Welcome to Whitey’s Revenge! Here you’ll find my musings on political, social, and racial issues, particularly those concering Asian and Caucasian Americans. If you’ve come expecting some ultra-conservative railing against minorities getting too many hand-outs, you’ve come to the wrong place. I myself am quite out there on the left, but I don’t necessarily prescribe to beliefs that one would expect from a liberal.
Some time ago I became interested in how various races were portrayed in the media. Stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics were obvious, and I was particularly interested in depictions of Arabs, South and East Asians who were significantly underrepresented. As my opinions on issues grew in quantity and frequency, (and also after taking inspiration from
the excellent Angry Asian Man blog) I decided to start my own corner on the internet where I could discuss issues surrounding the less present minorities from the perspective of arguably the most present character in Western media - the white male.
As I started to think of what kind of stereotypes might exist for whites in the media, I debated whether or not that might be a ridiculous concept. After all, America is still a white dominated society to be sure, what possible injustices could whites as a social group face? But I realized that my very reluctance to explore the issue was significant. I had been conditioned to think that I could never be a victim, or more importantly, that the very thought of being anything other than privileged was selfish and offensive to non-whites.
Now, I’m not about to claim that I’m anything but privileged. But much of that is a result of my class, not my skin tone. The fact is that lower class (particularly rural) whites are very often stereotyped and generalized as ignorant racist simpletons. In fact, whites from various backgrounds face similar stereotypes in the media, although they may be given more credit when it comes to intelligence. The result is a perception that whites are always just on the borderline of being racist, and that anything they possess has been achieved through little struggle, at least in the large social sense. A conception such as this one, if present enough in the mainstream media, is enough to make anyone feel guilty and ashamed of their racial group.
White people, it seems, deal with this guilt in two ways. Either they become frustrated and angered by it, in which case they begin to deny that racism exists at all and rail against the perceived over-sensitvity of minorities. Or they become the guilt-ridden white liberal, a kind of Catholic in the political world, for whom only self-deprecation and rejection of rural/Western/mainstream American culture provides any kind of solace. (Then of course there’s your typical frat-boy urban professional, who seems to be oblivious to the entire issue. Unless they’re a politician, in which case they agree with every side)
Of course I’m exaggerating (satire seems to be a self defense mechanism of mine) but I think there’s some truth in it. Whether or not you agree on the existence of these stereotypes in the media, whites in America are certainly confronted with race and racism in a very specific way. They belong to the largest ethnic group and are faced with a legacy of violent dominance in our nations history, and indeed the world. “Black pride” and “Asian pride” are considered to be generally benevolent concepts, but what reaction do the words “white pride” evoke? Most people can look to ethnic heritage for cultural background, but as a race, whites are culturally emasculated. And in many ways, this is another way whites are stereotyped in the media – as being “normal”. Their culture is normality; it is the standard culture of America. While “minorities” fight the perception of being foreign, whites simultaneously strive to be different, embracing the cultures they perceive to be “black” “Asian”, or simply something counter to the conformity of the middle class.
What possible purpose could these stereotypes serve? Why would the mainstream media in America, dominated by whites, want to maintain these portrayals? Quite simple - because they make money. There is big business in making people feel inadequate about who they are, and whites are no less a target than anyone else so long as they have cash to spend. The portrayals of whites as the standard, while at the same time borderline racist, exacerbates racial tensions and divides people into neat little audiences that will not only swallow race-specific programming, but also exotic depictions of “foreign” races.
So why “Whitey’s Revenge”? What am I avenging? Consider it my revenge against the system that turns us against each other in order to maintain itself. Although it may not objectify whites, “commodify” whites, or stereotype whites like it does others, it profits equally from us all by dividing us. I’m not trying to push some kind of grand conspiracy theory that a shadowy media conglomerate has some master plan for turning every racial group against each other. But when the media profits from social antagonism, consciously or unconsciously, it will be hard pressed to take more progressive action. Minorities should not be the only one’s concerned about their representation, or lack thereof. Everyone should. And that’s what this website is about. If you saw “Whitey’s Revenge” and were surprised that a white dude could be angry at a system of race-objectification in society, then maybe that’s an indication of the problem. We’re all in this together, no matter how different our experiences may be. Now, let’s do this shiznit.
