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Fredric is a web developer based in Chicago who hopes to one day start a foundation to support young, Black males in programming and computer science.

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Off-White is the new Black

May 21st, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

When I was growing up, talking white or acting white was a punchline dumb kids used to make me feel bad. Balancing a drive to succeed with the peer pressure of acting Black was a tightrope we all traversed. Nowadays, the smart and balanced Negro is the new thing, from Barack Obama, to Kidz in the Hall, to even the term ‘YBP’. The socio-economic differences that have bred educated Blacks and ignorant Blacks, and have shaped Black America, is a well-known dichotomy that Black people have been trying to explain since W.E.B. DuBois’ ideas of the Talented Tenth.

Now, with the Obama’s declaration that America must have an honest conversation about race, white people are realizing just how polar they are…not with us, but among themselves. A quote from an article I found in the Tribune:

Clinton’s white voters lack the salient feature of the white experience—privilege. As [the website] Stuff White People Like suggests, privilege now functions as a rarefied club that excludes people based not on their skin color but on their economic status, personal tastes and aesthetic sensibilities. The Web site tips toward progressive emblems of privilege (public radio), but because plenty of Republicans like iPods and farmers markets, it’s safe to say the actual cohort is bigger than that (or at least could support a sister site about white love for McMansions, mega-churches and golf). Yes, this club is still called “white,” but as time goes on, that whiteness becomes more conceptual than literal. You don’t have to be white to be white. You just need enough disposable income and the desire to buy the lifestyle accessories and adopt the points of view that were once exclusively associated with it.

So where does that leave Clinton’s last-ditch voting bloc? Barred from this new whiteness (and apparently unwilling or unable to make common cause with others who are also outside the pale), the people who handed Clinton a decisive victory in West Virginia have been stripped of so much social currency over the last few decades that you wonder if a new racial category—called “off-white” perhaps?—is about to emerge.

For those who aren’t sure what this author is referring to, I give you the video below.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always felt like I’ve had to distinguish myself above the image of the typical Black man. The media has lambasted us so badly that I’m vexed everyday about trying to better myself and keeping it real. From over-sexualized predators to greedy bafoons, our lowest common denominator is displayed 24-7. The desire to separate myself from this is so bad that I accept, and damn near welcome, the labels of elitism from my peers, even going so far as to create this very blog in plain sight. As a matter of fact, there are a whole team of us who consistently try and spread an educated message to combat the ignorance of mass media. It has become our refuge and our weapon. We know the realities of racism and bigotry, and we’re never so naive to believe that America has our back.

So what happens when a constituency of uneducated white people show up in droves to blatantly denounce Obama, i.e. West Virginia and Kentucky? What happens when the lowest common denominator of white people, who the majority has constantly laughed off in redneck jokes, finally shows their ass to the public? Like any sane, educated person, they distance themselves from them. Whereas Black people do not control the mass air waves of media to denounce the unfair depictions of our people, white people can hide in their refuge of privilege and know that websites like ‘What White People Like’ will create million dollar book deals. They can enjoy the reiteration from major companies that happiness is marketed as a white suburban neighborhood and a token Black friend is ‘o.k.’ They can even go so far as to rename a group of people they hope is kept quiet, ultimately declaring that they’re not even white! They’re off-white.

Get. Tee-FOCK. Out of Here.

Ultimately, the common thread in these ‘new revelations’ is the role class plays in American culture. Our capitalistic society inevitably births ‘the have’ and ‘havenots’. While many of us may enjoy this blessing day in and day out, the Young Black Professional must remember that we can’t just throw our off-Blacks under the bus. Our history tells us that we all get lumped in together, and we’re only as strong as our weakest link. Continue to invest in your communities, albeit through time, money, or love. While I am optimistic a President Obama and family will bring us into a new day, I will never forget the reality of a Sean Taylor or Sean Bell or Marcus Dixon.

I’m not THAT privileged.

There Are 10 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by BB on 21 May 2008:

    Everyone is dancing around the issue and not wanting to put it into words. Thank you for being the first I’ve seen with the courage to do so.

    I am a white woman in Indiana. Contrary to stereotype, I am educated, non-racist, and a defiantly liberal voter in this red state (which I’m hoping will change this November!)

    I’m continually amazed that the candidates, news media and the rest of the country seems so unaware of the climate in states like mine and Kentucky. Why is everyone so shocked? Why is everyone mincing words and sweeping it under the rug.

    My state, and those like it, are economically depressed, ignored by the rest of the country…and chock-full of homophobia, sexism and racism. It’s sickening. On one hand, I can look at it objectively and see why we are mocked and ignored, but on the other hand, I think that ignoring the issue any longer is foolish.

    These are volatile issues, and they are nationwide, not just in states like mine. But in states like mine, the small towns are full of racism that barely bothers to hide itself. It’s appalling and makes me sick, but it’s around me every day in jokes and comments that people don’t even attempt to hide.

    I wish people would recognize the facts: in these states’ medium and smaller towns, and their rural areas, the social climate about race needs a LOT of work. Something needs to be done about it, something concrete that makes sense and helps people learn and reassures them.

    Regardless of the spin and fancy tap-dancing that followed Obama’s comments, many MANY people here ARE bitter and angry about their economic situation and lack of opportunity, as well as the astonishing rise in food and gas prices over the last six months.

    But it isn’t just anger and bitterness - it’s also fear. Especially among the elderly. They remember the Great Depression. They see this senseless war being financed while our country falls apart in every conceivable way and our well-paying manufacturing jobs are sent overseas with plants closing left and right. And it takes them back to their childhood, and it scares them.

    This fear, combined with their generational experiences, is the basis of why this generation supports Hillary Clinton so lopsidedly. What is Obama planning to do about this? Just ignore the issue and hope it goes away?

