- Throughout American history the boundaries of who is considered "white" have changed to include new groups of people in response to the demands and needs of white elites to maintain power.
The Irish, Italians, the Polish, Jews, Russians, and other Europeans have, over the centuries and decades, completed this journey from the periphery of whiteness to being fully considered white.
If American history is any guide, a good number of Hispanics and Latinos (as well as Pacific Islanders and other East Asians) will likely complete some version of that journey from honorary to full whiteness as well.
White Americans will not be a "minority" in America. They will still be the single largest group.
And let's be fair: most Poles aren't fond of Ukrainians, Belarusians or Russians (which is mutual). You really don't need other races to have hate and discrimination. Also, that's a surprisingly insightful strip coming from someone who for years kept mentioning Poland only as the place whence the thieves come.
Accurate. In America, we call this 'being woke.' /s Yeah, she served this up as an explanation in a later comic. "Not necessarily because it was a Pole who stole the thing in the first place, but because that’s where a lot of people go to get rid of their stolen goods" I have no grounds for grasping its validity, so I'm willing to read any insight you have. You really don't need other races to have hate and discrimination.
Also, that's a surprisingly insightful strip
coming from someone who for years kept mentioning Poland only as the place whence the thieves come.
I guess there's a degree of truth to it, but all I have is anecdotal evidence."Not necessarily because it was a Pole who stole the thing in the first place, but because that’s where a lot of people go to get rid of their stolen goods"
I have no grounds for grasping its validity, so I'm willing to read any insight you have.
I was made aware of it rather unpleasantly some months ago. What for me was innocuous question got me banned on some subreddit for 'spewing alt-right rhetoric'. It was something along the lines of "why are you so opposed to white people getting financial help in college? poverty is poverty."
I was glib the other day in a different hubski post about the browning of America but the Salon article is closer to my actual feelings. It also left me wondering if a level of nationalism isn't always a bad thing. Norway has a robust social safety net in part because almost everyone there is Norwegian. In America certain people want to take away the ability to eat food because we have conflicting ideas of national identity and it's easy for the ignorant to unconsciously disregard the needs of fellow citizens just because they perceive them as largely not American enough. Anyway I don't really want to go down the path of examining the benefits of nationalism. America is unique and weird
Racism and white supremacy are based on a concept which is a "true lie" that dominant society makes real, both for those who benefit from racial inequality as well as those who suffer under it. In all, Charles Blow's sharp observation that, "This is at the core: White extinction anxiety, white displacement anxiety, white minority anxiety. This is the fear and anxiety Trump is playing to" actually brings up something deeper, more existential and in many ways more sinister both because of the collective psychology involved and what such a conclusion then mandates as a necessary and reasonable response to an existential threat. Best I can parse this article is its demonstrating how a shift in ideas from "We're white people, and we're cool" to "We're white people, and maybe that doesn't make us that cool." (And the guilt looking back on what people did in the name of being cool) Which, in turn, leads to the 'existential threat' from "What if we're just people." Then again, I guess I just summed up the growing pains of the Civil Rights movement from the 'white peoples'' side.The concept of "race" does not reflect empirical reality as it actually exists.
My takeaway was whiteness will always be redefined because it's a bullshit concept and the people who feel threatened are ignorant of history. They also probably don't realize Rafael Cruz is Cuban because he looks like a half melted wax sculpture of Joseph McCarthy
The people who will redefine it are nebulous at best. Italians, Jews, Poles, etc. in this country didn't become white over night. The frightened people are the ones who don't realize that, unless they're 100% white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, their ancestors weren't white and the coming horde of brown people will have a considerable portion of its population be white enough by the standards of the 2030's.