Let me preface this by truthfully saying I have nothing against white males as individuals. I’ve had good neighbors, co-workers, cousins and friends who are white males. White men are human beings just like the rest of us. They too can suffer from illness, from loneliness, from bullying, from violence and other issues that we ALL face. And they are entitled to a society that cares for them as human beings. This is undeniable. But as a demographic group and historically in this country, we cannot suddenly and ‘strategically’ deny that white males in relation to the rest of us are a privileged demographic group culturally, legally and otherwise.
I find it incredible that in a society where 9 out of every 10 rape victims is female - a society where 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted by men - where women are still the main victims of sexual harassment and domestic violence - where only 1% of underreported rapes end in conviction and only 2-10% of reports of rape are false - a society where the lifetime cost of rape a woman incurs is $122,461 - in a society where a women is beaten up by a domestic partner every 9 seconds - in a society where white men out-earn Black and Hispanic men and all groups of women - in a society where males can still harass females on the street and in the workplace with impunity - I find it incredible that in such a society, we’re being told that we need to push aside the concerns of minorities and the females and recenter the white male.
I find it utterly incredible and discouraging that despite the vicious state-sanctioned hunting down of and lawless abductions of, the substandard and abusive imprisonment of immigrants and the tearing asunder and disappearances of immigrants’ family members - that despite this country’s history of mandated erasure, economic impoverishment policies, racist persecution and police surveillance of Black people, the grievously disproportionate imprisonment of Black men by the state and this regime - despite women of all color and ages losing their bodily autonomy and being threatened with losing our personhood to the rights of the fetus that is part of our bodies and the grievous injuries pregnant people are suffering because of this, despite the gutting of equal rights protections of the LGBTQ and a hate campaign funded by the right against transpeople - despite all these factors, I find it incredible that anyone can claim it is females, Black people, the LGBTQ, immigrants and people of color who must step back with our “special interest” issues in order to center white males.
Children are losing healthcare and vital food assistance. Child Education is being defunded. But I just read an article on the DK that strongly urges - for a third or fourth time - that the Democratic Party must center the adult white male and cater to them in order to win against the Republican White Male Supremacist party. In seeking to attract men to the party, the prescription is for the party to stop paying so much attention to issues that don’t center white males, issues that are life and death to the rest of us.
Focus on labor rights, getting big money out of politics, healthcare, climate change and other issues that affect everyone but don’t leave issues that don’t affect the white male out. That’s a betrayal of the base of the party and is an enormous mistake.
Please those of you so inclined, assault the statistics I’ve listed. Tell me I haven’t listed enough sources. Tell me I heard the dog-whistling all wrong. Go ahead. Blast away as those in the choir here sometimes do.
If I’m all over the place - if my article is messy, I agree. I’m writing with a fever when I should be resting but I had to speak to this first.
If I get kicked off the DK for this view, so be it.
rainn.org
nsvrc.org
https://med.emory.edu/departments/psychiatry/nia/resources/domestic_violence.html
