I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. And he explained why the elitist tag is so shrewd. Full disclosure. I'm a young (relatively young, 31) black male and he's a young white male around the same age.
"It's damaging because even the worst-off white person thinks they're better than a black person. Some of the poorest, uneducated people I know are in my family. They could be livin' on a sidewalk but to their dying day, they still believe they're better than the average black person. Even a well-off one," he said. "To think this black guy thinks he's better than them is a total insult."
I thought about this for a second. Could this be true? Is it a subtle way to play the race card (a term I loathe by the way)? I don't know. I do know Our Lady of Inevitability (as John Cole likes to call her) and the Clintonistas were trumpeting in West Virginia and Kentucky how elitist Obama was. Was this a dog whistle to the coalition that voted for her there (white, working class, uneducated) that this uppity black guy thinks he's better than you?
I don't know. I do know this. I've been in various situations on the job and enjoyed great, productive and rewarding relationships with many of my co-workers. But whenever I expressed an unpopular opinion or went against the grain or called someone out, every now and then one of my white co-workers would freak out. Not a lot. Not all the time. But just sometimes. And it would always be the person I least expected, particularly if I challenged their position or was proven right and backed by the majority of my co-workers. I mean, name-calling, backstabbing, spreading gossip. Just real nasty stuff.
I hate to post this antecdotal diary with no hard evidence to back it up. But it's just something I was thinking about. I don't claim to have inside knowledge to how some whites think of black people just like I don't have a crystal ball to explain the thoughts and motives of all black people.
But I did think my friend's comment was interesting.