In this commentary, I discuss both the long and absurd history of white victimhood (reverse discrimination) claims, which stretch back to 1866, as well as the real source of all that white anxiety. While, obviously, for many, these claims are just a bad-faith way to hijack the push for equality and maintain existing advantages, for others, they also demonstrate what happens when one’s privilege insulates you from having to think about your identity, and then—thanks to social, demographic, or cultural changes, or perhaps even the mildest diversity efforts at work or school—you are forced to think about these matters for the first time. Rather than seeing such change or new information as enriching or mind-expanding, it is experienced as a threat, an attack, against one’s very identity. When race becomes salient, those for whom it has always been largely a silent signifier (at least for themselves) feel exposed, threatened, and become likely to lash out. This, combined with the status threat posed, ostensibly, by progress made by people of color, then generates notions of victimization, much of which we are seeing now. In addition to the historical and analytical discussion, I briefly discuss two cases in which I was involved (one ongoing) as an expert witness for institutions being sued by white employees claiming they were victims of hostile environments due to DEI efforts. These cases demonstrate how easy it is for people who have in no way been victims to see themselves as such, due to their prior privileged status insulating them from the real world, from conversations about these issues, and from engagement with racial diversity in their workplaces. Dispatches from the Race War is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timjacobwise.substack.com/subscribe
