I am an American. I am white. I am male. I am 72 years old. Those demographics say that I should be a hide-bound conservative, probably a Trump voter, and a big fan of Brett Kavanaugh. Yet as readers of this blog and of my Facebook page know, I am none of those things. I hear or read over and over again that it's we white males that are the reason American politics are so messed up. We vote for Republicans who pander to narrow-minded social conservatives, enact policies that benefit only the rich, and elect the utterly unqualified, narcissistic, emotionally unstable fascist Donald Trump president. We white males are the problem in this country. Yes, white women often vote the same way, although probably in smaller numbers. Mostly it's we white males who mess up our country. We're sexists. We disbelieve sexual assault survivors and commit most of those sexual assaults. We hoard our wealth We discriminate against Black people. We hate immigrants. We don't care about the environment. Just look at the polling and you'll see that all of those things are generally true about us white, male Americans. Many of those things are especially true of older white male Americans like me.
And I just don't get it. Why should older white male Americans be so politically destructive? Yes, we grew up in an era when racism and sexism were even more the American norm than they are now. Yes, we've driven our cars, most of them bigger than anyone needs them to be, for over half a century. Yes, we were taught by our culture that our role was to make money and be conspicuous consumers. Yes, we absorbed racism through the air we breathed in a thoroughly racist culture about which we were never told the truth. Yes, we thought women were mostly supposed to be wives and mothers. Not of course that there's anything wrong with being a wife and mother, but the corollary of that belief was that women weren't supposed to be much else other than maybe teachers or nurses and certainly weren't supposed to be doctors, lawyers, top business executives, or politicians. Yes, all of that is true of us, and I still don't get it. Why are we as a demographic category so backward? There has to be a reason. I wish I knew what it is. Here's the best explanation I can come up with, and it is definitely a reason not an excuse.
I think it must all have to do with privilege. Older white American males have enjoyed a great deal of privilege for a long time, for all of our lives actually; and we grew up in a culture in which white males enjoyed a great deal of privilege for a very long time before us. Mostly we haven't been aware of all the privilege we've had. We've even denied that we have it. Yet for anyone willing to look at the facts of American life it is obvious that we do. We've benefited greatly from it. We haven't had to worry that employers, landlords, retail establishments, the schools, the courts, or anyone else will discriminate against us because of our race--or because of our gender.
Yes, we've benefited greatly from out privilege, but in addition to being unaware of our privilege we have been unaware of how our privilege has harmed people who don't have it. We don't know what it is to be Black or Latino or Native American in America. We don't know what it is to be female in America. We haven't wanted to know, so we've done nothing to try to learn what our privilege does to others. We take our privilege for granted. Most of us don't even understand that life is different for those who don't have it.
So we go through our lives benefiting from privilege we don't even know we have. We vote for politicians who will not challenge the privilege we don't know we have, and we don't even know that that's why we vote for them. We accuse women and minorities who insist on their equal rights of wanting "special rights." We decry "reverse discrimination." We resist affirmative action programs that seek to overcome the consequences of past discrimination. We fall for things like the Republicans' "southern strategy" of 1968 that is nothing but slightly camouflaged racism, a strategy the Republican Party has pursued ever since. We resist anything that in any way threatens our privilege, and we think all we're doing is trying to preserve an idyllic status quo, one that never was nearly as idyllic as we convince ourselves it was and is.
Well, it's well past time for us to get over it. We white males need to wake up, stop deceiving ourselves, stop pretending that there is true equality in our country when there clearly isn't. We need to learn about our privilege and its consequences, then we must have the courage and the wisdom to work to dismantle it. We need to stop thinking and living as though white males like us are somehow superior to people who are neither white nor male. We need to start voting for politicians who will work to dismantle our privilege so that others have a more equal opportunity for a good life in our country.We need to do all that and a whole lot more besides.
