to say that so-and-so only got the job because the company needed to fill a quota for its government contract, and thus, seeding the ground for more entitled resentment, especially if you are feeling like you could be competing for a job someday.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

Stranger

22

I don’t have too much to add, except that I know exactly the type to which you refer. And I don’t think it’s as rational as you suspect. Is it possible that some people are just miserable, and that misery needs to find a way to express? And the current climate of politics, income inequality, changing opportunities for the working class, and a media landscape that provides a bespoke set of truths for anyone means they can all find exactly what they want (need?) to find?

I’ll give you a gratuitous example:
I have a close relative. He’s a freaking lawyer. He’s miserable and all in on Trump because globalists, US manufacturing, immigrants, and a thousand other sleights.

He didn’t used to be this way. He became a lawyer only because he wanted the big money. He flamed out at a firm and now works his own Main St. office- so he’s not making the megabucks, but he does manage a respectable salary in the six figure range. He’s got one of the worst marriages I’ve ever seen (think screaming matches in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner). Oh, and the best part: Despite marrying a jew, he believes in all that stuff about jews conspiring to control the world.

Point is, he’s miserable for a bunch of reasons, all of which are his own doing. And he doesn’t see it. But Trump gives him someone to blame.

23

I suppose one of the fundamental questions is “who decides what each person is ‘entitled’ to?” And what resource does someone have if they don’t like the outcome?

24

I’m generalizing here, but when members perceive themselves as belonging to a group that is socially, economically, and politically dominant, they on some level assume that there’s an inherent amount of status they’re entitled to relative to others. They probably couldn’t tell you exactly what they’re entitled to, and might even bristle at the charge that they feel entitled.

They’ll reveal it in their language and behavior. When they make reference to “our” country, as they did during the Obama years, they’re clearly telling us that they want a white guy running the country. Not necessarily out of a conscious hatred of blacks but because they’re just comfortable with whites.

Again, I’m generalizing; there are lots of details that will vary from one person and situation to the next.

25

In West Virginia, a common term is “regular, hard-working Americans”. Presumably, the hard work improves their digestion.

I can’t remember the comedian who said, “In Russia, they say ‘deport Jews’; in America, we say ‘Oust the eastern liberals’”.

26

In the UK they’re known as Gammons -

Collective noun for white, middle-aged, furious-faced men who are heavily concentrated in the vast reaches of England’s Brexit heartlands.

Spitting out talking points found in fascist organs like the Daily Mail (or, for those preferring something less intellectual, the Daily Express), gammon exist in a state of perpetual outrage and exasperated “I’m just an ordinary bloke, me” confusion.

27

Huh? This is the first time I’ve seen a claim that white people have a monopoly on being angry? Or any basic emotion for that matter? There are whole stereotypes you could use against any race, parallel to any of the examples you’ve given. ABW predates Karen by quite some time, for instance. There are also plenty of counter-examples as well.

I will admit, however, that every Indian immigrant I’ve ever known seems pretty chill, but I think that is more of a fact that they were not raised here. Maybe this is an American thing, rather than a white thing?

28

White male anger is not in the slightest way new. They brought it with them on the Mayflower… The first people who experienced it were the first people they saw.

Anger is fear. It is more useful to talk about what white men are afraid of than what they are angry at. Same with white women. Same with everyone, but this is the white anger thread.

My guess: they are afraid that all the people they have abused and oppressed, raped and kicked, stolen from, enslaved literally or merely impoverished, might have the power to resent it, and what will whites do then? This is exactly what the terror of becoming a minority ‘in their own country’ is about. It’s entirely about power – which they see as the power to harm.

White males who say defensively "well I didn’t do any of those things, it wasn’t ME, I’m not like that’, are speaking out of fear that maybe all the deserved retribution will spill over onto them anyway.

They always have thought in terms of US and THEM, and can’t imagine that everyone else doesn’t also feel that way.

29

I’m not convinced it’s a race-centered thing.

I think it’s a change in the aspirational lifestyle (i.e. how you should live) combined with more visibility into how others live (or want you to think they live) fueled by social media and marketing.

It has always seemed to me that in years past, the middle-class “ideal” was more attainable- a car or two, a home in the suburbs, well fed and clothed children, and a bit of extra scratch for hobbies, a family vacation, ability to send the kids to college, etc… Enough so, that most middle-class people were within sight of it, and it didn’t seem unrealistic.

