After all, to call an event “white” or to speak of “white” privilege, however, does not mean that all of the people who used to be known as Caucasian would find an opera in Central Park their kind of thing. Besides, in the new millennium you don’t have to be rich to do things that only the really wealthy did in the 1950s. Ordinary working folks nowadays can afford a ten-day vacation tour of France. In our present economy, you distinguish yourself by your choices, consumer and otherwise. Money is of course a good method of doing this, although even spending money that you don’t have is okay, for instance, by maxing out on your credit cards. In such a fluid society, however, it is not enough to do Paris; Paris is so passé, especially when anyone and everyone can afford to go there. Instead, it is important to “discover” the “undiscovered,” the latest best thing, what no one has yet thought of or commodified, be it culinary, geographical, or sexual. Like airplane passenger status, privilege must constantly be upgraded.
Thus, not all whites are “equal,” and some are less equal than people with dark complexions. The people who easily maneuver the new territory of privilege, who keep ahead of the curve, even if their immediate ancestors hail from Hong Kong or Bombay, belong to a new cultural and social elite. This social class is a byproduct of the unprecedented historical prosperity enjoyed by America and other “Western” nations. It goes without saying that all of us have been affected by this prosperity, even conservatives, even leftists, in fact, aside from a few outliers, everyone who is fortunate enough to live in an advanced Western commercial economy, of which the U.S. has simply led the way. Conservatives like good wines and farmers’ markets, too. Thus, if you live in Tucson or Indianapolis and eat Thai or Indian food, if you like to shop at Whole Foods (rather than at the local, lower-priced corporate supermarket), if you don’t mind subtitles with your movies, you are half way to being part of this class. And if you listen to TED talks, if evangelicals creep you out, you are likely to be the real thing.
Continuous upgrading of one’s cultural attitudes comes with this territory: thus, the condescension of this new class toward American whites who are behind the curve, not only in life style, but especially in their professed adherence to “traditional” social views. It is no secret that such condescension, if not outright contempt, is one of the most characteristic attitudes of white liberals toward their less privileged fellow-citizens. President Obama was not admonished for his unpresidential-like comments about the benightedness of gun and religion clingers. Liberal whites agree with him, and whiteness studies provides ready license for such contempt.
Image credit: Kevin Jackson
