Reply #27: As an older white male in [View All]

[tomg]

academia, I do know what you are talking about, but I would see it from a slightly different perspective. I think your point about job discrimination against older white males providing cover for institution is absolutely spot on and really the core of the tactic. Even tacitly allowing, say a younger, more highly placed worker to discriminate against an older one, or a female to discriminate against an older white male works to their purpose. My initial point was that Fox viewers most of whom are older" white and male and middle, working class feel aggrieved enough. Rather than seeing the cause of that victimization being the corporatist structure, they see women, the young, the immigrant, the "other." what they are not.

I would argue that for discrimination to be widespread ( as opposed to individual prejudice on one hand or institutional racism or sexism on the other), the institutions involved have to give tacit approval to a pattern of action by a large number of those in mid-level management positions. School principals, say, through a system, or mid-level office managers, or store managers at walmarts. It can't be official policy, otherwise it becomes institutional racism, sexism, agism and illegal. Much of the progress in equal rights has been in the area of ending this kind of tacit quasi-institutional discrimination. Hence the issue of the recent Supreme Court Walmart decision effectively reintroducing this kind of tacit discrimination legally.

But for the widespread perception of discrimination to develop and fester, all you need are a number of relatively isolated incidents to occur by individuals to a members of a group, some of whom already feel deeply (and legitimately) aggrieved. Then you take a fox news that reports them and the perception spreads. Clearly some women in positions of authority have discriminated on a professional level against subordinates who are male because they are male. Some white workers have been discriminated against on the basis of their race. Some workers who are old are discriminated against on the basis of age.

Edited to add: but the most common factor, and the most economically advantageous to the corporation is age. If they can do that and divide usagainst each other, they win again . Incidentally, I absolutely agree with your point, but my general take is that this is all one more strategy in the war against us. I also really enjoy your posts.