Look, I think we need more empathy in all our lives but there are limits to that and this dude right here absolutely deserves no empathy at all.
Dying of Whiteness - Boston Review a.k.a White racism is killing the white working class.
- Thread starter Veliladon
- Start date
People on the left constantly underestimate the value of racial hierarchy is to lower class whites. Being above a minority is something that is worth dying for, because they might be poor too, but to them it is better than being a minority. That is why they rather die than have minorities become more prosperous, if minorities become that way, they have no one to be superior too.
People say that lower class whites vote against their interests. That is partially true - they vote against their economic interests , so that they can can maintain their place in the racial hierarchy. They aren't necessary wrong if you think about how this country treats minorities, especially poor minorities. Sure that lower class whites get fucked over by the rich, but it is nowhere near as bad for many minorities. That is why liberals and progressives are somewhat wasting their time trying to convince the white working class to be vote for them. The white working class is on a completely different mindset that I don't think many on the left will accept the reality of it.
In a very literal sense, I can only imagine. It's one thing to feel like we aren't breaking the system fast enough when it benefits me, personally, in the first place. I know it is drastically more disheartening when it harms you.
Trevor may be "unfortunate", but he's also a racist piece of shit.
I think we need more empathy in this world, but empathy doesn't preclude criticism.
This was excellently written. It's a realization as a minority I never thought people held that closely.
Like Socivol said, this is a great way to put this. It's a mindset borne not only due to the bullshit American Dream, success obsessed culture cultivated since the moment the country was founded but also generations and generations of white peoples seeing minorities as nothing more than animals. A country built on treating black and brown people as lesser while preaching a false idea of merit and an equal playing field for all people of all classes that never directly addresses and/or actively curtails that twisted ideology is of course going to lead to the society we have now.
More progressive allies really need to read/listen to Joy De Gury's Post Traumatic Slave Disorder. Its main focus is that the trauma of Antebellum not only had a genuine traumatic effect that lasts in black and brown people to today, but that the consistent and justified utter violence and cruelty of white men and women all the way back then has had a similar impact that persisted with each generation of their own descendants.
