White people are convinced they’re discriminated against

So I read this:

A majority of whites say discrimination against them exists in America today, according to a poll released Tuesday from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“If you apply for a job, they seem to give the blacks the first crack at it,” said 68-year-old Tim Hershman of Akron, Ohio, “and, basically, you know, if you want any help from the government, if you’re white, you don’t get it. If you’re black, you get it.”

More than half of whites — 55 percent — surveyed say that, generally speaking, they believe there is discrimination against white people in America today. Hershman’s view is similar to what was heard on the campaign trail at Trump rally after Trump rally. Donald Trump catered to white grievance during the 2016 presidential campaign and has done so as president as well.

Notable, however, is that while a majority of whites in the poll say discrimination against them exists, a much smaller percentage say that they have actually experienced it. Also important to note is that 84 percent of whites believe discrimination exists against racial and ethnic minorities in America today.

Go read the whole thing.

I meet people like this all the time, and some of it is a hangover from the 2008 crash — people who, after finally deciding they would “lower themselves” to apply for assistance and food stamps, were flabbergasted at just how little help they could get.

Instead of feeling empathy when they realized how thin the safety net really was, their conclusion? There was some other, more luxurious welfare system no one would let them get because it was only for black people!

How crazy is that?

The girl who cut my hair at the local chain salon insisted that illegal immigrants were eligible for special grants to go into business, in addition to free housing, Medicaid, and food stamps.

Where do people get these ideas? Have they really not figured out that everyone on welfare works under the table, because welfare isn’t enough to survive?

Hell, one of my relatives complained one time how I didn’t work hard and save money to send my kids to college (like he did!) and that it wasn’t fair how much money one of my sons got in financial aid, just because I was poor (and lazy, I guess).

When I told him my son earned all that money because of his grades, he didn’t believe me. It just wasn’t possible, and nothing I said could change his mind.

Sigh. Poor, poor white people.