Thursday, August 31, 2017

The End of White Male Privilege

You know the old adage about a stopped clock being right twice a day? The same is true of Donald Trump. Occasionally, usually by accident, even he can say something or touch on something that makes sense.

One such thing is the degree to which he has tapped into the anger and resentment of a certain class of white males in America. A group that once had untold privilege, and now simmers with grievance, as that singular privilege has to be shared with a more diverse and equally deserving population.

Wrong as it may be, broken down to it’s core ideas, it easy to see why this anger is playing out and how demagogues like Trump can exploit it. To paraphrase Caesar, that fault is not just in our president but in the changes to the broader society.

Steven M. Gillion is a Professor at the University of Oklahoma. His recent op-ed in the Washington Post was entitled Why Are So Many White Men So Angry?”

My conversation with Steven Gillon: