The truth about white working-class men

It’s hard out there for a white guy. The anger of the white male ushered in President Trump — white men chose him over Hillary Clinton 62% to 31% — and even much of the Democratic Party is now focused on the plight of working-class whites.

It is true that a white man without a college education can no longer assume he’ll be able to get a job that enables him to be a sole breadwinner for his family, marry a woman who will take care of the home front, buy a home with a two-car garage, produce upwardly mobile children, and retire comfortably.

It is also true that women and people who aren’t white have never been able to work under these assumptions. Now that some white men are living in the reality where much of the country has always existed, they’re mad — and rightfully so. In a nation of vast wealth and opportunity, it’s frustrating to see your prospects restricted, and to work hard but still not make ends meet.

Much of the country has always lived without the unearned benefits that white men without college degrees see slipping away. Social Security long excluded occupations dominated by women and African Americans; federal mortgage programs that enabled white men to buy houses largely excluded blacks and women.

The goal of crusaders for women’s rights and racial equality has been to improve everyone’s lot. Yet many Trump-voting white men, instead of supporting broad policies that would make us more equal, seem interested only in im- proving things for themselves — happy to deport their immigrant neighbors, to restrict the ability of women to plan their pregnancies and by extension their personal and economic futures, and to cut off social welfare benefits they believe disproportionately benefit African Americans and Latinos.

These white-male Trump voters, and the pundits and politicians bending backwards to cater to them, adhere to one central fallacy: All of their successes are earned by them alone, and all their failures are the fault of someone else.

Nor does the concern for the working-class white man take into account the fact that other groups are doing worse. Minority workers are hurting more on economic measures such as wages and unemployment. And women are still poorer than men overall.

While good-paying workingclass jobs have been lost in recent years, women have adapted and sought out training necessary to meet the demand of health care jobs. Many men have refused, deeming care jobs feminine and below their station.

None of this means that we should neglect the needs of the white working class. But in focusing on what white working-class men have lost in a global economy that forces them to compete with a wider group of workers, we can’t ignore that what they’re demanding be restored is a world many Americans only wished we could live in — and that in voting for Trump, they sent a clear message that they want back the world that excluded most of us.