Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Middle Class White People Are Racists

Not all of them, of course, but the idea that racism is a poor people thing is one of those weird elitist concepts. A bit of education doesn't make you not racist. See our Charles Murray defending op-ed pages, for example. Modern "white flight" isn't blue collar Archie Bunker - he stayed in Queens.

Republicans aren't the party of "white trash," they're the party of suburban auto dealers. The reason people say "don't read the comments" of metro area newspapers isn't because farmers and coal miners are spending their off hours being racist online, it's because white collar suburbanites are spending their work hours being racist. All PA Philly suburban congressional districts are held by Republicans, for example. Two and three generations removed they still talk about how "those people" forced "them" to leave the city, a place they visit once per year to buy cannolis.

Not all wealthy suburbanites, of course, but the PA congressional districts have been "swinging blue" for the past 25 years and they never..quite...get...there... Sure they're contestable areas, but...