Part II

So are white people oppressed? My answer, seriously now: Yes, a lot of them. The Economic Policy Institue will help me explain:

also...

NY Times:

Yahoo!:

Mother Jones:

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This is all the acceleration of a steady trend begun at least with the Reagan administration, if not sooner. Only the very richest of Americans have seen steady growth in income since the late 1970's, after about three and a half decades of abundance after World War II, where people in all income groups of America saw their wealth increase by fairly even rates. Pretty much the entire bottom 70-80% or so of America has seen stagnant income growth in that same period, despite consistent growth in productivity, practically the bottom 99% of America. It is through their own hard work that the bottom 70-80% of Americans have seen their rich brethren get fat while they stay put. Thus, many Americans have to turn to debt if they want to experience any increase in standard of living.

The 1980's under Ronald Reagan saw aggressive attacks on unions, particularly in the private sector. The 1990's under Bill Clinton saw a gutting of the welfare state, and increasing pressure on the American working class thanks to increased so-called "free trade" agreements (where the mobility of capital was made more free, not the mobility of labor). Throughout the entire 30+ year period, taxes on wealthy incomes have heartily continued to decrease. Tax rates on estates and capital gains (investment income) have persistently dropped, straining economic mobility as it's become easier for rich families to maintain their grip on their social status, thus the wealth of the family into which you're born is one of the biggest factors that determines your economic fate, moreso than how hard you work.

Clearly, these economic factors that are weighing down most white Americans have nothing to do with race. In fact, skin color is perhaps the only advantage white Americans have. The CNN article makes one convincing point: a lot of white Americans perceive oppression against themselves. All of the above factors suggest indeed that forces have been weighing down most Americans for decades now, race is basically the one factor that has almost nothing to do with it for white people. But political parties in power, Republicans and Democrats, are not railing much about the increased girth of millionaire and billionaire wallets. Neither are corporate media outlets, like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, owned by the wealthy elite, inclined to create a big echo chamber about these issues.

Instead they concoct scapegoats. Working-class Republicans are probably right to feel railroaded. Being the party that's leading the charge in railroading them, the Republicans will cling to anything at which they can redirect blame: public sector employees with their cushy jobs (they've decimated private-sector unions, now they can turn their charges on the last bastion of American unionism), Muslims (good for the lavish welfare-state enjoyed by arms manufacturers), immigrants, socialism, poor welfare families, anything that, in the words of George Carlin in the 1990's, can "distract people and take their minds off how bad they're getting fucked by the upper 1%."