Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Millions of White Americans Are Dealing With Economic Pain They
Haven't Seen for Decades
________________________________________
Millions of White Americans Are Dealing With Economic Pain They Haven't Seen
for Decades
By Tim Wise [1] / City Lights [2]
April 14, 2016
The following is an excerpt from the book Under the Affluence [3] by Tim
Wise (City Lights Books, 2015):
For millions of Americans the downturn of the past several years and its
effects in terms of wage stagnation, persistent unemployment, and struggles
with affordable health care, housing and higher education, are nothing
particularly new. For millions of people of color, such economic insecurity
has been distressingly normal, generation in and generation out, for all of
American history. Regardless of the health of the economy, it is virtually a
truism that African American unemployment and poverty levels continually
hover around or beyond recession levels.
In fact, it could be argued that part of why so many have taken notice of
the crisis in recent years, and why it has become such a topic of concern,
is precisely due to the way that normatively black and brown economic
conditions have bled over into the white community. So long as economic pain
was localized in subgroups with less power and influence-especially when
those subgroups have long faced a history of discrimination and stigma-it
failed to register on the radar screens of the larger citizenry. But once
the insecurity began to be shared a bit-even then not equitably, but more so
than white Americans had been used to-the magnitude of the problem suddenly
appeared more obvious. Double-digit unemployment in the white community,
even for a brief time, was truly new for many. White Americans on the whole
had not experienced that kind of insecurity in the job market for three
generations, since the Great Depression.
While people of color fared far worse during the recent collapse than
whites-they were still the first to lose their jobs and the last to be hired
back, and saw the vast majority of their already minimal wealth levels wiped
out, particularly in terms of home value-the downturn seems to have had a
greater psychological impact on whites. Precisely because of the relative
advantage most white Americans have long taken for granted, we were less
prepared for the kind of setback to which we were subjected in recent years.
This is no doubt part of the reason why recent surveys have found that
despite ongoing relative advantages over persons of color in the job market,
housing market, educational system and elsewhere, white Americans are more
pessimistic about the future than ever, and whites are far more pessimistic
than members of other racial groups who are doing quite a bit worse.
For a graphic and telling consideration of just how distressing the downturn
seems to have been, especially for whites, one need look no further than the
lead story in Newsweek from mid-April 2011 concerning what the cover
referred to as "Beached White Males." Therein, the author suggested that now
the economic meltdown was really a crisis, because whites-even whites in the
managerial class-were feeling the pinch, with some even experiencing the
long-term unemployment that had previously been seen as the purview of only
the lesser classes. There is a distressing and even heart-breaking irony to
the article once one sifts through the self-loathing of corporate executives
who can't seem to cope with having to pound the pavement looking for work
like mere mortals. Reading the piece, it becomes obvious just how dangerous
it can be to have blind faith in the system, as apparently many of the men
in the article long had. Once they came to realize that hard work and
playing by the rules was not enough-something people of color and even poor
whites have long understood-they were ill prepared for it.
None of this is to dismiss the real stresses faced by white Americans
because of current economic conditions; rather, it is to say that part of
our current predicament may indeed be worse precisely because we paid so
little attention to the crisis when it was only affecting those other
people. In fact, not only did we pay insufficient attention, but in many
cases, the government helped facilitate the crisis directly by way of its
actions. So, for instance, in 1999 North Carolina passed a law prohibiting
banks from offering predatory and deceptive loans to homeowners, in large
measure because lenders were targeting the poor and people of color with
these instruments. Rather than applaud the ruling and seek to extend it
nationwide or with comparable national legislation, the federal government
overrode the new law, paving the way for several more years of these kinds
of loans, which ultimately became the fulcrum of the economic meltdown. Had
we cared more, attended to the warning signs, and resisted the growing
culture of cruelty with regard to the needy, perhaps we wouldn't be in the
predicament we're in at all.
