Navigating the Racism of White Males
A long US history of white men practicing and perfecting the message of diversity-as-threat and identity politics
Let’s get straight to the point: NO ONE plucks the strings of identity politics more than white men — both now and from the earliest days of forming the US nation.
Today, I respond to one white man in particular: Mike Jankanish, a high school teacher and occasional op-ed contributor for The News Tribune, who authored the article “Diversity education is a divisive education.”
First, we should all be very cautious when a white male claims that diversity threatens our national unity. As a white male myself, I can attest — both personally and historically — to this claim of diversity-as-threat being easily and often translated (whether the speaker is conscious of it or not) to: Diversity threatens the privilege and supremacy that the white male has worked so carefully and fastidiously to develop and protect for himself.
The term identity politics is commonly associated with marginalized groups of people, and far too commonly used as a pejorative term when referenced by someone outside the marginalized group. (Read: white people — especially white men.)
