The White American Male: Endangered Species?

This was an original post for LA Moms Blog on January 27, 2009.   SV Moms Group was acquired by Technorati so I post my archives here on Fridays.

Growing up as a white American woman, I never felt the slights or benefits of racial or sexist discrimination, even if they were real.  If anything, I remember being blown off because of my big 80’s east coast hair.  Despite that, somehow I was blessed with a healthy sense of self-esteem – one might say I even felt entitled to the good things that came my way.  They were never without hard work, yet some still seem to have fallen into my lap.

That doesn’t mean I’m not aware that sexism, ageism, racism, and other -isms have hurt a lot of people.  Are the tides turning?    We must be careful to avoid them turning too far in the other direction.  I am not immune to the cloud of hope so thick you can scoop some up with a spoon that surrounds us since President Obama took office on January 20, giving non-white people everywhere a chance to celebrate that white-washed American politics no longer reaches all the way up to the Oval ceiling.

But all this talk about Obama being a president who “looks like me” for the non-whites has me worried for my own two babies, who will grow up to be white American males.  One might think that they are still the luckiest class, but I wonder.  Is there a scholarship for being white, American, and male?  Is a white man’s club allowed anywhere?  When companies or academic institutions are hiring, and their choices are between a minority and WAM, how likely will they be to choose the former in service of diversity?

I suspect that being a white American male is not a free ticket to waltz into any prized position, just as being a minority should not be.  I hope that we all will continue to work hard for the things we achieve, that American progress will be based on merit, not demographics.  I hope that I will be able to say “you can be president” to my children not because they look like him, but because they will grow to be what the president should be:  a good, just, kind, smart American – man or woman.

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