Recently I was talking to a friend of mine. He is a 50-ish Caucasian male, Christian, employed, and heterosexual/married. He informed me that he feels oppressed. My jaw dropped in amazement. After a moment of silence on my part, while I processed this, he went on to tell me WHY: he thinks that he and his kind are now persecuted and ridiculed by the media, that everyone else has governmental protections for their rights-he cited those protecting minorities and equal rights for women, and that Christians are daily being harassed. Now, mind you, this is in a smallish town in the mostly white white white Appalachian foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where there is nothing BUT Christians around! I can hit four churches with a rock from my apartment…and those are just the ones from the MAJOR denominations. This place is still tribal and patriarchal. I could not stay quiet in the face of this errant nonsense. I understand that if you watch a steady diet of right-wing news, you will get fed this erroneous view. I find it on Fox and Breitbart and Infowars, sites that I visit regularly. I do so in order to find out just what people like my friend are viewing. (Trust me, this is not something I enjoy.) I challenged him to give me some concrete examples of HOW he was oppressed: Had he ever been arrested for “driving while white” or had the local police view him with suspicion b/c of his skin color? Had he or his ancestors ever been forced to leave a region or country b/c of their race or religion? Had he ever been denied a job or promotion b/c of his gender or sexual orientation? Had he ever been denied the right to vote b/c of his race, religion, gender or sexual orientation? Had he ever been denied the right to run for office b/c of his religion? Had he ever threatened with death b/c of his race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation? He was quite taken aback by these questions. He wanted to know why I was asking them. I told him that unless he could answer YES to any one of these questions, he had no right to say he was oppressed, that oppression had not to do with a “feeling” or “discomfort” but with real consequences in the world and to THINK ABOUT THAT the next time he heard a white Christian man talking about his oppressed status. I told him about my relatives who never made it out of the German death camps b/c they were the wrong religion (Jews). Then I told him about friends who were fired from jobs for being queer. Women are STILL paid only 79 percent of men’s hourly wages. And 7 states currently have laws even now prohibiting atheists from running for public office. So…HE wants to talk about feeling oppressed??? Smh. And the internet trolls all whine about liberals being crybabies!
Tag: race
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White Christian Male: “I Feel Oppressed!”
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine. He is a 50-ish Caucasian male, Christian, employed, and heterosexual/married. He informed me that he feels oppressed. My jaw dropped in amazement. After a moment of silence on my part, while I processed this, he went on to tell me WHY: he thinks that he and his kind are now persecuted and ridiculed by the media, that everyone else has governmental protections for their rights-he cited those protecting minorities and equal rights for women, and that Christians are daily being harassed. Now, mind you, this is in a smallish town in the mostly white white white Appalachian foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where there is nothing BUT Christians around! I can hit four churches with a rock from my apartment…and those are just the ones from the MAJOR denominations. This place is still tribal and patriarchal. I could not stay quiet in the face of this errant nonsense. I understand that if you watch a steady diet of right-wing news, you will get fed this erroneous view. I find it on Fox and Breitbart and Infowars, sites that I visit regularly. I do so in order to find out just what people like my friend are viewing. (Trust me, this is not something I enjoy.) I challenged him to give me some concrete examples of HOW he was oppressed: Had he ever been arrested for “driving while white” or had the local police view him with suspicion b/c of his skin color? Had he or his ancestors ever been forced to leave a region or country b/c of their race or religion? Had he ever been denied a job or promotion b/c of his gender or sexual orientation? Had he ever been denied the right to vote b/c of his race, religion, gender or sexual orientation? Had he ever been denied the right to run for office b/c of his religion? Had he ever threatened with death b/c of his race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation? He was quite taken aback by these questions. He wanted to know why I was asking them. I told him that unless he could answer YES to any one of these questions, he had no right to say he was oppressed, that oppression had not to do with a “feeling” or “discomfort” but with real consequences in the world and to THINK ABOUT THAT the next time he heard a white Christian man talking about his oppressed status. I told him about my relatives who never made it out of the German death camps b/c they were the wrong religion (Jews). Then I told him about friends who were fired from jobs for being queer. Women are STILL paid only 79 percent of men’s hourly wages. And 7 states currently have laws even now prohibiting atheists from running for public office. So…HE wants to talk about feeling oppressed??? Smh. And the internet trolls all whine about liberals being crybabies!
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Which America?
I’ve been thinking about the two very different views of America offered at the debate last night. Trump and Clinton paint radically different pictures of the world around us, and I believe this reflects their constituencies, as well. This is important, because the debate was not just about politics. It was about which America we are going to inhabit, that of Trump or that Clinton.
The America of Trump is, quite frankly, a frightening place. I saw it described in an op-ed piece in the NYT as the “Republican Party’s Apocalypse Now.” Trump talks about a bankrupt America that is failing in so many ways that he can’t enumerate them, a place where gangs of criminal immigrants stalk the streets, and African Americans and Hispanics live in dire straits in our inner cities. He speaks of the need for law and order, for stop and frisk policing. Our allies are uncertain (because they don’t pay their fair share of the burden); our enemies, many, and our best hope lies in retreating behind a strong physical border and barricading ourselves from the rest of the world. We can only measure our strength by our net worth (money), and right now America’s value is at an all-time low. If you were to make a film of Trump’s America, it would have to be in black and white, with strong noir qualitites.
Clinton’s America is not nearly so bleak. Race IS an issue-it will always be an issue, I’m afraid-but there is hope that we will be able to make progress by working together to tackle that. In response to the dire picture of the African American community painted by Trump, Clinton countered by saying that strength of the black churches and of movements like BLM show its vitality instead. She said that she would work to empower the middle and working class, fund clean power, and rebuild the infra-structure. She spoke to reassure our allies, who might justifiably be made nervous at the thought of an America that would cease honoring treaties and alliances on the whim of a unstable President.
Trump, should he be elected, will not have unlimited power. He will not be a dictator, only POTUS. But he WILL get to decide quite a bit, including the nomination of one or more (probably more) U.S. Supreme Court Judges. Clinton, the same. You need to think carefully about which America you want to dwell in, and choose accordingly. For me, it comes down to choosing hope. I go with Clinton.