White men in America were kings in the workplace and at home. Even with little education they could get well paying blue collar jobs and traditional patriarchy insured their place as provider, protector and recipient of female obedience.
But the civil rights movement has integrated some aspects of the workforce and the women’s movement has challenged patriarchy from the bedroom to the boardroom. The final blow for white manhood has been their loss of economic security.
With the decline in blue collar work white male privilege has been collapsing all around them. Economic needs demand that wives and daughters work to scrape together a fading middle class lifestyle. Hollywood heroes look increasingly like Idris Elba, not John Wayne.
The response by white men has on one hand been the rage captured by the far right and on the other despair and depression raising white male suicide rates to an all time high.
This rage takes many forms. The angry displays of white nationalism is one. But there’s also the internalized rage expressed by the American epidemic of mass murders.
Whichever direction this misplaced anger takes, it’s rarely directed at the corporate giants that orchestrated their job loss and depressed their wages. Scapegoats are easier to face than the shattered images of dethroned white masculinity. Dangerous times, indeed.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Conrad Theodore Seitz
Comment of the Day: White Anger
Drspock
New York 1 hour ago
While the notion of white supremacy has ebed and flowed in America for the 150 years, this most recent upsurge also has an economic component.
White men in America were kings in the workplace and at home. Even with little education they could get well paying blue collar jobs and traditional patriarchy insured their place as provider, protector and recipient of female obedience.
But the civil rights movement has integrated some aspects of the workforce and the women’s movement has challenged patriarchy from the bedroom to the boardroom. The final blow for white manhood has been their loss of economic security.
With the decline in blue collar work white male privilege has been collapsing all around them. Economic needs demand that wives and daughters work to scrape together a fading middle class lifestyle. Hollywood heroes look increasingly like Idris Elba, not John Wayne.
The response by white men has on one hand been the rage captured by the far right and on the other despair and depression raising white male suicide rates to an all time high.
This rage takes many forms. The angry displays of white nationalism is one. But there’s also the internalized rage expressed by the American epidemic of mass murders.
Whichever direction this misplaced anger takes, it’s rarely directed at the corporate giants that orchestrated their job loss and depressed their wages. Scapegoats are easier to face than the shattered images of dethroned white masculinity. Dangerous times, indeed.
Share this:
Like this:
Related