The White Boy's Battle Cry or Why I'll Be Looking Over My Shoulder
So let me start this out by discussing the current state of affairs around here. I work in a very small company as the office manager. I am also the only female. My boss, the owner, the COO/Ops Mgr and the engineer are all white males. Republican white males. RABID republican white males. White males who have never in their lives been in this close proximity to a black female. Except for the COO, I think he’s gotten busy with a few sistas in his time so I’m not a freak of nature to him.
Anyway, a little back story here. A few weeks ago Mr. Davis and I were discussing the fact that things were getting so bad that the white boys were going to start driving around shooting folks. Now this was just as the banks and investment firms were failing. I trusted Mr. Davis’ take on this as he retired from 20 yrs at Merrill Lynch last year. He KNOWS these white boys intimately. Money is their God, end of story. The upheaval to their way of life is not something they are prepared for.
In the normal course of the day, the white boys at work and I discuss a wide variety of subject matter. Naturally we have discussed the election and of course the financial crisis. The engineer’s wife works for AIG so now that that’s a fuck-all, her 15 yrs of bonus stock that was to be their nest egg is gone. Of course her job is on shaky ground as well – and she earns those looooong dollars. The boss (pompous, elitist, racist, sexist, asshole) is all about appearances. He uses the company acct as his personal acct, just hired an au pair and has a big boat and fancy cars. But no affordable healthcare for his employees of course.
On a daily basis, these men try very hard to convince me that I should be a republican. Me, a single black woman trying to raise a kid on a shitty salary in one of the most expensive areas in the country. As if. So me being me, I try very hard to drop a little real life liberal knowledge on them. And generally we have interesting debates. We agree to disagree and get through the day. I ignore their sexist and thinly veiled racist shit and they ignore my exposure of their white privilege. It’s all good.
Well not today.
Today the engineer started in on Sarah Palin and how the media needed to leave her alone. But it’s HOW he started the conversation. It started with the classic “Fuckin-A Man!”
Ok. Now to me, when a white boy stands on his toes yelling “Fuckin-A Man” it’s time for me to evacuate the area. That’s white boy code for “I’m gonna kick some ASS cuz I’m PISSED”.
The white boys are stressed. Their world is crumbling around them. The patriarchy that they have been a part of and upheld for, well forever, is crumbling around them. Most of all, their money is gone. They may have to resort to my tactics and buy oh, store brand shit. Cut back on the expensive wines and vacations to Tahoe twice a year. See, the white boys have been living beyond their means. Comfortably and complacently beyond their means. That is about to end and they can’t handle it. Everything that is everything to them is slipping away. And you know what? Someone’s going to pay. That frustration is going to need an outlet. And guess who’s going to bear the brunt of it?
We’re really not that far from the days of lynchings. We haven’t progressed as sentient beings far enough from the mob mentality. Far enough from the Wild West behavior. After all, we have a self-described “maverick” running for president, no?
I want to believe things won’t degenerate into something ugly. I want to believe we’re civilized enough to let reason and cooler heads prevail. But I’ve seen the results of the “Fuckin-A Man” battle cry. And when educated, upper middle class, minivan driving white boys yell it, we're in trouble.
I don’t want to be on the receiving end of that.
now playing on my Ipod - "Riders on the Storm" The Doors
Anyway, a little back story here. A few weeks ago Mr. Davis and I were discussing the fact that things were getting so bad that the white boys were going to start driving around shooting folks. Now this was just as the banks and investment firms were failing. I trusted Mr. Davis’ take on this as he retired from 20 yrs at Merrill Lynch last year. He KNOWS these white boys intimately. Money is their God, end of story. The upheaval to their way of life is not something they are prepared for.
In the normal course of the day, the white boys at work and I discuss a wide variety of subject matter. Naturally we have discussed the election and of course the financial crisis. The engineer’s wife works for AIG so now that that’s a fuck-all, her 15 yrs of bonus stock that was to be their nest egg is gone. Of course her job is on shaky ground as well – and she earns those looooong dollars. The boss (pompous, elitist, racist, sexist, asshole) is all about appearances. He uses the company acct as his personal acct, just hired an au pair and has a big boat and fancy cars. But no affordable healthcare for his employees of course.
On a daily basis, these men try very hard to convince me that I should be a republican. Me, a single black woman trying to raise a kid on a shitty salary in one of the most expensive areas in the country. As if. So me being me, I try very hard to drop a little real life liberal knowledge on them. And generally we have interesting debates. We agree to disagree and get through the day. I ignore their sexist and thinly veiled racist shit and they ignore my exposure of their white privilege. It’s all good.
Well not today.
Today the engineer started in on Sarah Palin and how the media needed to leave her alone. But it’s HOW he started the conversation. It started with the classic “Fuckin-A Man!”
Ok. Now to me, when a white boy stands on his toes yelling “Fuckin-A Man” it’s time for me to evacuate the area. That’s white boy code for “I’m gonna kick some ASS cuz I’m PISSED”.
The white boys are stressed. Their world is crumbling around them. The patriarchy that they have been a part of and upheld for, well forever, is crumbling around them. Most of all, their money is gone. They may have to resort to my tactics and buy oh, store brand shit. Cut back on the expensive wines and vacations to Tahoe twice a year. See, the white boys have been living beyond their means. Comfortably and complacently beyond their means. That is about to end and they can’t handle it. Everything that is everything to them is slipping away. And you know what? Someone’s going to pay. That frustration is going to need an outlet. And guess who’s going to bear the brunt of it?
We’re really not that far from the days of lynchings. We haven’t progressed as sentient beings far enough from the mob mentality. Far enough from the Wild West behavior. After all, we have a self-described “maverick” running for president, no?
I want to believe things won’t degenerate into something ugly. I want to believe we’re civilized enough to let reason and cooler heads prevail. But I’ve seen the results of the “Fuckin-A Man” battle cry. And when educated, upper middle class, minivan driving white boys yell it, we're in trouble.
I don’t want to be on the receiving end of that.
now playing on my Ipod - "Riders on the Storm" The Doors
posted by greer at
2:47 PM
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