In adult men this state of confusion can lead to what Michael Kimmel describes as ‘aggrieved entitlement’, and the need for scapegoats in the form of ‘feminazis’ like Hillary Clinton or Mexican immigrants, who need to be ‘walled’ out of America in order to make the country ‘Great Again’.
This is not a new phenomenon: Kimmel’s book was written in 2013, long before the 2016 US election, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore also tried to alert Liberals and Democrats about the anger that was building in rural communities up and down the country,* even predicting in his 2016 film, Michael Moore in Trumpland, that Trump would win. But it’s only now that the real scale of the problem is making itself apparent. Aside from the obvious political ramifications, in America it has also resulted in an alarming increase in early death rates among the middle-aged. This growing pandemic has been termed ‘deaths of despair’ by Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton.† They argue that there is a direct correlation between the economic decline of this group and a sharp rise in deaths caused by drugs, alcohol poisoning, and suicide.*
In part, the growing pushback against patriarchy and ‘toxic masculinity’ has made politicians reluctant to address the issues of white working-class boys in our education system. In a warped kind of way it’s easier to acknowledge inequality where women or people of colour are concerned, and harder to have that same level of concern for white males in a society that was designed to promote their dominance and progress. What we mustn’t forget is that not all white males have been beneficiaries of this system.
Daily Telegraph reporter Martin Daubney has been a passionate advocate for tackling this emergency. He believes the problem is in part due to a breakdown in the family structure in many of these communities, with high numbers of absent fathers and a serious lack of positive male role models.† Daubney also thinks that we need a larger number of male teachers from this background who can fill the void – currently 85 per cent of teachers are female. The general consensus is that ‘boisterous’ masculine energy is often viewed as ‘disruptive or destructive’ in the classroom, and cuts to physical activities in our schools mean we no longer have an adequate outlet for this energy. Daubney advocates a similar programme to the ‘Young Men’s Initiative’ in New York, designed to train and promote more black male teachers in New York schools. He believes it is vital that we encourage more white working-class men into teaching.
Indeed, had a concerted effort been made by governments through education and training to ensure that white working-class men (and in fact all ‘other’ groups) were adequately equipped and able to benefit from globalization rather than becoming victims of it, this erosion of faith in the system and anti-establishment rage in the West could have been averted. Had the impact of migration been more evenly distributed and integration more carefully managed in the UK, so that traditional white working-class areas had not changed beyond recognition, this could have addressed the resentment.
And lastly, if a genuine effort had been made to accommodate and accept working-class values and culture rather than neglecting them, we may have achieved a much higher degree of social mobility within this group. Instead, we have marginalized frustrated young white men, who have gone from being part of the national culture to a subculture wrapped up in a crumpled English flag, unfairly characterized as work-shy, nostalgic, and parochial.
The rise of extremism
The crisis that this subculture is in has reached fever pitch in recent years, and the urgency with which we must deal with it has become painfully apparent, not just because of the political ructions it’s caused with Trump and Brexit, but because of the alarming rise in far-right extremism that we’ve seen come with it. Who could forget the horror of 16 June 2016, when the MP Jo Cox was murdered by far-right extremist Thomas Mair, shouting ‘Britain first’? Before his wife was murdered, Brendan Cox had actually been studying this frightening trend. Speaking a year after Jo’s passing at the 2017 Amnesty International General Meeting, he warned of the grave challenge facing us and issued a clarion call to all those who believe in a fair and inclusive society:
We are facing a new threat today – one that we still haven’t fully appreciated. We have got into the absurd position of celebrating fascists coming second in national elections, rather than first, as if that is a great outcome.
I’m not suggesting that we become defeatist, but unless we are clear about the size and scale of the challenge, we will be defeated by it.
As well as understanding the scale of the problem – we must also call it what it is. Populism is too kind a term. In fact, in most countries these groups we refer to as populist are consistently unpopular.
More importantly, the people who lead these movements are not populists – they are racists, bigots, and xenophobes, intent on tearing our communities apart. And we should call them out for what they are.
The threat of rising far-right extremism is real and it isn’t going to go away quickly. But with resolution, a concerted attempt to reach out, and a focus on building closer communities, we can and we will defeat it.
