By any standard, whites have it best in America. It’s tough for displaced workers of any stripe — or for any employee whose wages have stagnated — but if you are white, you are more likely to have a job. And your wages will be higher.
But in a new poll, the majority of whites (55%) believe that whites are discriminated against, despite the fact that most whites admit they haven't personally experienced discrimination.
Tim Hershman, 68, of Akron, Ohio, epitomizes this disconnect.
"If you apply for a job, they seem to give the blacks the first crack at it, and, basically, you know, if you want any help from the government, if you're white, you don't get it. If you're black, you get it."
There is discrimination against the working man and woman in America. But white Americans have got the source wrong. They haven’t lost ground to minorities — or immigrants, either legal or otherwise. Their ‘oppressors’ are the rich and corporations — two very white endeavors.
So where did whites get the idea that they were losing out to minorities? The answer is they got it from the very people who stole their lunch money in the first place — so-called conservatives (currently going by the party label ‘Republican’).
Scaring white people into voting for people who take their cash — or worse — is as old as the Republic. Why else would so many non-slave owning whites have eagerly fought to preserve an institution that only benefited the 19th century’s ‘1%’. Because they were scared into it by so-called conservatives (then going by the party label ‘Democratic’)
And now the current head of the party which would strip rights away from the average Joe is the loudest of the ‘woe is me’ whites. Trump may have have been born to extreme wealth — but to listen to him, no one has been treated more unfairly. His entire campaign was one long whine against the establishment and the media. Two institutions that couldn’t have been more advantageous to his career.
The ‘haves’ in America keep hold of what they have — and get more — by convincing the ‘have-nots’ that it is other have-nots who are the ones responsible for their lack of possessions. It’s a con that shows no signs of losing its effectiveness.
(Credit: NPR)