Trump’s Crowd: Privileged Who See Themselves As Victims
BY SAM FIELDS
If you have lived a life of privilege, and then find yourself living in a world of equality, it can seem like oppression.
Dethroned monarchs and dictators come to mind.
On a broader American scale, White Christian Men (WCM) fit that paradigm in a narrative now being trumpeted by Trump and his minions.
I thought about this while listening to the bleats of White racist Richard Spencer who had his day in the sun in Gainesville.
It really came home to me when a National Public Radio poll conducted with the Robert Wood Foundation revealed that 55% of Whites believe they are discriminated against because of the color of their skin.
We should all be so discriminated against.
At no time have WCM ever been more than 40% of Americans. Currently they are probably no more than 30% of the population…yet they are overrepresented in leadership positions in and out of government by factors of at least twice their numbers and in some cases twenty times their numbers.
Of our 45 Presidents 44.5 were White. (Barack Obama was half Black)
Since 1789, 12,244 have served in the House and Senate. Only 598 (6%) were women and minorities.
Neither the House nor the Senate had a non-WCM until 1841 when Florida sent David Levy Yulee (Levy County southwest of Gainesville is named for him) to the Senate.
David Levy Yulee: The first non-Christain in Congress was Jewish and from Florida.
The current Congress is 75% WCM.
Of the 113 justices on the Supreme Court, 94% have been WCM.
The private sector was not much better.
Until the 1960’s WCMs were 99% of the directors and CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. Today they are “only” between 65 and 70%. No wonder they feel discriminated.
Of course the ultimate evidence of WCM unfettered power was rape and lynching.
Between the end of the Civil War and 1981, close to 5000 lynchings took place. Black and other minorities were overwhelmingly the victims. Florida has the dubious distinction of the having the highest per capita rate of lynching.
I doubt even one was organized by anyone other than WCMs.
It was WCM’s who wrote the laws that well into the 1960’s guaranteed immunity for spousal rape.
While Black men were lynched for thinking about sex with White women, WCM’s had no fear of prosecution for raping his wife or minority women.
Back in the 1920’s racist Strom Thurmond, the future U. S. Senator, raped his 16- year old Black housekeeper’s daughter with zero consequences. Even if she had gone to the police nothing would have happened.
Even before the founding of our republic the rules were written by and for the benefit of WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN giving them 100% of the power.
But the times and demographics are changing and those who once had all the power now have to share.
And for them it seems like discrimination.
November 2nd, 2017 at 9:13 am
Fields is a moron.
All the statistics he quotes about presidents and congress mean nothing to a coal miner or factory worker out of work.
November 2nd, 2017 at 10:10 am
Remember the old saying if your white your all right.If your Black,get back,abd if your Brown,stick around.Well,that was archaic.This is now,that was then.Some people are bigots.You are not going to change them.I say,you go your way and i’ll go mine.The way i look at all this race issues is very simple.Being in an all cash business my motto everyones money is green..That says it all folks….
November 2nd, 2017 at 12:45 pm
Re: David levy Yulee – Sort of, maybe, not exactly. In 1846, he married Nancy Christian Wickliffe, the daughter of a former Governor of Kentucky. It appears that he was married by a minister. He also added the ancestral name “Yulee” to his last name in 1846, and this name change was done by act of the Florida Legislature. He did this so that his last name wouldn’t be “Levy”. His children were raised Christian. It is clear that at some point in his life he converted to being Anglican. It is debatable as to whether or not he was actually Jewish in 1845.
FROM BUDDY:
Sam Fields can usually defend himself. However, today he is on a car trip and I’m sure not reading the comments.
There is confusion over whether Yulee converted to Christianity before or after he became a U. S. Senator.
The Jewish Virtual Library states that he was appointed to the Senate in 1845 and converted after his marriage the next year: “David Levy Yulee was a Jewish American politician and the first person of Jewish heritage elected to serve in the U.S. Senate…He “legally assumed the name of Yulee after one of his ancestors, soon after his marriage in 1846 to the daughter of ex-Governor Wickliffe of Kentucky. Yulee subsquently adopted a Christian lifestyle by raising his children as Christians…”
“A History of Florida” written by Charlton W. Tebeau, a college professor who taught Florida history for over a generation and actually taught me (or tried to), has a different timeline. That book states that the Legislature, apparently called the General Assembly in those days, elected David Levy to the Senate and “also authorized Levy to change his name to Yulee.” That would indicate that Levy was already a Christian either formally or in his heart.
Tebeau’s story would further indicate that the political structure was not willing to accept a practicing Jew, a point emphasized by the Jewish Virtual Library. Regardless of when he converted or not, the website notes that anti-Semites insisted he was still a Jew. “…he was an object of anti-Semitic attacks throughout his career,” the website states.
While we are discussing David Levy Yulee, my question is why did he pick the name “Yulee?” What kind of name is that? Why not good Christian names like Christian? Or even Smith or Jones?
November 4th, 2017 at 5:07 pm
“raped his Black 16- year old housekeeper’s daughter with zero consequences. Even if she had gone to the police nothing would have happened”.
poor syntax.
who edits and proofs this stuff?
If the housekeeper was 16, then how old was the daughter?
Or was the housekeepers daughter 16?
FROM BUDDY:
Thanks for this…I corrected it.
November 5th, 2017 at 5:48 pm
Yulee is a translation of the Arabic name of a Moroccan Sephardic ancrstor of David Levy.
November 18th, 2017 at 6:57 am
Steve and Buddy
Before you can answer the question “Who is a Jew?”you need to first ask the question: “What is a Jew”?
Is it genetic, religious or cultural????
Use one of those gene testing kits and you get one answer.
Talk to the ultra Orthodox and the answer is nobody except them.
The two most famous Jews of of the 19th century were Karl Marx and Benjamin Disraeli. The former was born to parents who had already converted to Protestant and the latter joined the Church of England to have political career.
For most Jews in America it is a feeling expressed in values and personal goals that have nothing to do with going to synagogue. It’s a reaction to hearing some anti-Semitic remark and wanting to punch out someone’s lights. It’s a sense of embarrassment about Harvey Weinstein, Bernie Madoff and Scott Rothstein even though you have a Christmas tree in the house.
So here is the Sam Fields test of whether or not you are a Jew: If Hitler knocks on the door are you extra nervous?