Making sense of our politics and world today is difficult.
One approach to understanding requires realizing that all human societies are
always “‘socially stratified.” It means,
in part, that some categories of people are in control and are deemed superior
(top rung of the ladder) to other categories of people who are disvalued
(bottom of the hierarchy). Examples are India today with its caste system,
South Africa under apartheid, and blacks in the South under slavery and Jim
Crow laws.
These hierarchies are justified by those who are advantaged.
The status quo will be justified by a
variety of arguments, including religious ones.
However, hierarchies are often
challenged, and those who benefit from it will often fight change. With
regard to blacks and whites in America, the term ‘white rage’ is used to
describe some of the motivation for white nationalism, and the revival of white
supremacy ideas. This paradigm could
apply, for instance, to ISIS which is fighting the spread of Western values.
In the U.S., starting with Supreme Court decisions and
federal civil rights laws, many whites, especially in the South, resisted the
challenges to white supremacy with hatred, if not violence. This was especially noticeable with regard to
desegregating public schools.
Another example is male domination over females. This has a
long history all over the world. Wives
were viewed as the property of their husbands.
Women were unfit for many occupations.
They were forbidden to vote. Women were expected to marry and become sex
and baby machines, maids, cooks and for their husbands, and nannies for the
man’s children. Men were especially
concerned about the sexuality of women.
Miscegenation was outlawed. A century ago, if a black man in the South
was even suspected of raping a white woman, he would be lynched as soon as
possible. The superior race doesn’t want
to see itself mongrelized. You can see
this in male desires control the sexuality and reproduction of their female
partners. This is one of the reasons, but not the only reason,
for opposition to abortion and birth control.
It gives women control of their
fertility. The sexual double-standard allowed men to be promiscuous but women
were not allowed. Women who were raped
were often seen as ‘loose women” who deserved it.
Race and gender are not the only issues. Religion and ethnicity are also factors. White, Protestant residents of the U.S. were
appalled at the influx of Catholic Irish starting in the 1830's. Resistance to immigrants, esp. Muslims, is now rampant.
Social change today
is more rapid than any time in U.S history.
Hierarchies are being challenged like never before. People who are uncomfortable with change now
feel threatened more than ever. Their
reactionary voices have become loud and angry.
For example, the alt-right has emerged and neo-Nazis have reemerged from
the shadows. political polarization and
group animosity toward others is growing.
The nation was founded by white male Christians. To many people who voted for Trump, “Make
America Great” means restoring white, Christian male supremacy.
Many suspect that one of the reasons for the Trump victory
was this reactionary movement. Many
white working-class people felt that the democrats were more interested in
helping minorities, LJGBT’s etc., than white working-class people. An 81-year-old retired police captain who
voted or Mr. Trump stated that “the white man is a low person on the totem
pole. Everybody else is above the white man.”
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