You may or may not be a fan of Chris Rock. Like most comedians I’ve enjoyed, starting with George Carlin while growing up in the 1960s he’s usually been fun to listen to. But sometimes almost all of them say stuff that really upsets me. A long, long time ago in one of his stand-up routines Rock addressed the issue of white people (mostly guys) whining about how THEY are losing “their” country. Rock drove a stake through the heart of that bullshit!
In any case, like you since the rise of Trump I’ve spent years hearing from MAGAs screaming this same old crap through MegaMAGAphones. Long before MAGA, or even Rock’s routine I’d hear this from fellow white people and I’ve always thought ‘really?’ Just WHO are you losing it to because we sure as hell don’t see a Black, or Hispanic or Asian (etc.) ruling class that’s taken over. Nope, it’s always been and still is white people holding most of the power and the money. Only recently have we had this influx of foreign “tech bros” out in Silicon Valley holding great sway. And even the bulk of THEM are white!
There’s starting to be “issues” with rank and file MAGA about these tech bros however. Especially the ‘foreign’ ones importing workers but that’s a separate topic. Today the subject is average MAGA white folks and of course the whole White Nationalist/White Supremacist gangs complaining it’s not “their” country anymore. The radicalized ones in so many groups is also a separate issue. What I’ve always been amazed by is the regular folks you might start off having a conversation with who wind up talking this ‘we’ (as in white folks) are ‘losing this country’ to ‘them’ as in non-white and or ‘foreigners’ which increasingly means (to them) illegal immigrants.
I wrote an article yesterday that cited LBJ’s statement about how easily working class and poor white people could be tricked into supporting rich white people. He correctly said if you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than any black man he’ll willingly empty his pockets. Trump’s convinced his MAGAs on that, and they’ve sure as hell opened up their wallets and bank accounts to him. Here’s a simple truth Rock laid out long ago, and it’s that the poorest white guy would stick with being a poor white guy rather than swap places with HIS black ass even though as Rock noted “I’m rich!”:
White males in particular are especially aggrieved. If you’re an old fart like me (a white, male senior citizen) you were raised in a world where the mythical image of the perfect white family was on your TV screens in the most popular TV shows. And ole dad rules the roost while mom stayed home and tended to the house. Even back in the 1950s that was changing. During WWII women went to work in factories, making bullets, bombs and more complicated stuff all the way up to aircraft! Men came home from overseas to find different wives and sweethearts than they’d known before they enlisted. So by the time the 1960s rolled around and women had grown tired of being shoved back into the old, traditional roles it became part of the turmoil of those times.
White men, including those in professions like medicine and law but also in business weren’t the least bit happy about having competition either. Between more women (the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action) pressing to be more than just secretaries, teachers and nurses in regular jobs AND non-whites, black people in particular being empowered by Civil Rights legislation the talent pool for jobs was expanded. All affirmative action and other initiatives really did was make employers look beyond WHITE people for jobs. Or places in colleges and universities. One still had to meet the requirements despite what the bastion white institutionalists would have everyone believe. White people still usually got the lion’s share of the slots in college (especially the elite ones), the jobs, and later on the promotions.
Twice in my own life I lost out on really good jobs where I knew the committees conducting the interview said I was the top pick with the most qualifications. However someone else (white women) wound up getting the job. Qualified both times. I want to be clear about that. But the fact is sometimes the proverbial game isn’t won by the best player(s). It doesn’t mean the winner sucked, or didn’t do awfully well themselves and put themselves in a position to win! My point is I didn’t go whining and bitching about the women who were hired instead. Even if they didn’t have as many qualifications they easily met those needed for those jobs. And as in so many other field women were underrepresented in those particular fields. That’s life. You get over such disappointments and move on but you DON’T go filing lawsuits and other crap.
I took the view that I had as an athlete. Sometimes you and your team play a great game and even deserved to win but a bad break or two or just the right play(s) at a crucial moment leaves you on the losing end. Or in a play or musical you might have had more talent but just didn’t have the “chemistry” with a would-be costar someone else who also had talent did. And so it went all through life. Competition. Sometimes you win when you actually don’t deserve to and sometimes you lose when you deserve to win. That’s just life. I never believed my gender or the color of my skin ENTITLED me to a big head start. I have utter contempt for those who do. That contempt extends to people who grew up with money and connections that believe THEY are entitled to special consideration over “average” folks like me.
