The Daily Stupid: Racial WTF

[mijan]

CNN is featuring this article:

Are Whites Racially Oppressed?

First, please note that CNN is not actually saying that whites are/aren't oppressed.  They're saying that growing numbers of white people are viewing themselves as oppressed. 

And yeah, I've noticed that "help, help! I'm being oppressed" bullshit from a growing number of white people... PARTICULARLY the affluent, white, straight, Christian males.  (Oh dear, SO oppressed, aren't they?)  It's really disturbing to see that just because certain people aren't quite as far ahead as they used to be just on the basis of their race, they are deluded enough to think that their slightly reduced privilege is actually oppression. 

The article is a mish-mash of opinions and bleating from various people.  I'd laugh at this as a piece of satire, except I know these people are actually serious.

Comments

[gmonkey42.livejournal.com]

This part was written in a sneaky, misleading way:

Conservative news outlets ran a number of stories last summer highlighting an incident from the 2008 elections, in which activists from the New Black Panther Party appeared to be intimidating voters at a polling place. Those claims were never proven.

"activists from the New Black Panther Party appeared to be intimidating voters," is not what happened. That makes it sound like there were Black Panthers outside polling places and they appeared to be threatening.

They should have phrased it more like "Conservative news outlets ran a number of unsubstantiated stories last summer claiming that activists from the New Black Panther Party had intimidated voters at a polling place. Those claims were never proven." That's more accurate and less easy to deliberately misquote.

But no, go ahead, MSM, continue mainstreaming all the lies started by Fox News and just making them sound like "he said/she said" rather than the flat-out fabrications they really are.

LOL the article overall makes white people look like ASSHOLES. I mean, we are, but goddamn, these Tea Partiers are not helping. Not understanding what the word "minority" means, for example. It took me about 2 minutes to find the 2009 census data (2010 data aren't yet available for all states). White people are still a huge majority in the U.S.. That table lumps together "White" and "Hispanic/Latin@" - This other table shows about 45 million people are Hispanic & Latin@ compared with 224 million white & Hispanic people total, therefore about 179 million actually-white people. The next largest group is about 37 million black people. Still a huge white majority. White people outnumber the next largest group by almost FOUR TO ONE and account for almost 60% of the total U.S. population.

I don't get how it's gotten to this point where major news outlets routinely post stories about an obvious and easily disproved fallacy: "white people are the minority," by framing it as "some people think [this obvious and easily disproved fallacy]." It makes me worry about the future.

(edited to make the blockquote easier to identify as such with the LJ formatting)

Also eta this: "Americans are trained to think that any explicit defense of white interests is 'racist.' " LOL, THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the subtle misinformation and mainstreaming of unsubstantiated bullshit pisses me off... but I've come to expect that level of ineptitude from every news outlet. It's sad that CNN has sunk so low. It used to be respectable.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Are Whites Racially Oppressed?

No.

What's next?

Seriously - and I haven't read the article, I just got home - I feel like a particular group in this country, mostly white, heterosexual, Christian cis-men, have this persecution complex. It's like they have to set themselves up as being the ones under attack in order to ... I don't know, avoid acknowledging their privilege or avoid having to curb their behavior just a little bit. And it's largely perpetuated by the idealogs on talk radio and television.

I could go on at length, but I know I'm preaching to the choir.

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

I saw that headline earlier today and couldn't even bring myself to click on it, as I knew it would make me want to bang my head against things. Just, UGH.

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

Jesus, these people should be taken out back and shot for being so sincerely goddamned stupid. Then their relatives can actually claim oppression. Everybody wins!

Remember, kids: if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.

[leftarrow.livejournal.com]

right, ok, I didn't make it all the way through, but it's a good thing that my default reaction to mainstream news-o-ganda is "eyeroll" because only long practice at complete dismissiveness kept that from being a very ragey experience.

However! One sort of tangential thing caught my eye, which was this:

They are adopting the language and protest tactics of an embattled minority group, scholars and commentators say.

Much as I hate to give any credit to that mess of an article as a whole, that particular phrase pinpoints something that alternately terrifies and baffles me about tea party stuff. As a populist movement, it's utterly freakish, because it essentially amounts to a bunch of people actively campaigning against their own interests. I guess they've looked at various social justice processes and decided that the tactics were the point, rather than the issues.

It's some terrifying social machinery to imagine if it actually starts working well for evil people.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

"They are adopting the language and protest tactics of an embattled minority group, scholars and commentators say."

Yeah, I saw that line, too. And it's true, from the encounters I've had with some of these "woe-is-me" poor under-privileged white people. They talk like the whole world has them downtrodden and marginalized, and they actually believe it. I really think they've been CONVINCED of this by people like Glenn Beck and other Fox Noise commentators that they really ARE an embattled minority group, thereby taking them beyond the point of being rational, and then the talking heads can convince them to believe anything. They can even be convinced to vote against their own interests, again and again.

Also, those few observations I found in the article were the reason I was willing to post the link. The article was pointing out this disturbing social trend, not creating or advocating the trend. That one line in particular pinned down the whole tactical approach of the movement. It's unnerving.

Oh, also... I got your belt back from Chibi, if you want it. :)

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

That sort of talk is on the rise here in England too. It's a load of nonsense obviously.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Even in England? Damn. And here I'd thought that idiocy like that was isolated to the right-wing fucktard bigots here in the USA. I'm sorry that you seem to be acquiring your own home-grown crop.

[weepingnaiad.livejournal.com]

I can't bear to read the article. I work with too many of those folks who believe that their Christianity is under attack (even when I point out that we only get Christian holidays off from work) and that have bought into the complete and utter fallacy that what's good for Big Business is good for this country, even as our jobs are actively being shipped abroad.

It's incredible and astounding and makes me lose my cool far too easily, so I have to walk away and ignore.

As my dad keeps reminding me... this bears very strong resemblance to the 20s and a whole lot of these folks with blinders on are going to have to go hungry before they get it.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

The scary part is that we'll all have to suffer collectively for their stupidity. It makes me want to move to New Zealand. I can handle an earthquake better than I can handle self-destructive stupidity.

But seriously, how can people believe their religion is under attack when the only religion that gets any serious perks on a large scale IS their religion?!?

[weepingnaiad.livejournal.com]

But seriously, how can people believe their religion is under attack when the only religion that gets any serious perks on a large scale IS their religion?!?

I guess it just proves that repeat the lie often enough and people will believe it.

The same with white males being "persecuted". It's so ridiculous and completely absurd, but they believe it. It's just stunning to watch my co-workers in fear for their jobs, their healthcare, etc. yet they steadfastly refuse to tax and regulate those same businesses that are bleeding our jobs abroad. *boggles*

And, yeah, the saddest part is that my kids will suffer for their stupidity. Wish there was a way to make that not the case. I agree with you about NZ, too!

[themadfish.livejournal.com]

The article itself wasn't too bad. But the comments. That was a bad idea to read.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the comments are what sickened me. I stopped reading those after just a few, because you can't fix stupid.

[midnight-birth.livejournal.com]

I have no problem believing that on a case-by-case basis a person of any colour, gender, religion, etc., may experience oppression, and I don't think it can or should be made light of simply because this person may belong to a race or gender that is not generally known to be oppressed (like cases of men being raped etc.). However, overall are white people oppressed? Are men oppressed? Really, really, no.