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White Folk Have Been White Folk For A Long Time And That Ain’t Changing Anytime Soon; White Millennials Aren’t Different Than Their Ancestors?

October 10, 2018 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) After you have lived enough life to look back several decades, there is nothing more humorous than the worldview of those coming up behind you. Optimism is the sole purview of the youth for good reason. They have often not met the light dimming characters known as disappointment, disenchantment, and frustration.

Considering that none of us were born old, it is a weird sensation for me to hear successive generations of Black America share their unbridled optimism regarding the future of race relations. I remember that place very well.

I can recall nearly four decades ago as a middle schooler asserting to my favorite middle-school teacher that my generation would subdue racial bigotry. The alluded to exchange began with me sharing an unshakable belief that the racial divide would disappear because of the increasing frequency and decreasing distance between my white peers and black youth. My amused teacher simply looked at me over his horn-rimmed glasses and offered the following.

White folk have always been white folk. Ain’t never gonna be much change in them. You come and visit me when you get to my age and tell me what you have learned about white folk being white folk.”

This ominous warning returned to the forefront of my mind when I came across a recently released study that offered a glimpse regarding race, millennials, and how they chose political candidates.

According to the referenced BuzzFeed News poll, the following is true about white millennial voters. Keep in mind; these are young people who have yet to reach their fortieth birthday and have attended desegregated schools their entire lives. Most people, myself included, believed that such exposure would have a definitive impact on how they view and thereby cause distinct lines between how they view the present world versus how their parents and grandparents viewed the world where they lived. The following data proves that we were wrong.

  • 36% of millennials prefer a white political candidate if all else is equal.
  • 42% of millennials that consider themselves Republicans admit that they would choose a white candidate over an equally qualified non-white one.
  • 22% of millennials within the Democratic Party shared that they would choose a white candidate over an equally qualified non-white candidate.

Although it is not difficult for me to admit that my prior position was a flawed one, I can tell you that I will not be seeking out my middle-school teacher to provide him an opportunity to grin at me and say, “I told you that white folk have always been white folk. Ain’t never gonna be much change in them.”

It is disappointing that millennials (ages 22 – 37) who have been exposed to non-whites in a host of arenas from school to marriage have not abandoned the racial bigotry and prejudice that served as hallmarks of their ancestor’s generation.

The previously referenced study determined that millennials racial bigotry is nearly identical to that of their ancestors who believed in racial separation and a Jim Crow segregationist social order.

Even the most optimistic among us have to be disturbed by poll results that prove nothing has changed in either the hearts or minds of white millennials. If one did not know any better, they could be convinced that whites pleas that blacks abandon their infatuation with Race makes them hypocrites unwilling to apply that same advice to their political choices.

If the BuzzFeed News poll is accurate, it is not a stretch to assert that the vast majority of whites sole political priority is to extend their privileged position ‘by any means necessary,’ even if it means applying an Archie Bunker style racial bigotry.

Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III

Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com

One may also connect with this brother via TwitterDrJamestJones.


Comments

One Response to “White Folk Have Been White Folk For A Long Time And That Ain’t Changing Anytime Soon; White Millennials Aren’t Different Than Their Ancestors?”
  1. Nothing has changed?

    This is profound and stupid, its like saying “nothing has changed in the computing industry”.

    I’m tired of you race-liberals ignoring the feats of black people (and whites too) in the civil rights movement.

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