General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Where do all the angry white men come from? [View all]Springslips
(533 posts)A kin to guilt by association.
The original post showed disgust of the angry white men because, " they were the top of the mountain for hundreds of years." Yet I believe there is not a single angry white man around who is hundred of years old, and took great advantage of other groups in those years. Let's invent a Mike, a teabaggers ignoramus: he is an angry white male and blames affirmative action for the fact he's stagnant in his career, and drips with white privilege and entitlement. It would be invalid to say to him, " shut up and take it, after all you ran things for 500- years." Mike did not run things for 500- years.
Now Mike's is certainly wrong, for many other easily pointed out reasons. And certainly it is true that white male privilege and supremacy did advantage Mike over minorities and women to some degree that Mike isn't willing to admit, and yes this does entail ancestral heritage to some extent. Yet it is likely that Mike comes from common stock and his ancestress did not actually stand at the top of the hill, and his poorly hidden racial beliefs are relics pass down by, and reinforced today by, upper class propaganda aimed at splitting the lower classes via race, sex, gender, sexuality, ect.
Which is another reason I don't like the argument: it forgets the role of class.