Why Do White People Feel Discriminated Against? I Asked Them.

[MrScorpio]

Look, I know it’s hard to feel like you really know white people after doing a few interviews. But here’s what I found out from them.

TOURÉ
11.05.17 12:00 AM ET

I have to be honest: I really don’t understand white people. They’re confusing! I mean, white people are in charge of everything in America, they dominate government, business, finance, tech, real estate—every industry that matters—and yet guess who feels like they’re discriminated against?

That’s right, white people, some 55% of whom say whites are discriminated against in America today, according to a new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson/Harvard poll. Now, this is not entirely a surprise—a 2011 Harvard study found a similar conclusion: “Whites see racism as a zero sum game they are now losing.”

White people may be consistent but they’re still confusing. I don’t understand how people with such a tight grip on power in America could be so insecure about it. So I decided to ask some white people about it.

I started by calling white people I know and asking them why so many white people feel like they’re discriminated against. I reached out to people I like because I thought that would make it easier to have an honest conversation. I called writer Ana Marie Cox, writer Matt Taibbi, anti-racism activist Tim Wise, and radio host Charlie Sykes. I also threw the question out to Twitter—why do white people feel discriminated against?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-do-white-people-feel-discriminated-against-i-asked-them

[Glamrock]

1. Makes no sense to me

and I'm a white people....

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. As I white person, I am sometimes aware of my white privilege.

But probably not as often as I should, or as it actually happens.

[irisblue]

3. This point....

"And as long as superiority is part of the definition of whiteness, then any step toward equality will be seen a threat to the very essence of whiteness."

That old thinking.....stand on another being, be bigger.
Thanks for this thread.

[iluvtennis]

4. Yep.

[billh58]

5. I believe that it is because

most white people don't like to be reminded of their ingrained racism whether they are aware of it or not. White privilege is a part of white culture, and that is why Donald Trump appealed to so many white people who feel threatened by a growing multi-racial and multi-cultural society.

The NRA, the Koch Brothers, the GOP, White Nationalists, the KKK, and every other racist organization in this country relies on the irrational fear of non-whites to reinforce their message of hate, and to make a few bucks while they're at it.

[pnwmom]

6. I think the problem is that the Archie Bunkers see that it is much harder to live a middle class

lifestyle than in the 50's, for example, when one middling income could support a family, and maybe even buy a little house.

So they look around to see who they can blame -- and they're encouraged to blame the wrong things and wrong people.

[brer cat]

7. I agree.

They are probably looking back at their parents/grandparents and seeing that it's not so good now. What changed? Black people have made advances, therefore it must be their fault. I live in an area that is almost totally white, was all white until very recently, and the people of color we do have are almost all Latinos. Yet I've had conversations with young unemployed people who say quite seriously that they can't get a job because the Black people "took" them all. What Black people...where are they? It is so demonstrably untrue that I can't believe they say it, yet they seem to believe it. And of course, they are not considering the fact that we once had manufacturing here as well as large farms that are now housing developments. The jobs vanished, but that is not what/who they blame. That translates into "I must be discriminated against" or else I would have that non-existing job that a non-existing Black person "took."