Imagine, for example, a white man who lost a factory job due to globalization and saw his sister die from a drug overdose due to the opioid painkiller and heroin epidemic — situations that aren’t uncommon today. He tries to complain about his circumstances. But his concerns are downplayed by a politician or racial justice activist, who instead points out that at least he’s doing better than black and brown folks if you look at broad socioeconomic measures.
Is this article trying to say that this hypothetical man's concerns are being
literally and directly downplayed by a hypothetical politician or racial justice activist? Because that is ridiculous. I mean, someone please fill me in if poor white working class citizens are coming to their representatives for help and are directly being told, "Too bad, suck it up, others have it worse." Because that's what's being said here.
My guess is that this excerpt is referring to the notion that rural white communities are suffering from things like poverty and drug addiction and are unhappy that solutions aren't immediately forthcoming while social issues and similar economic issues in minority communities are being openly discussed by politicians as well. Because, and let's be clear, when poverty and drug addiction were sweeping urban minority communities, the biggest and loudest response was a cry for personal responsibility and the passage of laws disproportionately throwing these individuals in jail. Now that opioids are sweeping through predominately white rural communities, other solutions are suddenly on the table. Don't take me wrong: I'm happy that the right solutions are now being discussed, but it should have been discussed a
long time ago when minority communities were suffering without a voice. So to claim that this problem is being ignored is nonsense when, in actuality, those in power have just started paying attention to it because of the nature of the communities involved.
So I'm going to have to push back at the notion that the white working class is being ignored by "politicians and racial justice activists" in favor of minorities. The reality as told to this country by the results of the election is that the white working class is realizing that poverty and drug abuse are not exclusive problems to their communities and are wondering why their needs aren't being prioritized over the needs of communities who have been suffering from these problems without help for decades.
