The section of Senator Bernie Sanders’s supporters who claim
that they would rather stay home, write in for the Senator, or even vote for
Trump before they would vote for Clinton are the perfect example of what is
going wrong in modern American politics. Voters like this are either completely
ignorant or unwilling to accept that privilege is what allows them to take this
stance. This section of voters is pulled to a candidate based on their personal
politics, whether it be to Sanders or to Trump, but never Clinton.
The type of person in this category is normally an angry
white person, who is being asked to examine their complicity in a system that
benefits them and harms other races, genders, sexualities etc. Many of the
people in this category are upset that they, who believe they are good people,
who aren’t racist and aren’t sexist, are still being asked to examine their
privilege, and in this request, are being made to feel like the bad guy. Enter
two other angry white men who say to this other angry white person,
“America’s problems are not your fault. YOU’RE the victim of an unjust
system. You have every right to be angry! The system is rigged against you, so
get angry and fight back!”
This is a welcome statement for the angry white citizen.
Between Trump and Sanders, the difference is that they are altering their
statements slightly. Trump flavors his statement by saying that “political
correctness” is what is unjustly oppressing white people and Sanders flavors
his statement by claiming an unjust economic system.
The foundation of liberal and progressive politics are centered
around the protection of the vulnerable. The luxury that some enjoy in
pretending that Clinton is the same as Trump is only afforded to these select
few because they have the privilege of being protected from the consequences of
the election. Many are so caught up in the whirlwind of flavor that is the
unjust economic system that they cannot see the effects of the election on
those more vulnerable than themselves, making them “Bernie or Bust.”
This angry white person is excited to be back in the center
of attention, where they are the poor little victim and where they escape from
having to examine their privilege and are free from the shackles of being The
Bad Guy and having to think about their role in The Patriarchy.
This angry white person is not going to vote for HRC; they’re
going to believe whatever debunked propaganda they can find about her, they’re
going to disparage her in sexist terms. There’s a certain kind of person who
needs to believe the propaganda about her, because he’s enraptured by a
world wherein white people, are the victims of an unjust system, not the
architects and enforcers of one. He can’t– or he won’t– entertain the notion
that white people can be both simultaneously.
Hello there! here is a copy of my critique. I really enjoyed reading your post. I critiqued it they way I would have any of the Main Stream blogs, so none of the remarks are in any way personal, just driven by trying to be impartial. Okay thanks again!
ReplyDelete"Last week, in a damning blog post titled "On Angry White People", Michelle Hinojosa makes one of the best arguments I've read regarding why the 'Bernie or Bust' movement essentially constitutes as [white] privilege. Although it is a declaration I have heard contended viciously, Michelle makes crystal clear that it is essentially dictionary privilege to disregard the major differences in any candidate's policies versus those of Donald Trump. Of course, white people are the only demographic Trump hasn't tried to deport or marginalize, so those to whom his policies are interchangeable with Clinton's, are quite literally in a privileged position.
Michelle buries this gem of an argument under several conflated arguments and partisan endorsements, unfortunately, and makes incriminating claims of a large group of people without citing any source, evidence, or even a corroborating anecdote. In one regrettable sentence she reduces Bernie supporters as moral equivalents to Trump's, declaring that both groups are but varying flavors in a banquet for people merely concerned with vindicating the wrongs they feel have been perpetrated to them, with nor regard to the welfare of the rest. After asserting that this homogeneous mass of white angry people seek to run away from their responsibility as "Bad Guys", she references without explanation, and to the readers bewilderment, their 'role in The Patriarchy'.
Although her arguments get entangled, and sometimes jump to different tracks in order to make the point, Michelle delivers a thought provoking piece, wrought with righteousness and full of kindheartedness( and perhaps a bit of anger too!). "