So my fellow white American males, it's time for us to stop deceiving ourselves. It's actually way past time for us to realize what American life really is rather than what we convince ourselves it is in order to preserve our privilege. Overcoming privilege isn't easy. It takes courage. It involves loss. But it is only loss of a special status we don't deserve and shouldn't have. We say we believe in equality. We sing that our country is the land of the free. Well, it is the land of the free in some ways, but it is an unequal freedom enjoyed more by us white males than by others in our country. It's way past time for us to live up to our national ideology and to overcome our privilege. Some of us get it. It's time for all of us to get on with it.
And I just don't get it. Why should older white male Americans be so politically destructive? Yes, we grew up in an era when racism and sexism were even more the American norm than they are now. Yes, we've driven our cars, most of them bigger than anyone needs them to be, for over half a century. Yes, we were taught by our culture that our role was to make money and be conspicuous consumers. Yes, we absorbed racism through the air we breathed in a thoroughly racist culture about which we were never told the truth. Yes, we thought women were mostly supposed to be wives and mothers. Not of course that there's anything wrong with being a wife and mother, but the corollary of that belief was that women weren't supposed to be much else other than maybe teachers or nurses and certainly weren't supposed to be doctors, lawyers, top business executives, or politicians. Yes, all of that is true of us, and I still don't get it. Why are we as a demographic category so backward? There has to be a reason. I wish I knew what it is. Here's the best explanation I can come up with, and it is definitely a reason not an excuse.
I think it must all have to do with privilege. Older white American males have enjoyed a great deal of privilege for a long time, for all of our lives actually; and we grew up in a culture in which white males enjoyed a great deal of privilege for a very long time before us. Mostly we haven't been aware of all the privilege we've had. We've even denied that we have it. Yet for anyone willing to look at the facts of American life it is obvious that we do. We've benefited greatly from it. We haven't had to worry that employers, landlords, retail establishments, the schools, the courts, or anyone else will discriminate against us because of our race--or because of our gender.
Yes, we've benefited greatly from out privilege, but in addition to being unaware of our privilege we have been unaware of how our privilege has harmed people who don't have it. We don't know what it is to be Black or Latino or Native American in America. We don't know what it is to be female in America. We haven't wanted to know, so we've done nothing to try to learn what our privilege does to others. We take our privilege for granted. Most of us don't even understand that life is different for those who don't have it.
So we go through our lives benefiting from privilege we don't even know we have. We vote for politicians who will not challenge the privilege we don't know we have, and we don't even know that that's why we vote for them. We accuse women and minorities who insist on their equal rights of wanting "special rights." We decry "reverse discrimination." We resist affirmative action programs that seek to overcome the consequences of past discrimination. We fall for things like the Republicans' "southern strategy" of 1968 that is nothing but slightly camouflaged racism, a strategy the Republican Party has pursued ever since. We resist anything that in any way threatens our privilege, and we think all we're doing is trying to preserve an idyllic status quo, one that never was nearly as idyllic as we convince ourselves it was and is.
Well, it's well past time for us to get over it. We white males need to wake up, stop deceiving ourselves, stop pretending that there is true equality in our country when there clearly isn't. We need to learn about our privilege and its consequences, then we must have the courage and the wisdom to work to dismantle it. We need to stop thinking and living as though white males like us are somehow superior to people who are neither white nor male. We need to start voting for politicians who will work to dismantle our privilege so that others have a more equal opportunity for a good life in our country.We need to do all that and a whole lot more besides.
So my fellow white American males, it's time for us to stop deceiving ourselves. It's actually way past time for us to realize what American life really is rather than what we convince ourselves it is in order to preserve our privilege. Overcoming privilege isn't easy. It takes courage. It involves loss. But it is only loss of a special status we don't deserve and shouldn't have. We say we believe in equality. We sing that our country is the land of the free. Well, it is the land of the free in some ways, but it is an unequal freedom enjoyed more by us white males than by others in our country. It's way past time for us to live up to our national ideology and to overcome our privilege. Some of us get it. It's time for all of us to get on with it.
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