In Which I Explain the World to White Men

I want to start by saying that it occurred to me this morning that Kleinheider and I, if both given our wishes for the world, would probably live in very similar small villages. Outsiders who didn't look too closely would see little differences. And in B-ville, Kleinheider would be slang for a sex act involving gin and an open flame. In Kleinheiderton, an Aunt B. would be a delicious flaky pastry that the Kleinheidertonians ritually spit on once a year. At both our village meetings, we would spend an inordinate amount of time plotting each other's downfall: "Marry her off at gun-point!" "Punch him in the face!" I'm just saying, you're welcome to visit each village, but I wouldn't stand in the space between them. Part of what infuriates me so much about Kleinheider is that I often feel like he and I see the landscape very similarly and yet come up with entirely different ideas about what it is we're seeing. Let's take his recent post on the poor put-upon white man. For those of you who don't want to follow the link, let me summarize: blah, blah, blah, you want to see who has it really bad? Poor white men, blah, blah, blah. There it is, tossed out there, like it's a known fact. But why do poor white men have it so bad? Is it the fault of the Black Caucus or Hollywood or radical feminists or godless commie heathens or homosexuals? Is rap music keeping the poor white man down? White men, today I'm going to explain to you how things work. Democracy is a joke. It's the best joke we can come up with for governing a large body of disparate peoples, but it is a joke. It doesn't work because most people don't want to govern themselves; they want someone to tell them what to do. Which is fine, because the people in power want to stay in power. Democrats, Republicans, whatever. At the end of the day, they want to stay in power. We have, in this country, a power structure based on race, class, and gender disparities. It doesn't mean that the people in power are inherently racist, classist, and sexist--though it doesn't mean they are not--it just means that they use racism, classism, and sexism to remain in power. Who has power in our country? By and large, rich white men. But, rich white men are a small minority of the actual people in this country. Most people are poor, many people are non-white, and most people are women. So, how, in a democracy, can a small minority of people retain power? They must keep the majority of people distracted. Now, the majority of people in this country aren't stupid. They see that rich white men are in power. And here's where the most important and insidious superstition we have comes into play. We say that we're a meritocracy, that anyone, regardless of where they start out in life, can raise themselves up in the world and "be" someone. It's important that we continue to believe this because it serves an important purpose: it camouflages the real class disparity among white people. Camouflaging the class disparity within the "white" group serves many, many important purposes. 1. It distracts us from seeing the ways in which race, gender, and class feed into each other. If you feel like The Man has been holding you down and you don't recognize the class component to that, why should it bother you if poor white people are suffering? At least some white people are suffering. 2. It keeps poor people fighting among themselves, rather than banding together in common interest against the powerful. 3. It distracts poor white men from seeing their real power. Three is the hardest to understand, so let me dwell on it a minute. As I said, we have a power structure that thrives on exploiting class, race, and gender differences so that the powerful can retain power. Racial differences are visible. Gender differences are visible. There will have to be RADICAL change in this country for women and minorities to achieve real power and not just continue to be let imitate the rich white men who are really in control. But white guys look like white guys. If you look at Bob Krumm or Bill Frist, can you tell just by looking who has more money? Who's the person in power? Just by looking, how can you say? And that, my friends, is the real, insidious threat to the people in power. It's not the folks they can see coming--women or minorities--they can thwart us. It's the people who look just like them, but who don't belong. So, white guys, of course you feel persecuted. Of course you feel like the deck is stacked against you. Of course you feel like you're bearing the brunt of a lot of harsh winds. You are! You are so that the people really in power don't have to. And you are so that the people in power can keep you distracted, keep you down here fighting with us and fighting us off, so that you're never really a real threat to the people who have and want to keep power.