Fox Viewers: discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against minorities

[Emit]

Two-thirds of viewers who say Fox News is the news source they trust most believe discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against minority groups, according to a study released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute. The number, 68 percent, is an exact reversal of the percentage of black people in the same poll who say that discrimination against whites is not as big a problem as discrimination against minorities. The study was based on polling conducted by PRRI.*

The Brookings/PRRI study uses "reverse discrimination"—an unfortunate term that suggests a difference in kind, not in degree—to describe anti-white discrimination. Nevertheless, the revelations about the views of consumers who most trust Fox News are disturbing:

Among Americans who say they most trust Fox News, 26 percent say reverse discrimination is a critical issue, nearly twice as many as say discrimination against minority groups is a critical issue (14 percent). At the other end of the spectrum, only 8 percent of Americans who most trust public television say reverse discrimination is a critical issue, compared to 27 percent who say discrimination against minorities is a critical issue.

~snip~

Fox News is a crucial outlet for fomenting Shariah panic. According to the study, "There is a strong correlation between trusting Fox News and negative views of Islam and Muslims," as "early 6-in-10 Republicans who most trust Fox News believe that American Muslims are trying to establish Shari'a law in the U.S.," and 72 percent of "Fox News Republicans" agree that Islam is "at odds with American values." If you're a Republican, you're more likely to think that white people are as discriminated against as minorities and that American Muslims represent a fifth column trying to subvert the Constitution. But if you're a Republican who watches Fox News, then you're far more likely to believe those things, thanks to a steady media diet of racial resentment and Muslim-baiting paranoia.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/fox-news-paranoid-alternate

[Number23]

1. Anyone who uses the phrase "reverse discrimination" is an idiot

Isn't the "reverse" of discrimination favoritism?

[Motown_Johnny]

8. the same way "reverse logic" is nonsense

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination


^snip^


Reverse discrimination is a controversial form of discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group






Is simply means that the target of the discrimination has been reversed. Why is that hard to understand?


I use the term. So in your opinion I am an idiot?

[muffin1]

14. !!!

We agree on something!!!!

:) :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :)

[firehorse]

25. +1 thank you, false logic trap

[gkhouston]

2. Proving, once again, that Fox viewers have a tenuous grasp on reality. n/t

[fortyfeetunder]

3. Oh please!

It's not discrimination -- it's when the expectation of privilege doesn't exist anymore!

[JDPriestly]

6. Sorry, but even white males, especially older white males, can be the objects of discrimination.

[tomg]

4. Look at their socio-economic

backgrounds. Many of them are aging and low information ( remember "keep the government out of my Medicare"). They like the rest of the middle class, the working class and poor are getting screwed six ways to Sunday by outsourcing, austerity budgets, rising prices. All they know is they are getting screwed and not by whom. Seriously, most of them see this and they figure they are being discriminated against and they are. What they don't see is that they are discriminated against because of their class. This is one of the areas, I think, that the Democratic party is really screwing. Until the Dems go full tilt and admit it is class warfare with the corporate plutocracy against the rest us, we will always find those statistics. Most of the folks I know like this aren't classically racist ( which is not to say they are paragons of tolerance). They are dumb as bricks, hardworking, scared and fucked over.

[sunwyn]

5. +1

[JDPriestly]

7. Some workplaces discriminate against older white males.

Age discrimination may be the real problem, but the victims perceive the discrimination as based on their race. A lot of people have trouble dealing with the fact that they are suffering from age discrimination. So, young white males may not suffer from discrimination, but older ones may.

[Motown_Johnny]

9. based on the color of their skin or their pay and benefits package?

It is more likely that the companies see that the numbers are out of line for these individuals and are trying to correct the discrepancy. (Keep in mind that I am a white guy in his late 40s.)

[JDPriestly]

26. It happens because bosses think they can fire long-term white male

employees with no repercussions. That is not true in California. All employees are protected from race discrimination, not just members of so-called minorities.

I'm not sure whether we have crossed the threshold yet, but if not, it is a matter of a short time before there is no true racial majority in California. We are a very mixed society.

Racial discrimination against white males may be unheard of in other states, but I know of a couple of cases here.

[tomg]

22. True, but it is about age,

as you point out, and ultimately, it is still part of the class war.

[JDPriestly]

24. And, believe it or not, some discriminate against older white males

because they are also white. I have seen older female bosses systematically discriminate against older white males, but not older white women. That can happen in certain areas of the teaching profession for example.

Bosses tend to be pretty mean to older members of a minority before they fire them. That is because they have to build a record on which to justify their firing. But people have the crazy idea that white males will have no legal recourse if they are the victims of discrimination. That is not true in California.

[tomg]

27. As an older white male in

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.

[Johonny]

17. I agree

[piratefish08]

10. wtf? those poor discriminated whites. maybe they could team up with the

the ever so vocal, persecuted Christian minority here in the US.

[gordianot]

11. In Republican America if you are not a corporation you are not human.

Like Mittens said Corporations are people. For whites they think this is individual racism but not really. This is what life is like in a growing Oligarchy. In actuality everyone is being put in the same hole for burial as they lose their humanity. Individual rights mean nothing to the corporate masters of endless cut throat profit.

[CBGLuthier]

12. I would have sworn that "reverse discrimination" used to mean something else.

I thought 20 years or more ago that the term reverse discrimination was used by some to describe the effect of affirmative action programs and such upon those not favored. In other words if a so-called "minority" were to be given preferential treatment in, for example college admissions, the argument was that those not given such treatment were the victims of reverse discrimination.

Somehow during the last few years it has taken on a rather silly meaning, that of discrimination against "white people."

That is merely "discrimination.". There is nothing "reverse" about it.

[RainDog]

13. these whites don't recognize they are on the wrong side of the fight so they blame discrimination

when the real problem is an economic system that is gamed for the rich.

however, racists don't want to identify with someone who is in their same class who is from another race. instead, they blame the other race because that allows them to maintain some fantasy that they are part of a ruling elite.

the reality, however, is that they are just pawns in the republican game.

[hifiguy]

15. Fox viewers = talking farm animals.

NOBODY can be that stupid and plausibly claim to be homo sapiens.

[muffin1]

16. Right...white folks and Christians sure can't get a break.

These idiots have NO idea what it's like to face systemic discrimination. :puke:

I always meant to catch that flick (I think it was named) "White Man's Burden". I really liked the idea of it, but something about it (John Travolta? The box-art?) turned me off. If anyone's seen it, let me know if it's worth a look!

[AverageJoe90]

18. It happens, but it really isn't all that common compared to most other forms of racism & bigotry....

[TwilightGardener]

19. FOX and talk radio spend an inordinate amount of time convincing these

people that less-deserving people (minorities) are getting something they're not. Just the usual division tactic, get the peons to fight each other.

[pepperbear]

20. They think Shari'a law will subvert the Christian law they're so desperately trying to establish.

[Raschel]

21. Fox is part of the new millennium civil war. Neo confederates. The whole lot of them.

They want to show us what happens when we let one of "those" kind in the White House. They will continue to push the envelope by disrespecting the President in every new way imaginable.

The teaparty, Fox, the candidates, the repub congressmen, all a bunch of white confederate bigots.

[TeamsterDem]

23. I am white. I really can't think of a single time I've been discriminated against for that. nt

[Rex]

28. The people that I know who watch Foxnews are really, really

pathetic.