Why Elites Want to Mask the Suffering of Poor Whites NBC’s recent story on how 80 percent of Americans will be living at or near the poverty level in their lifetimes was accompanied by the photo of a “poor white family”. The White Gaze views a photo of a young black man wearing a hoodie and whose pants are sagging and sees a person who exists in a state of criminality, and is a social predator. A photo of a white man wearing a suit and walking down Wall Street in New York will be seen by the White Gaze as representing a “respectable” person and a “hard worker” living the “American Dream.” The black single mother is a “welfare queen” who is “lazy” and has “bad morals”. The poor white person is a “redneck” or a “hillbilly” with all of the stereotypes and assumptions implicit in such language. Consequently, poor white people are one of the few groups which can me made fun and mocked in American culture without consequence or public sanction. White elites and opinion leaders do not want to talk about poor white people because that would expose the defects of capitalism. These same elites also avoid discussing white poverty because it would undermine how they have historically been able to mine white supremacy to mask inter-class conflict and exploitation among whites in the United States. “Race is how class is lived in America.” Consequently, the leaders in the black and brown community care about poverty as a general issue because it disproportionately impacts people of color. empathyeducates.org/why-elites-want-to-mask-the-suffering-of-poor-whites/
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 22:22:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015