(Community Matters) surprised a former colleague defriended me on FB today when I replied to his posting expressing his frustration with the Chick-Fil-A controversy. Our comments veered to his argument that white males were the most discriminated demographic today. Perhaps I should have left that unchallenged or even better, perhaps I should have acknowledged the economic backslide in today’s economy is greatest for non-college educated white males. They have the furthest to go in terms of the recalibration of wages in today’s economy where all America’s middle class is threatened.
I find it interesting that he perceives a job requirement to speak Spanish as discrimination (I know, I know, neither do I but he (& maybe others) do, so we should simply know this). This former colleague, who’s never been religious and in fact is quite a heathen, now cites religious freedom in defense of Chick-Fil-A.
For the record, I don’t think municipalities should be able to prevent Chick-Fil-A from opening in their borders. I do believe, however, that we have every right to boycott & picket, persuade elected leaders to bully pulpit against, and to prevent them from accessing any public entitlements. It’s politics. We’re winning – sure we suffer setbacks. We could suffer huge setbacks if Pres O loses reelection. But, the trend is there. Over time, LGBT Americans will win full equality. We’ve gained lots of ground in 20 years – much more than was imaginable to those of us sitting around the HRC, GLADD, LGRL and NGLTF board tables 20 years ago. And, we know our fiercest opponents are aging out.
Anyhow . . . back to the non-college educated, white male thing. There’s a real threat that more and more under-educated, under-employed and under-compensated Americans will find scape goats for their threatening economic situation. It should concern us all.
Community Matters 