The Duggars are (Inadvertently) Raising a New Generation of Bigots

   

What future are the Duggars preparing their children for?

The Duggar family of TLC infamy have enough problems just now without being accused of yet another moral failing.  But actually, I'm not suggesting that Jim-Bob and his fertility-goddess wife, Michelle, are racists.   I'm merely reflecting on the roots of racial bigotry.   Since the Duggars are discouraging their dozen and a half children from attending college, and are instead pushing the girls into early marriages in order to become baby factories,  one thing is clear.  Unless they all end up with reality tv shows, their views of the larger world will be limited as will their opportunities in life.

This family enjoys the advantages of "white skin privilege" now, but that won't always be the case.  The black middle and professional classes will continue to grow.  Whites with high school diplomas and nineteen or so mouths to feed aren't going anywhere.   And it will be their feelings of resentment that fuel the engines of racial hatred.  For the past two centuries, poor whites have ignored their class interests in order to identify with their wealthier counterparts.  It was easy to do so when most blacks were dirt poor share croppers.  But even African-American mothers on welfare today support education and encourage their daughters to achieve the economic independence that eludes them.  

Put another way, why do so many conservative White Christians despise President Obama?    After all, the nation has been saved from economic collapse; the unemployment rate is lower than its been in years.  Some of these Obama-haters are even enjoying the benefits of  the Affordable Care Act.  Their problem is not Obama's failings.  It is rather his successes, which are becoming too numerous to list fully.  Here is a Black man with a Muslim name, who is Commander in Chief of the United States, having been elected to the presidency twice.  His family is not involved in drunken brawls.  The teenage daughters are neither pregnant nor sneaking into after hour bars.   They are smart and college bound.  

In the meantime, the world grows more technological and the labor market more globally competitive, while a generation of White Christians  homeschool their kids in preparation for "the Rapture".  As they fall further and further behind, their feelings of entitlement will generate confusion and fear at being so ill prepared for life in the twenty-first century. This ugly mood's only outlet will be scapegoating of those minorities who are more successful than they.  

RELATED POST:  Did the Duggars Expose Their Kids to Pornography Ring?