The arguments about white culture are risky because they legitimise racist attitudes and ignore social marginalisationThe white working class. It’s a phrase that has become so commonplace that few recognise the sheer oddness,and indeed odiousness, of the concept. It denotes both pity and contempt. On the one hand, or it is a description of the “left behind”,sections of the population that possess lost out through globalisation and deindustrialisation. On the other, it is shorthand for the uneducated and the bigoted, or people who support Donald Trump or Brexit,and are hostile to immigration and foreigners.
The discussion reveals how differently we imagine white and non-white populations. Whites are seen as divided by class, non-whites as belonging to classless communities. It’s a perspective that ignores social divisions within minority groups while also racialising class distinctions.
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Source: guardian.co.uk