Newsweek‘s cover story this week is on the plight of college-educated white men aged 35-64. The magazine laments that “this hitherto privileged demo isn’t just on its knees, it’s flat on on its face.” The subhead of the piece asks, “Can manhood survive the lost decade?”
Now, I have much sympathy for all who are struggling with unemployment. But are middle-aged, college-educated white males flat on their face and worthy of a trend cover story? It’s hard to square that with the piece’s own admission that their jobless rate is just above 5 percent. Most demographic groups would give anything for that kind of unemployment rate; black male college grads last year had an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, and for blacks as a whole it was a whopping 16 percent. (Notice, too, that the subhead assumes manhood is white.) A search of the Nexis database turns up no Newsweek cover stories on the epidemic of black male unemployment in the last five years.
I would also point out to Newsweek that single white men have a median wealth of nearly $44,000, and married white households have a median wealth of $167,500. Black married households, by comparison, stand at $31,500, single black men at $7,900, and single black women at $100 (Extra!, 6/10). When their Beached White Males lose their jobs, they have much more of a safety net to fall back on than pretty much any other demographic. No doubt Newsweek is at least vaguely aware of this–though they’re probably more acutely aware that Beached White Males and their employed counterparts also have more money to waste on magazines that feed into their anxieties.
Truly disgusting. And, unquestionably, racist.
I’m part of that demographic, and I do feel screwed.
By the same futha muckas who are doing much worse to my sisters and brothers of color, aided and abetted by the cover offered by corpress claptrap like this.
i’ve been a white male my entire life [don’t hate me for being born that way]….and i’m currently in the demographic newsweek is talking about….oddly enough, i think being a white guy today still has a lot of perks….
This Newsweek article is just another article pandering to angry white males, ala Rush Limbaugh. Although I too am a member of this demographic (which — like any all demographic groups — has more within-group differences than between-group differences), it bears noting that the people who are undoubtedly responsible for most of the decline (be it good, bad, or indifferent) in the fortunes of this group is the sub-group of Republican white males who have voted in the also-white conservatives (with their racist sub-text / Southern strategy) who have economically pushed this demographic downward since the Reagan days.
The point of the article was that you know things are bad if this demographic is out of work. It’s not about who has it worse. I thought it was well done and it did state that other groups were far worse off. They should have left race out and focused on highly educated professionals. I am sure Asian engineers are having trouble finding jobs. I work in IT and there is a biased in favor of hiring Asians. “Hey he must be smart he’s Asian” is the mindset.
It would’nt be because we live in an occupied cargo cult now would it…
How dare anyone show any compassion to the evil white ape! Do they now know that God has commanded to love one and hate the other? The white man is the devil and should be rounded up and exterminated for his crimes! Even the white boy babies should be killed as they will grow up to be white men! White men…Oh wait, I am a white guy. Sorry, brainwashing is very effective.