The racial wealth gap has become a heated issue as part of the ongoing woke crusade, but rather than the economic elite, it is average, workaday White Americans who are the scapegoat. White millennials in particular—ironically given their role as some of the most vocal carriers of the woke torch—will be the primary bearers of this burden The explosion of anti-white identity politics over the past decade coincides with one of the worst economic crisis’ in modern history which has particularly impacted Millennials. Millennials now control just 4.2% of the nation’s wealth, and are 4 times poorer than Boomers were when they were 34. Those now graduating from college face grim job prospects while older millennials are still recovering from the last economic crisis. Rhetoric and policy aimed at depleting White Privilege can only make a bad thing worse for this floundering generations of whites—but it may just supply a moral veneer for their suffering.
Millennials have been hard hit across
racial-lines by recent economic downturns, but the media, academia, and
powerful corporate interests persist in focusing on the racial dimension of
inequality. JP Morgan Chase, for example, proposes spending $30
Billion to solve the racial wealth gap, with a significant
portion of that granting home loans to African Americans and Latinos. The
bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, who is of the Baby Boomer generation, has taken this
cause as an opportunity to virtue signal, professing that
“Systemic racism is a tragic part of America’s history,” and that “It’s long
past time that society addresses racial inequities in a more tangible,
meaningful way.” The last foreclosure crisis demonstrated
where these policies could well lead: to another economic bubble-burst in the
housing sector, spurred by overzealous loan-granting. Meanwhile, Millennials
across racial lines are unable to achieve security at the very age that is
crucial for starting families and building up assets. 17% of Millennials state
they will further delay starting a family due to Covid-19
and the economic aftermath of these policies could very well end up having an
impact on the future of family formation.
This election, voters in my native state of
California voted upon initiatives that presented opportunities for age and
race-based favoritism. California is worth focusing on here as in many cultural
and political matter it is a bellwether for where the rest of the country may
be heading. The most notable piece of proposed “woke” California legislature
was Prop 16 which
would have ended a previous ban on affirmative action in higher education,
jobs, and government contracts. Prop 16 was mercifully defeatedby a
diverse and democratic leaning electorate but bankrolled by billionaire
donors, most of whom were White Boomers. When looking at the
statistics, White undergraduate
enrollment in the UC system has declined from 31% in 2010 to just 21% in 2019.
Whites are currently estimated at 36.6% of California’s population and prop 16
was expected to reduce both White and Asian enrollment. One must ask: when will
whites be underrepresented enough to right the wrongs of history? And why
should it be the Millennial generation and below that suffers the most?
Less entrenched in the culture war but notable
nonetheless was California ballot measure Prop 19, which passed by a narrow
margin. Prop 19 allows Californians over the age of 55 to
transfer their lower property tax rates when they relocate, while passing on
the tax burden to their heirs. This measure’s main backer is the real estate
industry, and it will likely further enrich those who already benefit
from California’s Prop 13—a
1978 act which froze property tax rates. Thus, one major effect of Prop 19 will
be the passing on of an economic burden to future generations, and the
subsequent worsening of the intergenerational wealth gap in the State of
California, where the median net worth of
Baby Boomer’s is $230,000 compared to Millennials with a net worth of $10,000.
California’s Boomers also have homeownership rates
close to the national average, but those of ages 25 to 34 have rates
approximately 40% below the national average.
Even the conservative Howard Jarvis Tax Payer
Association–the architect of the original Prop 13—oppose this measure on
the grounds that it does not so much eliminate a tax burden, as push it into
the future. This future tax burden will in fact be even more severe. As Howard
Jarvis spokeswoman Susan Shelley said to the LA Times :
“It’s a billion-dollar tax increase on California families.” Meanwhile, on the
supposedly progressive side, The California Democratic
Party did in fact endorse Prop 19 as did Governor Newsom.
Perhaps there is no better encapsulation of
the “progressive” California Boomer mentality—no huger middle-finger to White
Millennial citizens of California– than the significant minority of voters who
did in fact follow the California Democratic Party’s recommendation by voting
“yes” on both propositions 16 and 19. The California counties that voted yes on both measures are
those which constitute the wealthiest sections of the Bay area: Marin, San
Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Alameda Counties. These are some of
the wealthiest
counties in the Country and are known for their extreme nimby restrictions
on new housing which make it difficult for Millennials to
get a foothold. Ironically, many majority Latino counties in the Central Valley
rejected both those measures.
