The aggrieved.

There are some things in life that get really old. Like hearing white people (some, not all) complain about why black folks have to have their own month, their own colleges, their own television channel, and so on. Why are they so special? Goes the old refrain. If we are all equal and one America, why do they have to have their own separate categories for stuff? 

It never dawns on these people that the reason we have all these separate designations is because the larger population excluded us, and they kept us from participating with them with many of these things for so long, that ultimately we had to form our own. 

I was thinking about that today after seeing stories about Esquire Magazine choosing to feature a young white male on their cover. The article featured a story about what it's like to grow up young, white, and male, in modern day America.

It featured all the First World tribulations and problems that the newest aggrieved class in America has to face. Like the #MeToo Movement, diversity, toxic masculinity,  social media, and being a trump supporter in a divided America. Oh the horror! It's just getting tougher and tougher to be a white male these days. I suppose White Male Month, white male television, and white male [pick a category], can't be too far behind. I mean this is just what we needed during Black History Month, another profile of the white male point of view.

I don't know, maybe a profile of a black kid trying to make it in life while navigating the daily struggles of living with a single parent in an age where you can get shot just walking to the store would have been nice. I mean given that it's Black History Month and all. For the record, the right isn't too thrilled with the article, either. 

True confession, I subscribe to Esquire Magazine, because I usually like their articles and their features. Unfortunately I have come to learn that they are just as tone deaf and clueless when it comes to what really matters in our society, and to the feelings and concerns of underrepresented groups as all the other white washed editorial rooms out there.

"Jay Fielden, Esquire's editor-in-chief, wrote a separate piece called 'Why Your Ideological Echo Chamber Isn't Just Bad For You,' where he attempted to expand on the piece's meaning.

Fielden explained that the story was just an installment in a 'series on growing up now — white, black, LGBTQ, female — that will continue to appear in coming issues.' 

He added: 'What we asked [author Jennifer Percy] to do — and she did brilliantly — was to look at our divided country through the eyes of one kid. Ryan Morgan is his name. He's white, lives in the middle of the reddest county in Wisconsin, and, as you will see, he is an unusually mature, intelligent, and determined young man.'" 

"I'd like to thank Ryan here for the time he spent with Jen and photographer Justin Kaneps. He may be only seventeen — and as infallibly human as the rest of us — but I admire the courage he's shown in speaking with us so openly about his life, and for agreeing to be on our cover."

Thanks for whitesplaining that to us Jay, we couldn't have figured this thing out without you. And I want to thank Ryan for his "courage" as well. Being white and male in America must be so tough.     

"Percy’s story follows Morgan, a quiet high school senior who likes the Green Bay Packers and hanging out with his girlfriend, isn’t crazy about school but has pulled up his grades over the years, and hopes to work at a local water plant after graduation and become an environmental scientist.
Morgan is not overly political – saying he’s not one of the “white guys who all hang out with their trucks and guns and say, ‘Heil Trump’ and all that” – but considers himself a moderate with some conservative views that have gotten him heat at school.

“I couldn’t say anything without pissing someone off,” he told the magazine. “Everyone hates me because I support Trump? … I couldn’t debate anyone without being shut down and called names. Like, what did I do wrong?”

Nothing Morgan, nothing at all. In fact, you will soon find that all you have to do is exist, and everything will be just fine.     

1 Pic from Esquire Magazine.