White Resentment versus White Priviledge

A sociologist, whose name escapes me at the moment, asked what I thought was a rather legitimate question. He asked, "How is the ten percent of the black population that has problems has gotten to be representative of the entire black population?"

I have always wanted to know the same thing. If one in four of us is below the poverty line that means that three out of four of us aren't. So why aren't middle class problems of blacks representative of blackness in this country? Why don't we hear the problems of blacks worth 80 million dollars who'd be worth 100 million dollars if they were white? Why don't we hear the problems of blacks who have two beamers in their driveway instead of the two Bentley's they ought to have like white Brian Johnson down the road--who they themselves trained for the job he currently has, who only wound up being 80% as good as they were in the same job?

Every time I hear the phrase 'African-American problems' the next thing I hear is drug problems, crime problems etc. How IS IT ten percent of our population is representative of all of us?

nd while we may have over-representation in the socioeconomic section of this country labeled "poor", we are only twelve to thirteen percent of the population. If African American working poor ceased to work tomorrow, that would mean 3% of the total population that happens to be black would be poor and on welfare--which would be about half the number of poor whites (no working poor for them either).

It's an easy calculation to follow.

Ten percent of the white population is, on average, is below the poverty line at any given moment in this country. However, whites are approximately 75% of the population. Ten percent of seventy-five percent is 7.5% which is more than double 3% And if a full third of blacks were below the poverty line that 7.5% would still mean that there are close to double the number of poor whites as there are poor blacks. And if ninety-percent of the black population was poor tomorrow, there'd still be less blacks who are poor than there are whites. Why? There simply aren't that many of us.

In other words, in absolute numbers there are twice as many white poor than anyone else. And those whites ought to be mad anytime somebody starts talking about a program to get minorities to be un-poor when there are twice as many of them (that are poor) to worry about.

Sometimes, I think that the scenario above is the full extent of my understanding of white resentment. Other times, I think I can understand how it might feel, on an individual basis, to be white and passed over because someone is in a preferred group for a job. But I can't ever hold onto that particular compassion because the purpose of programs like Affirmative Action is to end the preferred group advantage that comes with being white in the first place.
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I don't believe that Affirmative Action is completely fair but neither am I naive enough to believe that a large percentage of white people, who refuse to acknowledge racism in themselves, in their friends, and in their neighbors, hire and fire based on merit. Affirmative Action is about dealing with today's racism, not yesterday's.



SSo, I understand and have compassion for white immigrants--for so long as they are poor and struggling. However, I don't have that much understanding for resentment of those whose white parents were immigrants in the past. The children of immigrants know that they their parents worked hard, that they were treated badly, and they think that their parents "weren't handed anything." And maybe their parents weren't handed anything but their children were handed plenty based on their whiteness.

The minute the white immigrant loses things like their accent they became totally accepted in this society. The people that cheated them and called them names, they can't distinguish them from other whites people like themselves--and it is at this point that their hard work starts paying off exactly like it should

But it doesn't work the same way for everyone. Some people's hard work does NOT fully pay off.

The white immigrant's hard work is paid off in their children's wages. Why? Because their foreignness has been erased by time. Again, the white immigrant can't be distinguished after a couple generations has past. By comparison, the African American's physical foreignness will never be erased.

This country can get better on how it views race, but erasing blackness is not possible. Therefore, African Americans will never get to be equal by blending in and by being completely indistinguishable from "other whites"--if that makes sense. And since about half the white population can't seem to acknowledge or understand that sameness and equal-ness are different , I doubt I'll see racism eliminated in my life time.

I know that this sad fact is true because the human condition is what it is. The evidence? We, African Americans, have behaved in the same ways toward the newest set of immigrants as whites have acted toward us as we came out of slavery and when we migrated north out the southern slave states.

The virtual war between Blacks and Latinos on the west coast shames me no end. It is pure foolishness not to see undocumented workers for what they are--America's newest slaves. Corporate America makes sure that they have access to undocumented workers because they are cheap (and desperate) labor.

If an undocumented worker works in unsafe conditions and looses his fingers, he can't complain because he's not here legally and might get kicked out of the country. He can be more careful after he heals up. If his boss decides to walk by and kick him as hard as he can twice a day, he can't complain--because he's not here legally. And the biggest thing the undocumented worker can't complain about is being paid 30% less-- than the job he's doing is reasonably worth in the free market that the republicans claim they worship--because he's here illegally and desperate to earn a living.

Does the presence of this undocumented competition lower wages for working class of every color and ethnicity? Yes it does. Is the undocumented worker the source of these problems? No. Is it the fault of the corporations that hire them at our expense along with a government that protects the corporation's right to take advantage of their desperation? Yes, it is.

Blaming the new immigrant on the block for all problems is as old as time. In most United States history books one can see that the English, who got to call themselves Americans first, denigrated the Irish when they came over and then the Italians etc. And when the Irish and Italians had finally blended in they got to calls themselves both white and American and they joined in the fun of denigrating the next wave of immigrants. African American behavior toward Latinos is not unique but we have less excuse for this bad behavior, human or not.

Why? Because African Americans were slaves. Therefore, we know what it is to be scapegoated for problems we are too few in number to be blamed for. So how can we act like the type of person we resent most--which would be the racist who willfully refuses to self-examine and know he has a racist attitude at times.

African Americans should always be on the side of those left out--even white immigrants who we can pray will resist the urge to one day become one of the arrogant and superior. Statistics show that African Americans care about the poor regardless of race more than most other ethnicities and we need to continue that caring even when "those people" are competing with us for jobs. Why? Because we 'd be doing the same thing if we were in their shoes. In other words, there's this thing called empathy.

Obama is right on this point: We need to form alliances. We need to be as concerned about underrepresentation of Latinos and everyone else in our work places as we are concerned about underrepresentation of our own.

As they used to say in the 60's, we either hang together or we will hang alone