These so-called ‘populist’ leaders have manipulated and exploited the genuine concerns of a group who are witnessing their traditional way of life evaporating in front of their eyes, and who haven’t been given the right tools to adapt to this change. Fuelled by a ‘Cause Conspiracy’ ignited by the dangerous rhetoric of a new breed of charismatic social-media-savvy demagogues, there has been an exponential increase in far-right membership and incidents. In the UK alone, the ‘suspected far-right extremists flagged to the Government’s key anti-terror programme soared by 30 per cent in the past year’.*
Having a cause to get behind is one of the most powerful of all callings, especially for men who are often lacking in words and therefore prefer action. Our ‘other’ young men who are excluded due to race, class or religion are all more vulnerable to radicalization and the rhetoric of causes, which will supposedly give their life greater significance while at the same time putting it in jeopardy.
America is facing its own issues with a rise in white supremacy movements. Having experienced first-hand the uplifting feeling of unity in Virginia during Obama’s 2008 election, watching the clashes between the far-right extremists and anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville on the news 10 years later filled me with dread; it felt like America had gone back in time, to racial tensions and the strife of the sixties. We had reverted to arguing over whether to celebrate Confederate generals who fought to keep slavery. We were, once again, seeing the KKK marching with lit torches – only this time the marchers were brazen enough to do so without hoods.
This against a background of the mass incarceration of African Americans and their falling victim to countless acts of police brutality and shootings. The one difference with the 1960s is that the then President Lyndon B. Johnson, when faced with the decision of whether to pander to his core base or lead the country to better tomorrow, chose the latter. He paid a price in losing the support of some Southern states, but he took an important step in America’s redemption and progression.
Unfortunately, the current President’s response to overt racism has been tentative at best. He took 48 hours to condemn the violence of the white supremacist protesters and the senseless murder of 32-year-old Heather Hayer, an anti-racism protester, at the suspected hands of James Alex Fields Jr, a far-right extremist and accused domestic terrorist.
Many of these far-right extremists were courted shamelessly by Trump during his campaign as they lapped up his rhetoric on Muslims and Mexicans. However, once in office, his chickens had come home to roost and he found himself in the difficult position of having to denounce them, albeit two days too late. Trump must now address the real issues affecting white working-class men in America: the fears from a changing world where their dominance is diminishing. What’s needed are realistic solutions that allow everyone to thrive in the modern world rather than return America to an older, more racist and less progressive nation. The country has come too far to turn back now.
And there are of course many correlations between radicalized Islamists and radicalized white supremacists. If you explore the lives of many of the perpetrators, it is clear that they were excluded men looking for deeper meaning in their lives, even if that meant ending it and hurting countless innocents in the process. Their lives, as they were, were clearly not worth much, and this was the only way to give them purpose. Radicalized men from opposing sides, ironically working towards the same aim.
A different script
If the Finsbury Park mosque attack (when, targeting a Mosque on 19 June 2017 in the ethnically diverse North London neighbourhood of Finsbury Park, which was over 300 miles away from his home in Wales, Darren Osborne acquired a van and drove it into Muslim worshippers during early-morning Ramadan prayers) showed us one thing, however, it’s that we can change the prescribed narrative surrounding this pattern of behaviour. According to the existing script, the enraged mob at the Finsbury Park mosque, fuelled by fear and a desire for revenge, should have then butchered this lone assailant, fuelling more fear and mistrust. But that’s not how it happened. Mohammed Mahmoud, the imam of the mosque, calmed and reasoned with the crowd and protected the terrorist from attack until the police arrived to make an arrest. Mahmoud was later dubbed a ‘hero’ by the British press and was personally thanked by Prince Charles when he visited the mosque days after the attack. Thousands of Londoners would also show their solidarity with the Muslim community by participating in a flower march the following evening and delivering thousands of bouquets to the mosque.
This is a prime example of how extremism can be fought. This was homegrown terrorism that failed to divide society because good Muslim men were prepared to stand up for compassion and the rule of law, and because the people of London came together in support of this ‘other’ community. Where radicalization is concerned, there is more than one side involved. The conspirators show no sign of quitting, so neither must we in fighting for the values we hold dear.
It’s clear that we can no longer sit back and ignore the disintegration that is brewing in white working-class communities both in the UK and US; it’s their values that for centuries have been the bedrock of British and American society, after all. The traditional values of the white working class are translatable into any setting: loyalty to a cause, hard work, and a grim determination; they are attributes that we want not only in our employees and citizens, but in our leaders and bosses, our friends and family. If we can harness these qualities, equip these men with the education and skills they need to contribute to this new globalized world, and show that they are valued, then the damage that is currently being wrought at every level can be prevented and reversed. Now that’s a cause worth pursuing.
