Why is the white working class so roundly despised?

[T_i_B]

Now to be honest, the basic premise of this article is wrong because the needs of the white working class are also the needs of the working class of every race. Nonetheless, I thought I'd post this as it does still raise one or two interesting points. make of this what you will.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/10/13/do1301.xml

The white working class is an inconvenient relic, and the sooner it ceases to exist, the better. That is the underlying assumption of our political establishment. The white working class is not just expected to seek salvation by acquiring bourgeois virtues: it is blamed for failing to acquire those virtues more quickly.

The response of the middle classes when they hear tales about gang warfare is to express utter horror, and to resolve to keep their own children firmly insulated from that milieu. Many a middle-class child is driven to school, ballet class and swimming lessons, and is never allowed so much as to walk down the street.

This determined and ruthless segregation of middle-class children is accompanied by an absence of any sense of responsibility for the working class. I do not wish to be unfair to those many readers of this newspaper who accept a wider responsibility for their neighbourhood, and who give their time to all sorts of valuable local enterprises. But, as the father of three young children, I cannot help being struck by the repulsive selfishness of some parents, who care only for the wellbeing of their own little darlings, and could not care less about anyone else.

These bourgeois parents who cheat in order to get their children into good schools, and who cannot see anything wrong in so cheating, set a dismal example to their own progeny. At their dinner parties, they may pay lip service to the importance of social cohesion, but they dedicate their lives to the safer project of social exclusion.

[kentjay]

1. because politicians can do it,they think for us,use

us.there was a show on 60 minutes recently that discussed bum fighting,its where teens beat up homeless people.where politicians are concerned they perpetrate bum fucking on the the american people.bohica.bent over here it comes again.the reason that they do this is because they can and we let them.simple as that,they have no respect for the citizenry in this country,they consider themselves the elite,they are the deciders,well its time to send a message to the decider in chief that he ain`t the cider the american people are the ciders,stop the bum fucking of the american people.you see they equate us with bums.fair winds and following seas.

[intaglio]

2. A very interesting article

First background to the paper tho', the Telegraph (also known as the Tory-graph) was owned by Conrad Black and is now in the hands of the "reclusive" Barclay brothers. The paper's editorial stance is very conservative and very, very Conservative party.

What the article seems to say to me is that there should be more notice paid to the, now, politically inactive group that was the core of support for Margaret Thatcher. The comments about gangs or drinkers and drug addicts on benefits (social security payments) are typical of the paper. Gangs involve a tiny minority of the "working class" children (IIRC less than 5%) whilst the "Benefit Louts" are largely a myth.

The paper is playing to it's audience of the upper "middle class" by saying "... something must be done about the indigent Poor ..." a sentiment that it has published many times in the past 150 years.

[T_i_B]

13. Hmmmm

What the article seems to say to me is that there should be more notice paid to the, now, politically inactive group that was the core of support for Margaret Thatcher.

Actually the white working class is traditionally Labour. Indeed the Labour party was created to help the British working class and even to this day, white working class areas (especially in the North) still very much tend to vote Labour as even after Blair and all his changes, Labour is still seen as the most working class of the three main parties.

The paper is playing to it's audience of the upper "middle class"

Actually, the article is critical of the Telegraph's upper middle class audience! From the article.

The response of the middle classes when they hear tales about gang warfare is to express utter horror, and to resolve to keep their own children firmly insulated from that milieu. Many a middle-class child is driven to school, ballet class and swimming lessons, and is never allowed so much as to walk down the street.

This determined and ruthless segregation of middle-class children is accompanied by an absence of any sense of responsibility for the working class. I do not wish to be unfair to those many readers of this newspaper who accept a wider responsibility for their neighbourhood, and who give their time to all sorts of valuable local enterprises. But, as the father of three young children, I cannot help being struck by the repulsive selfishness of some parents, who care only for the wellbeing of their own little darlings, and could not care less about anyone else.

There are bits of the aricle which could only have popped up in a Torygraph article, such as the bits praising the armed forces but I certainly wouldn't say that this is run of the mill preaching to the choir for the Torygraph. If it was then I wouldn't have posted it.

[TheBaldyMan]

3. I heard Dr. Evans discuss her thesis on a radio interview,

on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/thinkingallowed_20060927.shtml">BBC Radio 4's 'Thinking Allowed' on 27th Sep 06.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/rams/thinkingallowed_20060927.ram&starttime=0:15:35">link to the programme in RealAudio format

It was illuminating, my interest was piqued when she started to describe her field work on a worling class housing estate in Bermondsey,Essex.

[T_i_B]

12. Quick correction

Bermondsley is in South London, not Essex.

[izzie]

4. Oh I think it is money. It is or was a pool of people with money.

Some one figured a way to get most of it so went for it. It is like gas. They knew people would pay so up it went. There are always business men who see money in things and go for it and Bush is part of that group that thinks it is smart people who do it. They look at the internet, public parks and I guess you could go through a list of things and see it going on. Heck the army is up to its neck in people dragging money from that for a few rich people with 'new' ways of doing things. Bush has been saying this is the American way since he started to run so they all know he will fall into line.

[xchrom]

5. because the post wwII years spawned an era

of increasing feelings of entitlement among people who acquired college educations and ''white collar'' jobs.

both in england and here in america -- the political powers that be described as threatening to these bourgeoisie -- the working and poorer classes.

people are easy to terrify -- and the powers that be are quick to capitalize on those terrors.

[TomClash]

6. Because the bourgeoisie and their ruling class masters

have always longed to "eliminate" class by diverting all conflict to racial, national and cultural lines. So white people become middle and upper class, while the "dark people" and immigrants largely become the working class and poor, produing a society where your ethnicity and "cultural values" become synonymous with your class standing.

It's fascist heaven.

[yurbud]

10. yep--get them whipped up about blacks, gays, muslims, prayer in school,

the flag, anything except their shrinking paycheck and what they can do about it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. They right sees us as a threat to their almighty profit$$$$$$.

Alyways has, always will.

[chefgirl]

8. "Why is the white working class so roundly despised?"

Because the middle class is seen as a direct threat to the consolidation of wealth that drives the elites.

The middle class is the only socioeconomic group that can even hope to elevate themselves to the next economic level, and have been doing so steadily, since the end of WWII.

The equally steady rise of conservatism, (read:selfishism) in quite a few countries with higher standards of living, has also given rise to the "I got mine, now fuck everyone else" mentality.
Its never enough, though, so they've now moved onto systematically decimating the middle class, so that the wealth they've so jealously consolidated can't be threatened in any way.

The problem with that, however, as any good liberal knows in their bones, is that its the middle class that fuels the economy.

When they've bled the middle class to the point that spending power becomes severely impacted, they will be forced to realize that consolidation of wealth carries within it the seeds of its own demise.

-chef-

[Igel]

9. I'm from a working class neighborhood.

It was lower middle class economically, but it was working class. Other working class neighborhoods were slightly lower on the economic scale.

Traditionally, working class folk tend to be not middle class, even if their income is commensurate with middle class.

"Why is the white working class so roundly despised? Because the middle class is seen as a direct threat to the consolidation of wealth that drives the elites." This is a non-sequitur.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. This attitude is not limited to the UK

"parents who care only for the wellbeing of their own little darlings and could not care less about anyone else."

This sounds like a lot of suburban parents in the U.S.