Thread by @marcushjohnson

The funny thing about reading conservative media now is they truly feel like their way of life is under siege. They feel like its never been harder to be a white guy. But they don’t use empathy to understand that minorities have felt this and worse for America’s entire history.

I mean for virtually all of American history until very recently minorities were largely shut out of the mainstream economy. Native Americans were removed from their land. Black people were enslaved. Japanese Americans put in camps. All in the past 200 years.

There was the Chinese Exclusion Act. The failure of Reconstruction and the institution of Jim Crow. Mass deportations of Mexican Americans-US citizens-in the 1920s. Refusal to pass a federal anti lynching act. Keeping Black Americans from receiving New Deal benefits.

For much of American history minorities have lived on the political and economic fringes, fighting to survive in a nation that was actively trying to sabotage them. The more inclusive, multicultural America is very much a new phenomenon.

So when white conservatives say they are under siege, it is almost offensive given this nation’s history. Compared to whom? They wouldn’t switch places with anyone listed in the tweets above. But all those people would switch places with them in a heartbeat.

Let’s be real—white Americans collectively have by far the most political representation, disproportionately so. The same goes for wealth, 1/7 white families are millionaires. Historically whites have had significantly better health outcomes.

Even poor white Americans get very real benefits — whites and Blacks convicted of the same crime, such as marijuana possession, typically see whites get lighter sentences. Whites are less likely on a % basis to see police violence/harassment. Whites have easier class mobility

Whites are by far still the most politically powerful and wealthy ethnic group in America, by a massive margin. So why the grievances? Why is the conservative message that their way of life is under threat?

I think it is about relative power, both internally and externally. Although whites remain the most dominant ethnic group in America, their political power relative to other ethnic groups has shrunk over time. US geopolitical power has also shrunk relative to nonwhite nations

This losses are minor, but I believe for white conservatives they perceive they are large losses of relative power and that further losses are coming. They’re not wrong about that—minorities are likely to continue to accumulate political power + increase in number

A lot of conservatives conflate “patriotism” with whiteness or white identity. So when you hear “We’re losing our country” it is really about a sense of white identity or white political power shrinking or falling in relative terms.

For much of American history to be “American” meant to be a white man. That was the national image and standard. It was the standard perspective in history and culture and art. All of that is changing now and that is scary for a lot of people.

So the hysterics about CRT, the furor about Obama, the claims that the election results were fake—its all connected. It is about a dominant ethnic group that fears losing political power and control of the narrative. As minorities gain more power it will intensify.

The attempts to ban CRT will obviously fail, because you can’t ban ideas. And of course the very presence of minorities in America—like Black people—is a living testament to the reality that America was built on the exclusion and exploitation of others. We won’t let them forget.

Conservatives are not under siege in America, not even close. There is a massive conservative ecosystem which freely shares ideas and provides jobs and wealth. That has disproportionate political power relative to its absolute numbers.

Conservatives who believe they are under siege should look back at Native Americans forced from their land, Black Americans who were enslaved, Asian Americans who were put in camps, at Latino Americans wrongly deported. They were/are under siege. Its not even close.