ACTION POINT: Find out how many university degrees are open to applicants without A-levels.
DISCUSSION POINT: What job do you instinctively think of a white working-class man doing?
The Other Way
‘If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.’
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you are one of the ‘other’ men reading this, then I thank you for persevering in the face of life’s obstacles. I hope I have given an accurate account of your plight – generalizations notwithstanding. To the rest of us who regard these ‘other’ men as ‘them’ rather than ‘us’, I would say this: there is another way.
To create a new normal, each of us must change the way we see, treat and include the ‘other’ man – to break down the stereotypes that we ourselves have created based on nothing more than outward appearances. Equally, we must turn our attention to class: in a report entitled ‘Elitist Britain’ by the UK Government’s Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, it was concluded that elitism was so ingrained in British society ‘that it could be called “social engineering”’. Too often, this is at the expense of the ‘other’ man.
And across all three of these ‘other’ groups, we must reassess our understanding of ‘masculinity’ in the round. As we’ve seen, these men inhabit their respective subcultures where their own rules and norms apply, which will often conflict with mainstream values – particularly the acceptance of violence as being part of a man’s DNA. If we can help change the script within these subcultures about what a man ‘ought’ to be, then we can surely help to stem the flow of violence that often spills out into the world as a result of their frustrations.
On a wider scale, the issues society has with its ‘other’ men are ingrained and complex, and we require effective leadership to fully address them. We need politicians and policy makers who are not just driven by self-interest, but are willing to make tough decisions and take the long-term approach needed to fix these problems. Our ‘other’ men trigger three of the toughest issues that society is yet to reconcile: race, religion, and class. However, there are countless examples of regeneration and integration programmes that have been proven to work (go to www.Diversify.org to see the remarkable case study of Braddock, Pennsylvania, where Mayor John Fetterman is spearheading a fantastic regeneration drive of this ailing steel town). What they show is that it’s only by turning our attention to marginalized groups such as the ‘other’ man that we can reach our full potential as a society, and that when we get it right, we all benefit.
THE OTHER MAN:
The Numbers
Disparities in earnings and unemployment in the UK and the USA *
Disparities in rates of incarceration *
Facts and figures
• 15%: the proportion of Muslim prisoners in 2015 up from 8% in 2002.
• The Young Report of 2014 found that ‘Most of the prisoners we met with all said that they experienced differential treatment as a result of their race, ethnicity or faith. Black prisoners felt that they were stereotyped as drug dealers and Muslim prisoners as terrorists’.
• 50%: according to Unlocking America, if African American and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, today’s prison and jail populations would decline by a half.
• 12%: the percentage of drug users in the USA who are African American, but 38% of arrests for drug offences and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offence are African American.
• Twice as likely: the Pew Research Center finds that, in the USA, blacks are twice as likely to be in poverty as whites.
• 50%: the percentage of Muslim households in poverty in the UK, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, compared to the national average of 18%
THE FIRST DEGREE OF INTEGRATION
Challenge Your Ism
‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’
James Baldwin
We all have so many ‘isms’ that keep us apart; isms that are buried so deeply within us that we are unaware of them and their ramifications on ourselves and others: race-ism, sex-ism, class-ism, sectarian-ism, age-ism … the list is endless. And all of us are guilty, myself included (mine, of course, being tattoo-ism).
If you had asked me five years ago to name my ism, I would genuinely have told you I didn’t have one. This, in fact, was one of the things I prided myself on the most: my self-perceived ‘open-mindedness’. For most of my life, I have happily revelled in this bubble of self-satisfaction, and never felt the need to partake in an inventory of my own limiting beliefs.
How many of us question our beliefs and the way we see the world, and whether or not these beliefs prevent us from being the best we can be? Are these beliefs even our own, or have they been passed down to us by our parents and our surroundings? Are they logical? And, most importantly, do they best serve us, society, and humanity? How often do we ask ourselves, ‘Should I hold these beliefs? If not, do I want to do anything about it?’ These questions are much deeper than surface prejudices – they go to the core of the way we think.
Having said that, isms are a two-way street, and the responsibility for change does not solely lie at the door of the instigator. Isms require both parties to subscribe to the stereotype. It takes one party to apply the label, but it can only hold relevance if the other side accepts the label. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.’
