Despite Reports to the Contrary, Not Everyone is Oppressed

In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I am a white male. I have, in fact, been one my entire life. I’ve never identified as anything other than and, if I am being completely honest, I have probably leaned into both my racial and gender identity in exactly the ways people might expect – for better and worse. 

I remember, as a child, telling my mother I was lucky because I could become president while my younger sister could not. Don’t worry, mom straightened me out. But that was the world as I saw and understood it, and I was not alone. 

As a white male, I have never felt disenfranchised. I’ve never truly felt the sting of racial prejudice, nor have I been dismissed because of color or chromosomes. I do recognize that these things happen, and it sickens me. It is true that I cannot, from my privileged position, empathize, but I can, and try daily, to sympathize. Those who struggle deserve to be seen. 

I have always assumed that my position on this – that as group, white males, particularly those of the middle-class varietal as I was, had a societal advantage – was a universally accepted truth. There might be some who disagreed that this arbitrary advantage was unfair; that race and gender made this group somehow superior, but most, I believed, recognized that the divide was real. 

Now I wonder if I was wrong. 

Over the past several years, I noted an increase in stories and reports, both anecdotal and in the media, of white males stating they have begun to feel like second-class citizens – tossed aside and forgotten as increased attention is paid to groups and communities that, often for centuries, have struggled under the yoke of being seen as ‘other.’ Their jobs, they say, are being stripped away in favor of female candidates or candidates of color. Opportunities, once readily available, have become scarce. White males, against all odds, are beginning to question, and even protest, their standing in society. 

That’s crazy. 

First of all – and this is significant – being white and being male in America is still very much a position of privilege. According to a study presented by the executive search firm SpencerStuart, less than 25 percent of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer roles in Fortune 500 companies are filled by women and/or employees from historically underrepresented racial or ethnic backgrounds. That means white men still sit in most seats of economic power. The Inter-Parliamentary Union states that currently, 29 percent of the House of Representatives and 26 percent of seats in the Senate are occupied by women. Approximately 26 percent of the current Congress identify as an ethnicity other than white, according to the Pew Research Center. That means in the business world, those controlling Capitol Hill are largely white and male. 

That’s not a commentary on qualifications. It would be impossible to break down, statistically speaking, who is best qualified for each position. What these numbers do show us is, as a white male, my chances are statistically higher to land in a C-Suite or other position of power than a woman or ethnic minority. That seems unfair. 

Yes, focus has, too slowly, been shifting toward including underrepresented people into positions of power. We are hearing new voices, new ideas, and new perspectives. For those, like myself, who once felt they represented the status quo, that can be frightening. But these sorts of demographic shifts are not a new occurrence. They have, in fact, been happening throughout history. Cleopatra, Boudica, and Elizabeth I all ruled incredibly powerful and influential civilizations without much (public) questioning of power or parameters by their male counterparts. The Minoan civilization is thought to have been largely matriarchal and closer to home, so were the Hopi and Iroquois. And while serfdom and the occasional bout of plague defined Europe during the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages in the Middle East are often referred to as the Islamic Golden Age – a time and place where science and culture flourished in communities notably devoid of white male influence. Everything is cyclical and everything old becomes new again. 

For the reader skimming a bit too vigorously, let me break it down. Yes, there have been moves to include the historically excluded in society. Gender and ethnicity have been recognized as identifiers rather than qualifiers. That does not mean we are moving into a period of exclusion, where those of my ilk are cast off. We have made that mistake before, time and time again. Instead, I choose to see society moving – if still too slowly – into a period of inclusion, where all men, and women, are created equal regardless of race, creed, or color. 

It sounds pretty beautiful to me.