The Rage of the Angry White Male Continues Its Battle Against Equality

I've run across this a couple of times, thought about posting it and didn't. I'm going to now, and in this forum, because I truly do believe that much of the hatred being slung about this days has at it's core this existenial fear. And because Angry White Men are who they have been conditioned to be, they are unable to acknowledge that fear and deal with it in a productive manner and can only lash out at whatever 'other' is about. You may disagree.

The title is not mine, I've not read this book, but I hope the author is correct in his assesment of the outcome of this reactionary response.

www.truth-out.org...

Is there hope that the ugly, hateful era of the angry white male might come to an end in the United States?
Michael Kimmel, author of Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, believes that the incendiary rage of many resentful white males will ultimately succumb to an altered cultural context.
"Angry white men rage for our attention, yes, but that era of assumed male entitlement to all the positions of power and wealth is coming to an end." Kimmel told Truthout. "Men can be dragged kicking and screaming into that inevitable future, or we can accept it and ask what it means for us."

And importantly:

You dissect "The Rage of the American Working Man" in Chapter Six. Of course, the inevitable question is why is so much of that rage aimed at minorities instead of upward at primarily other white males who are exploiting them?
Good question, I ask myself this all the time. Sometimes, in my interviews, I felt like I was listening to a gendered version of Thomas Frank's book, What's the Matter with Kansas? as I listened to men blame those below them on the socioeconomic ladder for problems that were caused by those far above them. Such misdirection is massaged and manipulated. Men's anger is real - in the sense that they have often been badly done by. But just to say that it's a real feeling doesn't make it "true" - that is, it is not an accurate analysis of what caused their situation. Just remember that the anger of men who feel (or who actually have been) dispossessed can go to the right or the left. Timothy McVeigh or Tom Joad.

You talk about the transition from anxiety to explosive emotional anger among the actual and perceived growing loss of entitlement and privilege among white males. You use the phrase, "the cultural construction of aggrieved entitlement." Does that translate to, "white males are mad as hell that women and minorities aren't kept in their place anymore by white men, and the white men are losing their jobs and patriarchal status as a result"?
Nicely put! Some white males are mad as hell not that minorities or gays or women aren't "kept in their place" anymore, but more that they feel that "they" are taking places that were "rightfully ours." Race (being white) and gender (being men) are the frameworks they use to describe what I think is actually a phenomenon that has more to do with class.

So you agree or don't agree? Just with rhe highlighted part? Whats your opinion?

reply to post by FyreByrd


What does the color of ones skin have to do with being a man????

Are you saying there are no angry black men, yellow men, red men???

Sounds like a progressive hit piece of pure pschobabble designed to perpetuate racism versus solving it to me......

reply to post by seeker1963


If the color doesn't matter, why are you upset about it?
It really doesn't matter if someone brought it up before you thought about it, because if you didn't care...you didn't care.


Just food for thought
I'm neutral on the situation because I am a mere observer. Continue on.

reply to post by TheOneElectric


Who said I was upset? OR our you assuming I am upset?

I am just making a point on an article that leaves out the fact that the role of the "Male/Man" in general has changed drastically in our so called evolving economy.

The fact that this wasn't addressed but the color of ones skin WAS addressed, is what provoked my comment! I myself judge people by their character and NOT the color of their skin, and quite frankly I am getting tired of the race baiting that is being done in the name of "Political Correctness"..................

Am I mad? NO! Disgusted with the "Race Baiting"? YES!

Yeah, yeah angry white guys all over the place. Politically correct white hate at it's finest.

Now if we could just get all those angry white guys to quite running around playing the hate game "Knock-Out" things would be great. Oh wait.

Imagine being blind from birth.

You would base opinions of your fellow man upon the content of their character.

Not the colour of their skin.

Describe "blue" to a blind wo/man........

As a white male I actually found the OP or at least the quotes offensive. Maybe because I don't live in the US I don't see this stereotypical "Angry White Male" proclaiming his loss of "Entitlement and Privilege". I certainly have never felt entitled or privileged and I certainly don't feel anger at the loss of such nor have I met any that do. This book seems more like a feminist rant akin to what my ex-girlfriend used to submit me to after her ' Womens Studies' Course.
I would offer that in the case of the US it's more likely to be due to a lack of security and comfort that most people (White Men) were accustomed to prior to 9/11 and/or the financial meltdown. As I said I have neither noticed nor feel this supposed affront here in Canada so I can't really explain or counter-argue what the author is expressing.

