Don’t mourn, organize!
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No, urban education didn’t, but individuals GIs did. A huge number of people gained a degree who couldn’t have done so otherwise.
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And hence they’re reactionaries who want to “return” to something that never actually existed for them.
If we could magically turn back the clock and put people into the circumstances of their forbears, a lot of them would be living in the countries where their great grandparents immigrated from, a lot of them would be working in factories in terrible conditions in the north (with no unionization, or if so, getting shot by Pinkertons), and others would be in the south grumbling about tenant farming and sharecropping because the majority of people didn’t own land or large companies.
The only people who want to go back to “the way it was” that they’ve imagined are the poorly educated who don’t know what it was like.
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I think that is stereotyping. I think plenty of people would be perfectly happy to go back to a world where one parent working a mid-level blue collar job could support a middle class family. Where someone could join a company out of high school or college and expect that by showing up every day and working hard, there will be opportunities for advancement, and a reasonable expectation of a decent pension after 30 years. Maybe enough security that you could go for a walk after sunset without expecting to be robbed or murdered. A world where your kid can have a part time job, put their earnings into a savings account, and be able to go back after a few years to find that there is slightly more money in the account than they put into it.
I keep seeing that anyone supporting the republican candidates is only concerned with being a xenophobic racist. Right now, that seems to be the worst thing that you can accuse someone of, so it is easy to just call them racists, and ignore any real issues they might have. And people are using stereotypes for the Democratic supporters that are just as mean spirited and stereotyped.
Personally, I am disgusted by every single one of the viable candidates. My only real hope is that after the disaster that is to come, there will be enough left of the country for an actual statesman to be elected, who will actually try to put the good of the citizens ahead of all else. I have lived in countries where the government was actually benevolent, and it was a refreshing experience.
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FTFY again.
Black communities and other non-whites did benefit a bit, but not nearly as much as whites.
Same in housing loans:
Ninety-eight percent of home loans issued under the GI Bill went to whites, and only 2 percent to people of color.
http://www.thenation.com/article/value-whiteness/
The GI Bill was the largest affirmative action program in US history, but it was overwhelmingly the same kind of benefit handed down throughout American history – affirmative action for white men.
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I think there’s more nuance to it. It’s not that every Trump supporter is a racist, bigot, or a xenophobe. But any who aren’t racists, bigots, or xenophobes are morally liable for their support of a candidate who uses those issues to gain wider appeal from people who are. Supporting Trump is indistinguishable from tacitly supporting those things through silence. I haven’t read much from self-proclaimed Trump supporters that disavow his worst character traits or the racism and bigotry and hate. There are bound to be some of them statistically. But the more vocal ones just seem to say things like “he tells it like it is,” without qualifying necessarily what way “it is” that they think he’s right about.
Sanders hasn’t slung mud or made petty insults. Some of his supposed supporters have gotten a bad reputation, but every candidate will have some bad apples who support them. And Sanders has disavowed any supposed “Bernie Bros,” unlike Trump who pretends he has a bad earpiece when a question is asked about disavowing racist support. The worst thing I have to accept is that I might be insulted for supporting someone who may not be electable only because the Democratic Party establishment wants Hillary to win. My conscience is clear on that account.
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You may not be a “xenophobic racist,” but you don’t seem to see how you’re working with whiteness as a baseline norm:
I think plenty of people would be perfectly happy to go back to a world where one parent working a mid-level blue collar job could support a middle class family.
That wasn’t true of black families, nor of others, where for one thing, both parents had to work because the husband/father was being paid so much less than white workers.
Where someone could join a company out of high school or college and expect that by showing up every day and working hard, there will be opportunities for advancement, and a reasonable expectation of a decent pension after 30 years.
Again, if that someone was white (and a man).
Maybe enough security that you could go for a walk after sunset without expecting to be robbed or murdered.
Right – except that what’s imagined here is usually a black “thug” or “gang member.”
A world where your kid can have a part time job, put their earnings into a savings account, and be able to go back after a few years to find that there is slightly more money in the account than they put into it.
Can you see the whiteness there too yet? Middle-class whiteness at that.
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Maybe the early mortality is due to the high blood pressure from being SO ANGRY for the last 7 years.
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So angry for 30+ years — angrier every year that exporting jobs and breaking unions was revealed as mostly just codependency with idle, self-centered wealthy kids in denial.
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Listening to the Kinks right now - seems spot on.
“Victoria”
Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad and obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the Lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, 'toria
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None of these things required segregation to exist - there could have been justice and lower class white men could still have had relatively comfortable lives.
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Great gif, but how about making the person on the left say, a black woman?
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I’ll let them know.
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I’m not sure that’s it.
I lived for a period of years in a trailer park. I’m also a dsa organizer who doesn’t limit community work to election years.
I support the Sanders campaign, regret that dsa issues aren’t polling often enough with African-Americans above 8% in the south.
On election day, I vote to protect consequential judicial and departmental appointments — Clinton, if necessary.
And tomorrow is a new day. 
And now …
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I do not see how wanting these things for everyone willing to make the effort is impossible. What could be possibly wrong with Black people having steady, permanent employment? Do Black parents not teach their kids about saving money? All of these things are reasonable middle class expectations. They are not racially exclusive. If you actually believe that there have never been opportunities for Black families to live middle class lives, I think you might be misinformed.
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I am sure your figures are right on every account BUT we are talking about poor white Trump supporters here. My thesis was that people coming from similar social backgrounds to current Trump supporters, had benefited from investment in public education post WW2 and as a result rather than voting for someone like Trump, while sitting on their sofas watching TV, they went on civil rights marches and were generally more engaged in the democratic protest.
That is what we are talking about, here: Public Education is the life blood of democracy.
Yes, the US was /is racist and US politics was racist in the 40s and still is to a lesser degree, we know that. BUT non the less education contributed to making it better. And now, 50 years later the lack of education helps make it worse.
My argument is about the value of education in relation to democracy.
(p.s. there was a very good reason why the Black Panthers had education projects, an educated population is an engaged, fighting population.)
p.p.s. all this is merely supporting the argument that education Trumpism argument could work the other way. More education less Trump.
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What, exactly, does he say he will do to fix the system? Not “I will fix the system”…what steps would he take?
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Whether or not you agree with Ta-Nehisi Coates that there is a case for reparations, his article makes a good point that these opportunities have been systematically stolen. I agree with your other point though - poor white and black people share a desire to improve themselves and there’s no reason to support the right wing argument that their aspirations oppose each other and that solidarity would destroy white people’s chances of a decent livelihood.
ETA: Incidentally, he wrote a follow-up article to this last week: The Case for Considering Reparations
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Individual white GIs. The benefits of the GI Bill fell disproportionately against veterans of color.
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