"The Beached White Male" -- this bellowing cover headline from the new issue of Newsweek is only the latest installation of the most resilient parable in American cultural mythology: The Legend of the Persecuted White Guy.
This narrative has been part of the media mix for the larger part of the last few decades, from the 1980s when it was alleged that civil rights initiatives (affirmative action, busing, etc.) were persecuting whites, to the last decade, which lamented whites as "America's forgotten majority," to the present political moment in which the first African-American president is accused of caring only about his fellow minorities and harboring "a deep seated hatred of white people."
Newsweek's iteration of this Persecuted White Guy story, which claims that the economy is now rigged to make sure white males "don't have a freakin' prayer," follows USA Today's implication that "older white males [are] hurt more by this recession" than anyone else, and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat's (subsequently discredited) argument that "white anxiety" is justified because white working-class students are supposedly among "the most underrepresented groups" at elite universities.
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I could not read this article without cringing. I absolutely became sick to my stomach while reading this. White men are suffering because they have to drive Hondas instead of mercades. Maybe they're suffering because they have to down grade from a 500,000 dollar house to a 300,000 dollar house. Honestly, so what if they've taken pay cuts. Pay cuts are far better than lay offs and smaller houses are better than being evicted. How often do you see white men on city buses?
ReplyDeleteI am trying to ensure I do not say the wrong thing You have got to be kidding me .White America look for any reason to persecute Obama.What the white men are claiming I have yet to see.To hear this makes me extremely angry because for one I am tired of the African American race constantly being referred to as a "minority".As an African American I disnouce anything that pertains to me being a minority. The economy is suffering due to where the last white president put it.President Obama has taken the hardest role he can ever take on and try to fix the problem that was created before he became president.As far as white men stating they are the forgotten majority.I cannot believe they have the audacity to state such a lie.
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