May 26, 2011

Old Jokes Become New Realities

Close to four years ago, I posted a parody of a local right wing message board full of drunkards, giving my interpretation of their wackiness. I wrote it in a matter of minutes based on various inebriated attitudes that were prevalent on the board.

I titled the mock topic, "White males real victims of racism? Yep!!!"


Turns out just three days ago Science Daily reported of a real life study suggesting that whites at least believe they are now victims of racism more than blacks. No, really.

Some excerpts from Science Daily:

Whites believe that they have replaced blacks as the primary victims of racial discrimination in contemporary America, according to a new study from researchers at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Business School.
*snip*
Sommers and co-author Michael I. Norton of Harvard asked a nation-wide sample of 208 blacks and 209 whites to indicate the extent to which they felt blacks and whites were the targets of discrimination in each decade from the 1950s to the 2000s. A scale of 1 to 10 was used, with 1 being "not at all" and 10 being "very much."

White and black estimates of bias in the 1950s were similar. Both groups acknowledged little racism against whites at that time but substantial racism against blacks. Respondents also generally agreed that racism against blacks has decreased over time, although whites believed it has declined faster than blacks do.

However, whites believed that racism against whites has increased significantly as racism against blacks has decreased. On average, whites rated anti-white bias as more prevalent in the 2000s than anti-black bias by more than a full point on the 10-point scale. Moreover, some 11 percent of whites gave anti-white bias the maximum rating of 10 compared to only 2 percent of whites who rated anti-black bias a 10. Blacks, however, reported only a modest increase in their perceptions of "reverse racism."

"These data are the first to demonstrate that not only do whites think more progress has been made toward equality than do blacks, but whites also now believe that this progress is linked to a new inequality -- at their expense," note Norton and Sommers. Whites see racial equality as a zero sum game, in which gains for one group mean losses for the other.

Sadly, back then I thought these people were just the fringe twenty percenters.

4 comments:

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Not surprising to me. Back in the early 90s a very well respected semi-liberal college professor declared in a conference I was attending that "white males are the new objet of discrimination." I questioned this extensively and sure enough she meant it as literally as she stated it.
As a white male with over 5 decades of experience I can without reservation say that I have never felt the least bit of racial prejudice except when I have been in the company of people of color.

crystal dawn said...

Wow, seems perhaps she's digested the same bullshit that tells her it's perfectly acceptable to be making seventy five cents on the dollar that her male college professor counterparts are making. Just a guess.

SagaciousHillbilly said...

you're a tease.

crystal dawn said...

You insinuating I should be updating more often? That would require me to not work, which I do, for the "man," every fucking day.