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Why Do Some Older White People Believe They Are Discriminated Against?
Studies try to identify specific causes for these opinions, but understanding the phenomenon is just common sense …
Just about every day, I encounter an older white person, usually a man, who believes that discrimination against white people is on the rise.
If asked, the same person will also vehemently deny there is any such thing as racism.
Where do these ideas come from? They seem to be shared socially and are echoed by cable news, YouTube pundits, and TikTok channels talking about how white people are being discriminated against.
These attitudes — a particularly ugly feature of U.S. life, though not unique to this nation — seem almost impossible to change.
But they are changing. When I was young, hardly anyone was in an interracial relationship. Now, they are common. As of 2015, one in seven babies born in the U.S. was multiracial.
When I was young, there were only a few Black performers on television. The majority were singers, dancers, and comedians. Only Nichelle Nichols starred as Uhura on Star Trek and I also recall Diahann Carroll portraying a single mom and nurse. I never saw a Black or multiracial television…
