White People Swear They Are Oppressed

On Tuesday, NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health released a poll looking at opinions about discrimination. The survey found that a majority of white respondents—55%—had felt discriminated because they were white.

However, only 19%, 13%, and 11% of white respondents said they had been personally discriminated against when applying for jobs, being paid equally or considered for promotions, or applying to or while at college, respectively. In other words, a majority of white people think they are discriminated against, but only a much smaller percentage can think of an actual example that happened to them personally. Hmm.

To illustrate this phenomenon, Tim Hershman, a 68-year-old white man, told NPR the following:

“It’s been going on for decades, and it’s been getting worse for whites,” Hershman contended, despite data showing whites continuing to be better off financially and educationally than minority groups.

Even though Hershman believes he has been a victim of anti-white discrimination, he wasn’t able to provide a specific example. He describes losing out on a promotion — and a younger African-American being selected as one of the finalists for the job. But the position eventually went to a white applicant, who was also younger than Hershman.

I’ll hazard a guess and say that all of these white people can’t think of a specific example of anti-white discrimination that happened to them because anti-white discrimination doesn’t exist. Donald Trump will continue to stoke this resentment to his political advantage. But this survey—the very answers of white people themselves—reveals how reverse racism is a lie.