Per a 2004 article from The Guardian, 94% of
white Brits had friends mostly or all of the same race. Given the UK is perceived as an entity that,
although very white, is far removed from the racial hierarchy that thrives in
the US, such information is quite ironic.
Granted, one could argue that homogeneity is exactly why the percentage
is so high. However, only 53% of ethnic
minorities reported the same, so that rebuttal isn’t valid.
Of
course, in a world where there was no pretense of allyship this data, which was
gathered by the Commission for Racial Equality, wouldn’t be that
informative. But when white liberals rely
so heavily on black support whenever they want help wrangling their metaphorical
drunk uncle (e.g., Bush, Trump, so forth and so-on) back into the basement, one
can’t help but notice the gap in their attention. In other words, the elite class puts so much
effort into curating their social networks to have the least amount of color as
possible during the off-season but seem to suddenly notice we exist when their “progressive”
image is at stake.
Several weeks before the 2020
presidential election, I received a call from what sounded like a middle-aged
white woman: someone who’s radar I wouldn’t even register on in any other
environment. She implored that I vote
democrat and begin to explain why I should.
I politely told her I was registered but, ultimately, didn’t know what I
was going to do on Nov. 3rd.
I humored her for a minute or so longer, but eventually had to hang up
when she began to ramble. Nevertheless, I
couldn’t help but wonder whether she saw me as anything other than a potential vote. A similar suspicion is echoed by comedienne Amanda
Seales in an episode of her podcast Small Doses. In response to a user’s question, she acknowledges
how whites will idolize black women in theory yet exclude them from their
social circles because they don’t consider them equals but mere “resources.”
Additionally, in the days before
the election, I received multiple texts from both the GA Democrats and the
Student Action movement asking me to vote for Biden. Now I can’t determine the racial makeup of
these organizations (and not for lack of trying) but with names like Ellen,
Sarah, Phoebe, Emily and Ross, it’s a high probability none of these people
would even acknowledge my existence if we crossed paths on the street. Admittedly, these messages could’ve been sent
by bots. Though, frankly, that’s a worse
truth than the one I’ve been insisting: truly, if an organization can’t even
diversify its androids then their social bias goes deeper than a friend group.
Surely, this selective salience
employed by elitists to enforce the caste system isn’t paused only during election
seasons. Empirical observations have
shown me that those who perceive themselves to be of higher social status
will shamelessly break character when there’s a momentary benefit to be
gained. For example, in Fall 2018 I was
in an office alone one evening when a group of Ga Tech students walked in. They all strategically managed to keep from
making eye contact with me as they walked past but when they needed my assistance
with some login issues they didn’t have credentials for they didn’t hesitate
to come over and engage me in warm conversation and small talk. Given that college-educated whites are one of
the pillars of the democratic party, it’s moments like these that make me so
skeptical of neo-liberal advances and claims of solidarity.
As I’ve written about before,
members of the elite constituency will engineer all kinds of social boundaries
to uphold classism but will also break character when they want something. More specifically, white elites seem to have
selective awareness of my existence but won’t hesitate to reach out and beg for
a vote.
Granted, the aforementioned
article is quite old, and it could be argued that this is a generational
phenomenon that will improve with time. However,
not only is this an excuse for complacency on behalf of the guilty, but there
are more recent articles that negate this theory. For example, a 2015 report from Pew states
that 81% of white adults say that all or most of their friends are white,
compared to 70% of blacks and 54% of Asian Americans.
Overall, the purpose of this
post isn’t to guilt white liberals into befriending people of color or even to
dissuade black liberals from voting for democrats. Rather, it is simply a request that black leftists
know what contract they’re entering when they buy into white liberalism. With that said, thanks for reading and stay
pissed.
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