    These people need to catch up, and it needs to be done gently without hostility and shame. Why, in this day and age, is it still accepted as inevitable and meaningless that an elderly white woman can say, “well, he can always be impeached, can’t he?” when she bitterly concedes that Obama might win the Presidency — and when pressed on the issue, admit, “well, I’m afraid of Negroes - they hate us, after all, and who would blame them?”

    What a tremendous failure of our society that some of these elderly people - and some of our less fortunate, less educated younger white people - still feel this way.

    Yes it’s terrible, and I’m sure it’s angering - it angers me. But anger is not the answer. Ridicule is not the answer.

    If Hillary Clinton decides to concede, I do hope that she addresses this segment of her supporters and tells them in clear, plain, reassuring language that they have nothing to fear in this regard and that somehow this group can be reached and taught - gently, without accusations and hostility. That is the ONLY way that Obama will win them over.

    I don’t agree with these racist viewpoints, but they are real, and Obama needs to include dealing with this in any policy of reconciliation that he might be working on. The media need to stop tiptoeing around it and call it what it really is -drag it out in the light and deal with it. Like it or not, these people exist - the poor, uneducated white people, especially the elderly ones, and if he really wants to unite the party and beat McCain, this very real fear & ignorance MUST be dealt with somehow.

    It kinda scares me, to be honest, that Obama and his handlers don’t seem to be savvy enough to take steps to educate people and defeat these attitudes.

  2. Comment by Fredric on 21 May 2008:

    BB-

    Thanks for the insightful words. I agree that these ‘brush-offs’ need to be discussed more often and more openly. People will realize slowly, but shortly, how much we have in common.

    The inherit contradiction, however, is that politics has always prayed on fear. People are elected, wars are funded, and parties are made on the politics of fear and cynicism.

    History has shown that education and diverse experiences counter-balance this. Unfortunately, that is the exact void poorer communities have.

    The difference between a poor white community and a poor Black community is marginal, at best. That margin of being Black, however, is enough to get you murdered by the police and exploited by the media. In white communities, you’re swept under the rug.

  3. Comment by The Urban Scientist on 21 May 2008:

    You should also check out a blog/meme about a related topic Middle Class Priviledge.
    http://educationandclass.com/2008/05/16/middle-class-privilege/

    Your posting and BB’s comments really do fit within a larger context of Class Discussions that should also be had.

    It’s worth checking out.

  4. Comment by MCBias on 21 May 2008:

    The Urban Scientist has beaten me to my point–class is becoming huge right now. While I agree that many issues still become a black vs. white issue, many more issues are now becoming a very rich vs. poor vs. hoping to stay middle class issue. There’s a lot of fear here in the Midwest and elsewhere that we are nearing a new era of poverty, and that fear is starting to manifest itself as anger.

  5. Comment by Veester on 8 June 2008:

    Interesting essay. I’m an upper middle class white person who normally votes Republican but is thinking about voting for Obama. Why? He speaks to my “group” - knowledge workers, Gen X, well-educated, non social conservatives - and I guess that means my social class. The first time I saw an interview with Senator Obama, I related to his delivery, middle class speech patterns and the fact that he wasn’t talking DOWN to voters. Maybe that’s what makes some people feel more “uncomfortable” - it’s class, not just race.

    Of course, there’s no Presidential candidate seriously in the running who isn’t upper middle class, though Sen. Obama, ironically, probably had a less-privileged childhood than Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

    Obama is a success because he’s smart and hard-working. I just don’t know what people want.

  6. Comment by Fredric on 8 June 2008:

    @Veester

    Thanks for sharing your comments and thanks for visiting the blog!

  7. Comment by Janine deManda on 12 June 2008:

    “The difference between a poor white community and a poor Black community is marginal, at best. That margin of being Black, however, is enough to get you murdered by the police and exploited by the media. In white communities, you’re swept under the rug.”

    While I don’t at all contest the very real differences between the experience of walking around phenotypically black in america and walking around phenotypically white here, I do feel compelled to point out that more happens to impoverished “off-whites” than being swept under the rug including but not limited to consitituting nearly the entirety of the white prison population. The cops don’t like poor whites that much more than they do blacks, and if they’re aren’t any folks of obvious African descent around for them to harass, railroad, and incarcerate {which is the case in much of impoverished rural america}, they’re more than happy to play petty tyrant with the lives of poor “off-whites”.

  8. Comment by Janine deManda on 12 June 2008:

    Oh, and with regard to media exploitation, off-whites are absolutely the new blacks insofar as film and television have no qualms about holding buffoonish caricatures of poor whites up as a} true, b} utterly unproblematic, and c} just so damn funny.

  9. Comment by Jeanne on 12 June 2008:

    We know the realities of racism and bigotry, and we’re never so naive to believe that America has our back.

    I don’t think poor whites believe that America has their back. I think they’ve been fooled to believe so. If they knew the truth, they would know that they have far more in common with African Americans than with middle class or wealthy white people.

    We are not going to overcome racism in this country until we deal with social class.

    Why else do you think there aren’t a lot of cameras around when Obama plays basketball? Is it because he doesn’t want to be seen as sweaty? Or is it because the image of him on a basketball court would evoke white America’s images of inner city black men?

  10. Comment by Veester on 1 July 2008:

    Thanks, Fredric.

    Jeanne says:

    I don’t think poor whites believe that America has their back. I think they’ve been fooled to believe so. If they knew the truth, they would know that they have far more in common with African Americans than with middle class or wealthy white people.

    We are not going to overcome racism in this country until we deal with social class.

    I think that’s true. Poor whites have been sidelined by social conservatives into caring about issues like “preserving the sanctity of hetero marriage” and whether or not a candidate is patriotic enough to be President (and proves it by wearing a flag pin.)

    It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

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