Now what we see is considerably less attainable. The modern-day equivalent basically takes something like a 150k household income here in Dallas. It’s the same basic ideal as before, but more so. There’s more emphasis on the details- late model cars, nice houses with upscale stuff/renovations, more exotic vacations, nice clothes, kids going to private/out of state universities, etc… And making it worse, those who have achieved it (or part of it), are showing it off on social media, and TV is doing a lot of level-setting as well- what you see as the “normal” middle class home and car isn’t really so attainable.

So as a result, white middle class people are frustrated and angry that they’re driving a 2002 Suzuki, living in a house whose fixtures date from the 1980s, and if they go on vacation, they go to the lake for a long weekend, not two weeks in Florida. And they can’t afford to send their kids to state school, much less to the “cool” school that their kids want to go to.

I think where race may intersect it is that as these people are feeling this unfocused frustration and anger at their perceived place in the world, they see minorities and other groups getting and/or asking for “special treatment” with respect to economic issues, social issues, educational issues, etc… and it rankles, as they feel like they’re getting left behind even further, while these “other” people are getting help from the government.

This all amplifies if you’re rural, blue collar, uneducated, etc…

30

I doubt very much that Trump sees himself as a failure in any activity - I just don’t think he thinks that reflectively.

He genuinely believes he is the greatest thing ever, he has always been successful and everyone else lets him down, but despite such setbacks he always comes out on top because he knows more than everyone else.

That utter unself conscious belief in himself is what attracts plenty of those who feel disempowered, here is a person who can get things done - excepts that everyine in this cabal is deluded in pretty much every way

31

They don’t think this at all. They fail to understand that privilege is not a “thing they were given”, it’s a “thing that wasn’t taken away”. These angry people see everything they achieved in life as a result of their hard work, and they are 100% right. Privilege doesn’t mean you didn’t have to work to get ahead, it means your work was rewarded.

So, when progressives try to even the field, these folks fall back on the fact that they “weren’t given anything” and see it as unfair.

32

I agree with LSL: you knocked that one out of the park.

My pithy way to associate myself with your erudite post is to point to the CFSG* and his loss to the person he referred to as the 'worst presidential candidate’ in history.

And that’s just gotta’ hurt.

I think that’s how a ridiculous % of CFSGs supporters feel: they have every putative advantage and still their lives are shit. “Please tell me who’s to blame for this inconceivable miscarriage of justice.”

[Because we just know it isn’t me.]

The “party of personal responsibility” are The Victims’ Victims, in endless pursuit of scapegoats.

They truly are irony-impaired, aren’t they ?

*Cheeto-Faced Shit-Gibbon

33

"When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression” is a phrase often seen online.

34

I don’t think so. I mean every interaction isn’t subconscious treatise on racial relations over the past half millennium.

Although I now have this image in my head of some Pilgrim screaming at some Indians how he’s “been in the New World for 10 minutes!! Why don’t I have a fucking TURKEY on my plate!?”

35

I’m not saying that it is. Just that the anger and resentment is the self-righteousness of those who have a lot of nasty darkness that they don’t want to ever have to look at.

36

I don’t they feel that they have every putative advantage. I think they feel they have a moral superiority, derived from a combination of American exceptionalism and Christian religious fervor. But they feel put upon because of all these external groups making their lives shittier.

37

In general, any argument based on the premise of “The bad guys know they’re wrong; they just refuse to admit it” is…wrong.

99.99% of the time, they are genuinely, sincerely, convinced that they are right, and their anger is based off of some righteous sense of injustice.

Not just white men, or any group, but in general.

38

I don’t really see how what you said disagrees with what I said. You just described discomfort at the idea they may have had a particular special privilege (that of their hard work being rewarded).

That said, I wouldn’t frame it that way all the time. Sometimes people get stuff due to hard work and it being rewarded. But often you start out with a head start.

39

For example, you can start out with more money or more opportunities.

The white guy who has family wealth built up from homeownership in nice neighborhoods which did not allow black people has a head start on the black guy who starts with nothing, not even owning his own home.

Sure, the solution to privilege is elevating everyone. But that doesn’t mean some didn’t start out with more than others.

40

Then I must have been unclear. These angry white folks aren’t discomfited at all with the idea that their hard work was rewarded, they believe it to be just and proper. They’re angry because they perceive non-whites as getting rewards without the hard work they put in.

They don’t understand that being rewarded for hard work is a privilege that others may not get.