As the election stands it looks like Joe Biden
will be our next president and there is strong symbolism behind the image of a
frail, old, White man, long privileged and powerful, grandfathering in Kamala
Harris, a power hungry woman of color who also happens to be the favorite of Wall Street
and Silicon Valley, ushering in a new woke era in American
history.
Joe Biden’s initial primary support was
largely a coalition of Baby Boomers and
African-Americans who helped him defeat Bernie Sanders. To
a large extent, it would seem, Biden had the upper hand over Bernie with these
groups because Senior Citizens and African Americans already benefit from the
kind of specialized government programs that Bernie promised to institute. With
a more color-blind economic-focused agenda that promised a social safety net
for all, Bernie appealed to many younger Whites struggling with student loan
debt, and with a generally uncertain view of their economic future. In 2016 the
slur Bernie Bros was
used by the Democratic establishment to deride young Bernie supporters as
racist, misogynistic, and having middle class entitlement. In 2020, however,
Bernie shifted his message towards woke politics and after his defeat put his
support behind Joe Biden who fails to provide any positive vision of a better
future for America’s youth.
The GOP really isn’t much better. Despite
Trump’s reputation as both a bigot and the leader of new populist nationalist
movement his re-election agenda and rhetoric were fairly standard GOP, with tax
cuts, deregulation, and special race based government packages, e.g. a Platinum Plan for
African Americans and an American Dream plan for
Latinos. Trump did succeed in winning over more non-White voters this cycle,
but his greatest electoral weakness was in the upper Midwest where he especially lost among
White voters in those crucial swing state including many of
the original Obama to Trump voters he
was able to win over in 2016 with a more populist and middle class focused
message.
The reality of politics is that groups that organize for their
group interest will have greater clout in the political process. This applies
to both senior citizens, minority interest groups, and obviously corporate
interests but White Millennials were brought up with individualistic or
universalist values and view organizing for their own interest as an alien
concept, or as pure evil if the “whiteness” is emphasized.
Racial grievance culture is not going away and
will likely continue to be pushed starting in early education. A recent report
from the UK warned that White
working-class children could fall further behind if they’re told to apologize
for “White privilege and another study reported that Liberals who were exposed
to the idea of White Privilege became less sympathetic to poor Whites.
It would seem that a laser-focus on the identity-based elements of inequality
breeds a culture of ignoring the concerns of a middle-class White youth facing
a hypercompetitive job in which they will be discriminated against due to
racial quotas.
We will likely see the continuation of woke austerity combined
with a more draconian cancel culture in years ahead. Besides affirmative
action, younger workers without long work histories on their resumes will be
especially vulnerable to losing their job over having the wrong political
opinions.
Woke
policies are a way for those in power to virtue signal and it’s much easier for
major institutions to choose select and favored groups than to secure the
economic future for a middle class. Many well-off liberal boomers feel guilty
about their own prosperity being a product of White privilege and systematic
racism but rather than making personal sacrifices, it is much easier to just
pass on the burden to future generations. In the case of many wealthy Boomers,
their wealth is such that their immediate offspring will be able to thrive come
what may, and their me-generation individualism precludes concern for their
genetic lineage past this short term.
In California there is an unspoken dynamic in
which well-off, White, liberal boomers signal their loyalty to the woke cause
by putting a BLM sign in their yard and are thus able enjoy the rest of their
golden years, self-assured of their moral righteousness, all while the policies
and rhetoric they have supported have ensured that their descendant’s quality
of life will decline for generations.
The political culture that evolved out of the great prosperity of the
latter half of the 20thCentury lacks any concept
of a birthright for future generations—any concept that future generations are
entitled to reap the benefits of the accomplishments and sacrifices of their
forbearers. Much the opposite, this political culture insists that future
generations must sacrifice for the sins of their ancestors—quite possibly more
than they can afford to lose. In a future with increased scarcity and
austerity, younger Whites will bear the brunt of these policies. Long term
these trends are not sustainable, and we will likely see a continued rise in
populism as well as an increase in those engaging in identity politics and
identity-based patronage networks. It will become increasingly clear that
anyone who wants to thrive must engage in these identity politics and
patronage—even whites—and the culture of identity politics will become less
idealistic and more focused on group survival. This is hardly the multicultural
harmony Boomers once dreamt of, but it may move us all away from the pernicious
individualist values that got us into this predicament.
https://www.unz.com/article/white-millennials-americas-sacrificial-lamb/
