I’ve heard enough of the white male rage narrative | Hadley Freeman

I’ve heard enough of the white male rage narrative | Hadley Freeman

Posted by John P. Bradford // November 11, 2016

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Americas white working classes have suffered. But it shouldnt be taboo to call voters out for falling for racist and sexist messages

Grab em by the pussy was the line that was supposed to have ended Donald Trumps campaign for presidency. Instead it turned out to be one of the most astonishing and successful strategies for the highest office. In a campaign based on racism, misogyny and bullying, Trump proved that boasting about sexually assaulting women, far from ruining a mans career, can boost it; and white women voted for him in droves. Grab em by the pussy, indeed. The first black American president will now be succeeded by a man endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. This, according to Trump and his supporters, male and female, is what the American dream actually looks like.

A lot will be written about how Trumps victory represents a backlash of rage from the white working classes. The election of Trump, this narrative goes, proves how these people feel ignored by the elite politicians and metropolitan media. We need to hear more from these people, the argument continues, and how they have suffered because of globalisation, the demise of industry, the opioid crisis, the death of the American dream.

Its interesting, this take, not least because, far from being a working-class revolt, 48% of those who earn more than $250,000 and 49% of white college graduate voters chose Trump. But even leaving that aside, to say that no one took notice of the angry white vote in this US election is awfully reminiscent of British politicians saying no one talks about immigration, when it feels like you know what? I think we got that base well and truly covered.

Far from ignoring the white working class during this election, they were written about so extensively by nervously placatory liberal journalists that these articles became a genre unto themselves, satirised perfectly by Benjamin Hart last week (I couldnt help but notice that people in Bleaksville are angry I wanted to hear more but Ed explained that David Brooks had scheduled an interview with him to discuss whether he ate dinner with his family every night, and what it means for America.)

So heres an alternative take: weve heard enough of white rage now. Oh sure, listen to the grievances of enraged voters. But understanding them is different from indulging them, and the media and politicians in the US and UK have for too long conflated the two, encouraging the white victim narrative and stoking precisely the kind of nasty, race-baiting campaigns that led to Brexit and Trump (as the voter demographics have proved, the linking factor in Trump voters is not class but race).

Both campaigns promised to turn the clock back to a time when white men were in the ascendence, and both were fronted by privately educated false prophets such as Nigel Farage and Trump, absurdly privileged buccaneers who style themselves as friends of the working classes while pushing policies that work against them. They have bleached language of meaning, boasting that they arent career politicians (now a negative thing as opposed to someone who has devoted their life to public service), and they scorn experts (who are now apparently the biggest threat to democracy).

Trumps supporters, like Brexit supporters before them, will say that these are merely the bleatings of the sore losers the Remoaners, the Grimtons, or whatever portmanteau is conceived next. This objection always misses the obvious point that these people arent mourning for themselves. Whereas those who voted for Trump and Brexit did so to turn time back for their personal benefit, those who voted for remain or Hillary Clinton did so because they know time only moves forward, and this benefits society. To try to force it back hurts everyone.

To call out voters for falling for such damagingly racist and sexist messages is viewed by politicians as a vote-killer and dangerously snobby by the media, as though working-class people are precious toddlers who must be humoured and cant possibly be held responsible for any flawed thinking. There is no doubt the white working classes in the west have suffered in recent decades, yet no other demographic that has endured similarly straitened circumstances is indulged in this way. For decades, American politicians have demonised the black working classes who suffered far worse structural inequalities and for far longer and Trump continues to do so today.

And yet, as Stacey Pattoon wrote, only the white working classes are accorded this handwringing and insistent media empathy. No one is telling these voters to pull up their boot straps. The much-discussed American Dream is only considered broken when its the white working classes who are suffering. When its African-Americans, they are simply lazy and morally flawed.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/10/misogyny-us-election-voters