I can see the OP's and the authors point. White males have been disadvantaged in the past. Who got everything in divorce and child rearing? Affirmative Action or anything that approximates it is a disadvantage to white males. White women get a pass because they're female. Note I said, "have been". I think things are starting to even out there. That said, some people just need a reason to be pissed off.

If you're considered a minority by race, sex, sexuality, or religion, so on and so forth, you are off limits to anything negative, period.

Even when said minority complains about something, that is clearly their own fault,I can't mention it or I'm racist.

If I say, it's against a churches rights to have to marry a gay couple, I'm homophobic.

If I say, I shouldn't have to pay for someone else's contraception, I'm sexist.

But,I can be called anything under the sun, and everyone is cool with it, if I see inequality towards me, I'm the bad guy.

I'm not angry yet, but the more one sided this whole equality thing gets, how long do you expect me, and those like myself to just sit here and take it?

Yes, very angry white male here!!

I'm warning you....if you keep wearing those stupid brown shoes; there's gonna be trouble!!

nuff said!!!

What????? White middle class men are Americas problem? I thought we were feeding everyone????

reply to post by terriblyvexed


That's what you're angry about? Words? Pfft. When it's about your kids, job and money THEN you have something to be angry about.

I wonder how long this thread would lasts if 'Angry Black Men' were in the title.

I think by the mere fact this thread is still here you are proving the opposite of your theory.

Just my 2 cents.

reply to post by FyreByrd


I can only read what you have inserted in your OP. But from that, I disagree with the premise.

There may be some folks out there, because of their gender and ethnic heritage, who feel entitled to whatever it is they feel they want. However, the broad brush approach reeks of the sexism and racism the author speaks against. (Like I said there may be more in the source, but I cannot access it at the moment.)

If I do not feel entitled to whatever, what does that make me? Am I just that ignorant or am I repaired? If I am repaired, who claims I was broken in the first place?

No. This article/book/etc sounds like someone writing about something without much thought invested.

Yes! Join me my white male brothers, we shall not rest until every woman is pregnant and barefoot and every minority makes less money than us. They shall feel our wrath! Wahaha.

I dont think that angry white men have a monopoly on "blaming others".
It is a human condition preyed upon by those that seek to manipulate us.
The last I saw, humans come in many colours and sizes.

You know who tells truth Mike Tyson he is the empirical case study of black rage. He came from the hood and is the product of that environment. He had a body of steel and a mind of pure rage. He doesn't pull any punches either hakakaka he enjoyed hurting people. Money, fame, women, houses cars none of that could quell the culture that was so ingrained in him. Its taken him almost 50 years to become a passive and emotionally stable person.

How many men just like Mike minus the fame and fortune does the hood churn out? How many does society give them 50 years to let go of that anger?

All the while profiteers of the urban culture get rich off the things that hold minorities back. Jay Z, Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton, Obama!

I'm in my late 40's, and most of the "white male privilege" disappeared before I entered the workforce in the late 80s

My whole working life has taken place with

-affirmative action for minorities in college and career
-more SBA loans for minorities
-preferential contracts for minority owned businesses.
-since the mid-nineties, women my age out-earning men in white-collar jobs.
-after Anita Hill, the suspicion that males ARE harassing females in the work place

There is a new white privilege coming on over the last decade though. White Males are more respected as voices of authority that they were before. Because these days, you know that the world is biased against us enough; so that if a WM has a position, he has definitely EARNED it. If he is a WM CEO, he was hired over some tokens that would have helped the company's HR compliance. If he is a professor, he has a good enough publication history that the faculty decided they could meet their race and gender quotas elsewhere.

In other words, a white male cannot get a job guarding the photocopier, or being VP of human resources. If he is still drawing a check, it's because he adds value to the bottom line. If he gets tenure, it's because he will be the "flower pot" that provides a place for all the minority flowers to bloom and grow.

IF there is a greater degree of white male rage, you'll find it in the working class, where the economics have ruined his family, and his job has migrated permanently overseas just went extinct.

Most of that rage is focused at the government, though; not at minorities.

Poor OP, being bombarded with level-headed facts and whatnot.

Tough times when your obtuse stance on the color of a group of people's skin is opposed so quickly.