Straight White Men Will Lead Again
Straight-talk on the difference between Identity and Character
It seems there is an anecdotal effort to drive straight white men out of American Institutions, if left leaning Bloomberg research is correct, stating that only 6% of corporate jobs in 2020-2021 went to white people. White people is a broad category not defined in the article, but it is probably safe to assume that most of those white people hired are women, gay men, or progressive/woke. One can also likely assume that if corporations are practicing such “reverse”- discrimination, then such is the case for Federal and State governments, and not just in hiring but in fired/laid-off numbers as well. White men are approximately 30% of the population, white men and women 59%,1 so the justification for such discrimination goes something like: white people far outnumber minorities in institutions public and private, so we are just trying to achieve demographic balance. Can we assume then, once demographic balance is achieved, further hiring practices will reflect demographics and white people will be hired again in numbers relative to the population?
In reality, we can probably assume whatever kind of discrimination is officially established, then that discrimination will establish continuity in doctrine and law until it is fully entrenched, perpetually. As there is a broad, generalized bias toward straight white men, one can assume even if hiring does come to reflect demographic balance, straight white men will still suffer from that bias. (Even so, white folk are so common in our institutions, it would be awhile before straight white men could become a distinct minority. This writer also assumes, demographic reality dictates the distant future of America will be primarily not caucasian.)
John Carter at Postcards from Barsoom has been writing about this lately, first asking, If no one is hiring white guys, what are they doing with themselves? and then, The War Waged by Wokes on White Wagies, Redux . In the second article he posts a lot of comments from white guys which are quite illuminating. Assuming so many straight white men are commenting on his posts about this, the issue must be wide spread. It is very sad for this straight white man, to see how many fellow straight white men have been shut out from salary and benefits jobs they are very much qualified for, even over-qualified for. That is a lot of frustration, despair and misery, which is one of the reasons life expectancy for white men is declining. That is a tragedy, but it will not be widely lamented by most media, rather mostly hidden from the public record.2
Chief among the perpetrators of this new discrimination are many liberal/progressive white women of Human Resources departments. Such are the fruits of late feminism, stated plainly, that professional white women at scale are neither perpetuating the white “race” by birthing, while some act in direct opposition to other white people doing so. Their new cause celeb’ is to support minorities and other oppressed especially trans, exclusively. The measure of that is not excellence or competence necessarily, but identity. New hires especially, measured almost strictly by identity and intersection, meaning, the more checks in the list of celebrated identities, the more likely you are to be hired. As a hypothetical example (in the most preposterous extreme), the most likely person to be hired by corporations currently, would be a blind, deaf, illiterate, trans Ukrainian or Palestinian refugee with a 12% DNA connection to African American slaves, who was raised on an American Indian reservation by Hispanic/American Indian adoptive parents. That is a fanciful description, but you see the point: 11 identity checks on the intersectionality list of oppression (12 if you get two points for being trans.) Taken further, that same person might be a narcissistic militant jihadist who believes in murdering innocent civilians/children in the fight against oppression, with a predilection for pederasty, but “identity” and “intersectionality” far outweigh and in fact can and do negate/deny pathology - see of late the liberal/progressive embrace of Hamas as freedom fighters, or the mutilation, sterilization and sexualization of children in the name of gender therapy.
None of these “identities” really matter if you are a narcissist or sociopath.
Now of course this is not at all being fair necessarily to those minorities/women/trans etc “oppressed” who are being hired, who on balance are probably decent people trying to make for themselves a better, more secure life. Some of them will meet the challenge of their new position, build character and thrive, others will drag down the institution with their obsession with DIE and ESG ideology and general incompetence.
And if I am being entirely honest, many straight white men have to some degree helped to give rise to this social justice/woke revolution, for passively or actively perpetuating racism, misogyny and bigotry, even as I recognize that most straight white men want little more than any human wants: good work, freedom and hope for the future.
Now of course we are living in both late-stage Capitalism, and the decline of Western civilization, when it is demonstrably obvious that both public and private institutions of all kinds have turned predatory and pathological. Whether we are talking about the explosive growth of Government and their spawn Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), or corporations/banks/media/education/health care/military/intelligence, the tendency has been towards cartel-like behavior. The unholy alliance between each of these sectors in the fraud that was Covid-19, the absolute lack of responsibility for that epically destructive exercise in social control and authoritarianism, and the consequent increasing and utterly ignored, denied and gaslit level of physical damage and death by jab, is the pre-eminent if only one of innumerable examples.
Even setting that aside, it has long been recognized (well before Covid-19) that working for institutions public and private can be “spirit crushing/soul destroying.” (Long ago I asked a Fortune 500 C.O.O. friend of mine for a job; he said no, you won’t like it, because no one with a conscience does, and most of them don’t last very long.) Therefore it begs the question, why would anyone of character want to work for such Institutions?
