So, it's a Friday afternoon, and Twitter is up in arms about a piece by CNN's John Blake titled, "Are whites racially oppressed?" Admittedly, the headline is sensationalist and inflammatory, but if you move away from its ridiculousness, you have a well-reported and insightful story on "whiteness," social identity, and economic anxiety. In particular, it's worth reading for Tim Wise and Matt Wray's thoughts on the phenomena of white racial anxiety.
Here is Wise:
Many white Americans have lived under the assumption that if they worked hard, they would be rewarded. Now more white Americans are sharing unemployment lines with "those people" -- black and brown, Wise says."For the first time since the Great Depression, white Americans have been confronted with a level of economic insecurity that we're not used to," he says. "It's not so new for black and brown folks, but for white folks, this is something we haven't seen since the Depression."
And here is Wray:
"We are often offended if someone calls attention to our race as shaping how we view the world," says Wray, author of "Not Quite White." "We don't like to be pigeon-holed that way. Non-white Americans are seldom afforded this luxury of seeing themselves as individuals, disconnected from any race."
I'll just say this: from Henry Louis Gates and Shirley Sherrod, to Park 51 and SB 1070, the last three years have witnessed a marked increase in nativism and hostility toward minorities, particularly Muslims and Hispanic immigrants. As Wise points out, this has everything to do with the recession, its devastating effects, and the extent to which it pushed millions into lives of economic anxiety. More importantly, those anxieties have a real effect on policy, and the broader political conversation. I have no doubt that backlash against the stimulus was driven -- in part, at least -- by heightened ethnocentrism among the white majority.
Granted, it seems a little silly to focus on the anxieties of white people -- are still in the majority, and still doing well, as a class -- but given the slow pace of economic recovery and the recent resurgence in reactionary thought, it's worth a closer look at white anxiety. CNN's piece isn't perfect, but it's a good start.
Photo credit: Media Matters
