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Article: Slandered White Men
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 2, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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It has been the fashion since the 1994 elections to speak of
"angry white men" as the defining group of the next political era.
The fashion has become a small industry since the Oklahoma City
tragedy, transforming bombers and killers into particularly egregious
symbols of a whole class.
To say the least, it's bizarre to see terrorists as stand-ins for
large numbers of white men. It is no better than claiming that Black
Panthers who shot cops in the 1960s were representative of all
African American males. Both are forms of racism and paranoia.
But cultural and journalistic inventions such as "angry white men"
do not come from nowhere. They usually reflect an effort to explain
some big social ...