But I know, I KNOW being white and male (and sometimes taller than average also helped) gave me an advantage sometimes. However it was hard fought every step of the way for women and non-whites to advance in business and the professions, or to simply get hired in regular working class jobs. And advance to supervisory positions. However bit by bit progress kept being made and thirty years ago as women became not a rarity in elected office but increasingly common laws started to change.
Having to compete is something I grew up with. In sports. In performing arts. Later, when I was 26 I went into the Marines. (talk about competition!) In all of those you had to prove you and the talent, skills and work ethic. Against whomever else also wanted the same spot you sought. That’s how it is in life. No one promised me it would be easy. In fact I was taught from an early age I would spend a lifetime working to earn a comfortable retirement. And that that wasn’t guaranteed!
Sure enough I barely get by from month to month. There’s no small house or condo, a golf club membership and an annual trip somewhere like I thought for so long would be the case. That’s how life turns out sometimes. But it’s choices I made that are responsible for my situation. NOT that women and minorities were in the workforce and did better in their careers than I did. I believed, and still believe like anyone else I deserved a fair and equal chance.
That’s something every person should have, a fair chance or opportunity to get as far as their abilities and work will take them. Yet there are those who don’t believe that and never have. Frankly most of them never will. There’s an ugly truth about racism in this country. It can and has at times been tamped down but like a dormant virus it waits for a chance to flourish again. Trump has been Miracle Gro for it. Now he’s got his sidekick if not acting President who was raised early on in South Africa’s Apartheid ideology in a country where whites are the actual majority! The pair of them want to use the government to move us back. Way back. To when non-whites and even women were legal chattel. Opportunity is for whites only, with a handful of token black people and women in ‘sort of’ visible roles to appease guilt. And by god that’s what MAGA wants.
If you’ve never seen the movie The Tuskegee Airmen do yourself a favor and find a copy. It’s powerful with plenty of memorable moments but it depicts a scene where racists in Congress tried to shut the whole thing down. I hope you’ll at least take a few minutes to what their Commanding Officer Benjamin O. Davis Jr. had to say when HIS CO told the racists to shut up and let him talk:
My white skin and male gender don’t “entitle” me to a goddamned thing. They never have despite what WAY too many Americans insist on believing. We have tens of millions of MAGA goobers (both men and women too) who believe THEY deserve first dibs on everything. If, and only if they’ve stuffed themselves so full of the “goodies” their whiteness (and/or maleness) ENTITLE them too should others get to grab what’s left off the table.
But like Rock says in his routine, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell those goobers would swap places with him even though he’s rich! That I think if a fun question I can start posing to MAGA types. After one of their rants about blacks, brown people etc. (or women) taking THEIR opportunity away from them ask “Well, if you feel they have it so good would you swap places with someone like Chris Rock? Or Beyonce?” You KNOW how horrified they’d be at the very thought. Rock nailed it in his routine. Elon Musk is no longer young and “buff” but given his worth Trump would gladly swap lives with him. However some of the other “tech bros” and Wall Street types are also worth considerably more than Trump is but they have brown skin. People from say India. Trump wouldn’t swap places with THEM if they were even richer than Musk.
Again, remember (then) Col. Davis’ words: “A fair and impartial opportunity. That’s all we ask. NOTHING, that you yourselves wouldn’t DEMAND.” Yet we have a whiny-assed bunch, tens of millions in number of Americans who DEMAND more than a ‘fair and impartial opportunity.” They DEMAND a guarantee. And that others, non-whites get no opportunity at all. My question is if their “whiteness” (and usually maleness) makes them so f**king superior why they are afraid of actual competition? Think about it. And when you talk with one of these asshats ask them why if the color of their skin and/or gender makes them superior they are afraid to PROVE it.
********** And now, a message from Ursula I hope you take to heart **********
Friends, I am forced to self-promote and ask you for money. We had a bad year compared with 2023 and the end of the year has been catastrophic. Traffic died on November 5. We are a small blog and completely self-supporting by ad revenue, donations, and subscriptions. If you can afford a monthly subscription that would help us out. If you can make a small donation, likewise. Our only goal is to stay in business and give you the best content we can generate. You are the wind beneath our wings. Thank you. Ursula
Superb article Denis. Should be required reading and would be in a country where freedom of expression was still taught in schools. Tragically, that’s no longer America.
Um, Denis? I think there’s a slight problem with the following comment you wrote in your article:
“Now he’s got his sidekick if not acting President who was raised early on in South Africa’s Apartheid ideology in a country where whites are the actual majority!”
See, it’s that last word that’s a bit, well, wrong.