Gen Z Gender Wars, DEI for White Nationalists + More News
Gen Z Gender Wars, DEI for White Nationalists + More News
Welcome to another edition of my curated news briefs.
It’s mid-August, it’s hot and sticky out there, and you’re in no mood for a 2,500 word analysis of the pending presidential election. So permit me to give you my quick and dirty take at news you might have missed:
1. The gender gap is getting worse.
In the post Roe v. Wade era, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by the continuing backlash against women’s progress. Yet, here I am—aghast—that men can be such Neanderthals.
And the worst part is that the men voicing reactionary views are not Baby Boomer geezers but Gen-Zers!
From The Guardian are the results of a July polling of 1,092 men (ages 18 to 29) who agreed with the following statements:
61% say “men should be represented and valued more in our society.”
51% say “feminism is about favoring women over men.”
60% say that the U.S. has become “too soft and feminine.”
Only 33% say “things would be better if women held more powerful positions in society and men did more around the house.”
Those last two points, in particular, do not bode well for Kamala Harris’s election as the first female U.S. president. The relevant question, according to Melissa Deckman, the author of The Politics of Gen Z, is “to what extent do attitudes about gender influence the vote for Trump?” Deckman told The Guardian that Trump will likely capture the white male vote.
But before you go into a pre-Biden dropout panic mode, here’s the saving grace: Young women are far more politically active than young men. While the bros “are increasingly indifferent to politics,” reports The Guardian, “Gen Z women have not only become the most progressive cohort in US history but are also expected to outpace their male peers across virtually every measure of political involvement, such as donating money, volunteering for campaigns, registering people to vote – and, of course, voting.”
So how politically apart are men and women among the Gen-Z set? Based on data from 1999 to 2023, it is now a gaping 23% gap (up from 12% in 1999):
The other silver lining is that these retro leanings apply mainly to white Gen Z men—and their numbers are declining. (Only half of Gen Z are white.)
The bottom line is that the demographics do not favor a white, male order in politics or anywhere else in the long run. That’s probably why white Gen Z men feel so threatened—and why Trump is their last hope.
2. If you really value diversity, you’d invite a white nationalist to dinner. In one of my last posts, I mused whether JD Vance would ever condemn racism in the Republican party, especially since his Indian American wife Usha has been viciously attacked by white nationalists. We now have the answer: No way!
Not only did Vance not denounce Nick Fuentes who berated him for marrying “somebody that far outside your race, who isn’t even Christian,” he praised Trump for dining with the white nationalist at Mar-a-Lago.
“The one thing I like about Donald Trump, Jon, is that he actually will talk to anybody,” Vance said to Jonathan Karl of ABC News. “Just because you talk to somebody doesn’t mean you endorse their views.”
And to prove that Trump is both open-minded and gallant, Vance added: “Donald Trump’s spent a lot of quality time with my wife. Every time he sees her, he gives her a hug, tells her she’s beautiful and jokes around with her a little bit.”
I don’t know what kind of “quality time” Usha is spending with the former president or how she feels about his compliments. (In case you forgot, Trump loves to comment about women’s appearance; recently, he even called Kamala Harris “beautiful.”) But how awesome everyone is so chummy. May I suggest that the Vances invite Fuentes or another white nationalist over for dinner? Chicken Vindaloo, anyone?
3. Because we can’t get enough of JD. I know enough articles have been written about JD Vance to sustain an A.P. course on the peculiarities of American politics but you shouldn’t miss this analysis (“JD Vance’s Unnerving Changeability”) from New York Times’s Michele Goldberg. One fascinating tidbit I learned is that Vance converted to Catholicism because of right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel. The idea that the prince of darkness of Silicon Valley (remember, Thiel wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”) can be a spiritual role model for anyone is both absurd and chilling.
That’s all for now, amigos. I’m off to Mexico City for a little vacay.
Contact: chen.vivia@gmail.com
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