Thank you for reading, and for taking the time to comment. I am sorry that my reference to attitudes "typical of white southerners" offended you, but I disagree with how you characterized my observation.

Attitudes are "typical" when they reflect the views of a majority of a particular population. According to polling data, in 1956 school integration was supported by 61% of northerners, but only 15% of southerners, By 1963, there had been improvement, but there was still an enormous gap: Integration was now supported by 73% of northerners and 31% of southerners. Please explain, then, why the attitudes I referred to were not "typical of white southerners."

I also strongly disagree with your description of my comments as "racist," although perhaps we define that term differently. A pejorative term applied to an entire 'race' of people (however one defines race) would certainly be racist--but I neither stated nor implied that whites as a 'race' held such attitudes. I spoke only of attitudes that polling data (and election results) tell us were typical of a regional subset of white Americans during a particular period of time. If I have the facts wrong, I welcome correction--but please refrain from making accusations that you cannot support.

I am aware that many white people feel that they (actually, we--as I am also white) are being blamed for all of the failings of American society. They have become sensitive to this narrative and may be defensive. Pundits and propagandists on the right actively encourage a sense of white victimization ... for their own political purposes.

But on the whole, we are hardly victims. Non-Hispanic whites currently make up about 59% of the American population, but we control over 80% of the nation's assets and hold 75% of the voting seats in Congress. Are there individual instances where white people may have been discriminated against because of our skin color? Yes, that is unfortunately true--but to portray whites as a whole as racial victims is utterly absurd. I would urge you to look at the facts, not the rhetoric.