Excerpt from Under the Affluence C 2015 by Tim Wise reprinted with
permission of City Lights Books
Tim Wise is an antiracism educator and author of six books on race and
racism. His website is www.timwise.org [4] and he tweets @timjacobwise
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pain-they-havent-seen-decades
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/tim-wise
[2] http://www.citylights.com/
[3]
http://www.amazon.com/Under-Affluence-Shaming-Praising-Sacrificing/dp/087286
6939/?tag=alternorg08-20
[4] http://www.timwise.org/
[5] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Millions of White
Americans Are Dealing With Economic Pain They Haven't Seen for Decades
[6] http://www.alternet.org/
[7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Millions of White Americans Are Dealing With Economic Pain They
Haven't Seen for Decades
Millions of White Americans Are Dealing With Economic Pain They Haven't Seen
for Decades
By Tim Wise [1] / City Lights [2]
April 14, 2016
The following is an excerpt from the book Under the Affluence [3] by Tim
Wise (City Lights Books, 2015):
For millions of Americans the downturn of the past several years and its
effects in terms of wage stagnation, persistent unemployment, and struggles
with affordable health care, housing and higher education, are nothing
particularly new. For millions of people of color, such economic insecurity
has been distressingly normal, generation in and generation out, for all of
American history. Regardless of the health of the economy, it is virtually a
truism that African American unemployment and poverty levels continually
hover around or beyond recession levels.
In fact, it could be argued that part of why so many have taken notice of
the crisis in recent years, and why it has become such a topic of concern,
is precisely due to the way that normatively black and brown economic
conditions have bled over into the white community. So long as economic pain
was localized in subgroups with less power and influence-especially when
those subgroups have long faced a history of discrimination and stigma-it
failed to register on the radar screens of the larger citizenry. But once
the insecurity began to be shared a bit-even then not equitably, but more so
than white Americans had been used to-the magnitude of the problem suddenly
appeared more obvious. Double-digit unemployment in the white community,
even for a brief time, was truly new for many. White Americans on the whole
had not experienced that kind of insecurity in the job market for three
generations, since the Great Depression.
While people of color fared far worse during the recent collapse than
whites-they were still the first to lose their jobs and the last to be hired
back, and saw the vast majority of their already minimal wealth levels wiped
out, particularly in terms of home value-the downturn seems to have had a
greater psychological impact on whites. Precisely because of the relative
advantage most white Americans have long taken for granted, we were less
prepared for the kind of setback to which we were subjected in recent years.
This is no doubt part of the reason why recent surveys have found that
despite ongoing relative advantages over persons of color in the job market,
housing market, educational system and elsewhere, white Americans are more
pessimistic about the future than ever, and whites are far more pessimistic
than members of other racial groups who are doing quite a bit worse.
For a graphic and telling consideration of just how distressing the downturn
seems to have been, especially for whites, one need look no further than the
lead story in Newsweek from mid-April 2011 concerning what the cover
referred to as "Beached White Males." Therein, the author suggested that now
the economic meltdown was really a crisis, because whites-even whites in the
managerial class-were feeling the pinch, with some even experiencing the
long-term unemployment that had previously been seen as the purview of only
the lesser classes. There is a distressing and even heart-breaking irony to
the article once one sifts through the self-loathing of corporate executives
who can't seem to cope with having to pound the pavement looking for work
like mere mortals. Reading the piece, it becomes obvious just how dangerous
it can be to have blind faith in the system, as apparently many of the men
in the article long had. Once they came to realize that hard work and
playing by the rules was not enough-something people of color and even poor
whites have long understood-they were ill prepared for it.
None of this is to dismiss the real stresses faced by white Americans
because of current economic conditions; rather, it is to say that part of
our current predicament may indeed be worse precisely because we paid so
little attention to the crisis when it was only affecting those other
people. In fact, not only did we pay insufficient attention, but in many
cases, the government helped facilitate the crisis directly by way of its
actions. So, for instance, in 1999 North Carolina passed a law prohibiting
banks from offering predatory and deceptive loans to homeowners, in large
measure because lenders were targeting the poor and people of color with
these instruments. Rather than applaud the ruling and seek to extend it
nationwide or with comparable national legislation, the federal government
overrode the new law, paving the way for several more years of these kinds
of loans, which ultimately became the fulcrum of the economic meltdown. Had
we cared more, attended to the warning signs, and resisted the growing
culture of cruelty with regard to the needy, perhaps we wouldn't be in the
predicament we're in at all.
Excerpt from Under the Affluence C 2015 by Tim Wise reprinted with
permission of City Lights Books
Tim Wise is an antiracism educator and author of six books on race and
racism. His website is www.timwise.org [4] and he tweets @timjacobwise
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [5]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[6]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/books/millions-white-americans-are-dealing-economic-
pain-they-havent-seen-decades
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/tim-wise
[2] http://www.citylights.com/
[3]
http://www.amazon.com/Under-Affluence-Shaming-Praising-Sacrificing/dp/087286
6939/?tag=alternorg08-20
[4] http://www.timwise.org/
[5] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Millions of White
Americans Are Dealing With Economic Pain They Haven't Seen for Decades
[6] http://www.alternet.org/
[7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