Obviously that is an over-generalized, loaded question. Many people are long-in institutional life and their financial welfare/retirement depends upon remaining in the institution. I certainly do not begrudge a person long vested in a pension or 401K assorted retirement package, staying in the institution.
That said, character is forged in the fires of difficulty, risk, trial and error, pain and effort.
I am generally not one to quote myself, but I will make this exception:
Excellence in moral character and integrity comes from overcoming challenges and difficulties, making mistakes, learning from them and becoming stronger for it. It is the willingness to hear many viewpoints, discerning what is true, leaving the rest. It is having a firm sense of self that is not threatened by other people who have different views, recognizing that freedom for everybody depends on the freedom of fools to be foolish as long as they aren’t harming anybody but themselves. It is knowing who I am, resilient in that, not collapsing in the face of criticism, or raging. Character is doing what you say you will. It is having a moral center your ego is humbled to.
Identity by contrast is for children who do not truly know themselves, to model themselves after to become adults. It is like seeing a character in a movie and wanting to be like them. Identity is for ego building, but the ego can be a tyrant, and we are seeing now how identity is weaponized by especially young people, attempting to bowl over others with the labels oppressor and oppressed, as if treating people badly makes you strong. “Identity” is reductionist, it is deconstructing humanity with scientism, materialism, as if the only thing that matters is designations to categorize people with. My “identity” as a brother is meaningless compared to my relationship with my siblings, how I treat them, what I have done and do for them. A brother can be a monster. A brother can be a dear friend, a great ally, a real protector.
What we call ourselves matters little. What matters more is how we are, every day, in every moment, the totality of our experience and how we respond in every moment.
It is instructive that true believers in the power of identity and intersectionality are so often incapable of being challenged in their beliefs without having an emotional breakdown, how they prefer to shout rather than talk, how they say everyone’s opinion matters and then call anyone who disagrees with them a fascist, that so many of them are on Xanax.
Words matter. But actions matter more, and so does the gravitas of experience met with an open mind. I am the totality of my being, not a mere list of labels.
Character is like the foundation, frame and interior finish of a house; identity is the exterior paint. Character is like the Constitution, Bill of rights and Declaration of Independence of America; identity is like the dollar. Character is like body, mind, spirit and soul, identity is like your clothes.
Just when character is needed most, a lot of white men have checked out, with drugs, video games, too much food and alcohol, too much materialism, descending into morbidity and despair, or mere cynicism. Worse, many have fallen captive to the ideology of emasculation.
But maybe it’s a good thing, this progressive/woke revolution, if a competence crisis does result in the collapse of complex systems aka collapse of pathological institutions public and private. The power of institutions has grown inverse to the power of the people. Think of it this way, white boys, you will be most prepared for that, having built the character necessary to manage that decline, before the decline goes critical, if you take advantage now, intentionally evolving, adapting, taking control of your destiny. In a way, like John Michael Greer has long said, collapse now and avoid the rush. They thought they would dis-empower you. They do not know, they are handing you the opportunity to grow stronger.
The percentage of Americans who are white has been reduced approximately 4% since 2019 from 63% to 59%. That is truly extraordinary. The factors in that include: younger people not having children sufficient to maintain even equilibrium, elderly boomers dying off esp because of covid policy and the jabs, suicide, drug overdoses, deaths of despair and 5-8million illegal immigrants plus legal immigration. If the status quo holds this is likely to accelerate and white people could be less than half the country by 2028.
It is not easy finding life expectancy numbers by race and gender. There is a reason for that - the numbers reflect the opposite of the narrative of white supremacy. Black females in America live longer than white men, as do Asian, Hispanic and Native American women. Life expectancy for black men has been increasing faster than LE for white men since 1996. White male LE has been in relative decline since 2014, while LE for black men has mostly increased. In fact, it appears every race and gender has been doing better than white men the last decade.
I hope you’re right, but it’s not because I’m some pickme. I’m not even white or straight, just Jewish and bisexual. It’s because I don’t understand feminine HR culture, even as a woman. All the decoding and hidden social contracts make no sense to me. I like things clear and out in the open. Straight white men have always been more upfront than any other group. I don’t want to live in a culture that is deliberately obscured.
An outstanding essay. You touched on all bases.
A man. I wrote an essay https://wholeamericancatalog.substack.com/p/children-in-adult-bodies
Boys became men at 10 years old when they went to work to support their family because their father had died. How in 1899 newsboys brought Pulitzer and Hearst to their knees by striking for a fair deal. And there are biological males who will never become men. What happened to:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King Jr.
My dad worked at the Post Office. He died in 1982. Years before that, he came home from work one day really disgusted. A black guy who consistently called off on Monday and Friday was fired six months prior. He was back at work WITH SIX MONTHS BACK PAY!