
My travels in white America – a land of anxiety, division and pockets of pain - kushti
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/06/my-travels-in-white-america-a-land-of-anxiety-division-and-pockets-of-pain
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chmaynard
From the article: "Increasingly, for many white Americans, their racial
privilege resides not in positive benefits of work and security but in the
sole fact that it could be worse – they could be black or Latino. In other
words, their whiteness is all they have left."

~~~
ashleyn
I've never been a believer in "racial privilege", however I think having the
economic rug torn out from under white America has been instrumental in the
meteoric rise of white advocacy and identity groups in the past few years.

Middle-class America has been the big loser in the push for freer, more
liberal trade since the end of the Cold War. This is exemplified in the so-
called "elephant curve", a measure of income distribution that strikingly
illustrates the stagnation of the (predominately white) middle class since the
era of globalisation: [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/hottest-chart-
economics...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/hottest-chart-economics-
means)

Lower percentiles, which have been historically "browner", are seeing
tremendous gains thanks to a freer global market. This is the wonder of
capitalism and how it has begun to level a playing field which was rigged,
particularly in the pre-1964 American South. This newfound power "correction"
may create the illusion that public policy favours ethnic minorities over a
white majority, because the demographic which has not seen progress since 1991
or so is predominately white.

Therefore, progress is seen not as a function of merit, but as a function of
what demographic curries the most special favours from government regardless
of merit. Therefore, the rallying cry of the alt-right is for whites to vote
in aggressive defence of white rights exclusively, and with callous disregard
for the concerns of any other demographic. Because if _they_ are seemingly
doing it, and seemingly winning, you must be a sucker for not doing it
yourself.

All the while the notion of "equal before the law", a inscription carved
within stone on the front of the Supreme Court, disappears in the wind of
tribal identity and the elevation of the lowest X over the most qualified Y.

~~~
Chris2048
> the demographic which has not seen progress since 1991 or so is
> predominately white

I think "demographic" is the key - how much deviation is in that group?

Does a poor white care that "on average" his demographic is doing well,
because of all the rich whites? Who decides how to carve up society?