Recognizing half-truths and our role in perpetuating them is at the core of Degree One in the Six Degrees of Integration. Accepting our individual responsibility for stereotypes gives us the power to challenge them. So, what are your isms? Are you sexist? Are you class-ist? Do you have a race-ism? A gay-ism? The Ism Questionnaire below has been put together by the Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield College, Oxford, to get to the heart of your beliefs.*
So take five minutes to reflect – and be honest in how you answer the questions, no matter how uncomfortable or embarrassing it may be. Only by identifying our prejudices can we confront them. If you turn to page 381 you’ll see that, whatever your view, you are not alone. Absolute honesty is the only way to begin the process of change.
The Ism Questionnaire
Attitudes towards other political views
1. As far as you are concerned personally, how important is it to try to understand the reasoning of people with other opinions?
Choose a number between 1 and 7, where 1 is ‘Not at all important’ and 7 is ‘Very important’.
2. How would you feel if you had a son or daughter who married a Conservative?
Not upset at all
Somewhat upset
Very upset
Not sure
3. How would you feel if you had a son or daughter who married someone who was Labour?
Not upset at all
Somewhat upset
Very upset
Not sure
Attitudes towards ethnicity and race
4. Do you think some races or ethnic groups are born less intelligent than others?
Yes/No
5. Do you think some races or ethnic groups are born harder working than others?
Yes/No
6. Would you say that some cultures are much better than others, or that all cultures are equal?
Some cultures are much better than others
All cultures are equal
7. How much would you mind or not mind if a person from another country who is of a different race or ethnic group was appointed as your boss?
Choose a number between 0 and 10, where 0 is ‘I wouldn’t mind at all’ and 10 is ‘I would mind a lot’
8. How much would you mind or not mind if a person from another country who is of a different race or ethnic group married a close relative of yours?
Choose a number between 0 and 10, where 0 is ‘I wouldn’t mind at all’ and 10 is ‘I would mind a lot’
Attitudes towards gender, family life, and sexuality
9. All in all, family life suffers when the woman has a full-time job?
Disagree
Agree
10. A man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after the home and family.
Disagree
Agree
11. A working mother can establish just as warm and secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work.
Disagree
Agree
12. One parent can bring up a child as well as two parents together.
Disagree
Agree
13. A same-sex female couple can bring up a child as well as a male-female couple.
Disagree
Agree
General ism questions
14. Do you think your opinion of people might be swayed by social class, even if in subtle ways (style of dress, way of talking)?
Yes/No
15. Would you have concerns if a girlfriend of yours starting dating a Muslim man?
Yes/No
16. Imagine you are a businessperson about to negotiate a deal with a company: would you rather deal with a businessman or a businesswoman in your negotiations? If you have a preference, why?
Businessman/Businesswoman
Reason:
17. Would you want to make friends with someone with different political beliefs to you? If not, why not?
Yes/No
Reason:
18. Can you remember any moments in life that changed your worldview? Were you influenced by someone ‘other’ from outside your social circle?
Yes/No
Details:
19. Imagine you meet a friend’s 3-year-old daughter for the first time: would you compliment her for wearing something pretty? Is there something better to say?
Yes/No
Details:
20. Have you ever made a judgement about someone based on their appearance and been really wrong?
Yes/No
Additional questions can also be found at our website: www.Diversify.org
PART TWO
THE OTHER WOMAN
‘Stereotype of females begins when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl’.’
Shirley Chrisholm
The Old Way
In 1969, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm delivered a powerfully emotive speech to the House of Representatives demanding ‘Equal Rights for Women’. She remarked:
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl.’ At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.*
Heeding her own advice, three years later Chisholm would become the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and the first African-American to run as a major party’s nomination for President of the United States.
It was 1972 and, alas, America was not yet ready for a woman, let alone a black woman as bold as she; her presidential bid was ridiculed, laughed at, and met with cynicism and disdain by most of the elite. But even so, Chisholm still managed to secure 151 delegates in the Democratic primaries. As a prominent member of both the civil rights and women’s movements, her courage and belief in the possibility of change helped pave the way for a Barack Obama and a Hillary Rodham Clinton. She most certainly lived up to her gutsy tagline of ‘Unbought and Unbossed’ – she famously espoused that ‘if they don’t give you a seat at the table then bring a folding chair’ – but Chisholm was the exception and, unfortunately, her remarks are still as relevant today as they were in 1969. Because it’s true that when a child is born and the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl’, that tiny, innocent miracle already has the odds stacked against her and will have to play on a field that most certainly isn’t level.
