Message to young white males: Corporate greed, not people of color, is the cause of poor job prospects

Get the Point!

During the 2024 presidential election cycle, Donald Trump held an almost 60 percent advantage over Kamala Harris among white male voters under the age of 30. Many of these young men, attracted to popular “Bro” podcasters like Joe Rogan, headed to the polls believing that Trump was better situated to address their concerns that job markets were skewed against them, and that the “return of manufacturing jobs” and “coal mines,” promises Trump has made since his first presidential run in 2016, would bode well for their immediate and long term economic futures.

Well, the slim job prospects that these young men were facing, coupled with Trump’s steady dose of blaming economic ills on “illegal immigrants” and “The Blacks,” specifically DEI policies that he routinely alleges favor Black people in college admissions and hiring, provided a perfect storm for these ones to declare MAGA allegiance—however untruthful and illogical.

“Untruthful” in that the percentage of Black men and women who benefitted from affirmative action and DEI programs has always paled in comparison to white women, or, companies owned by white men who used white women as a minority “front” to gain lucrative government contracts.” “Illogical” in that not only are manufacturing and coal mining jobs NEVER coming back due to greedy corporate types who can pay pennies on the dollar to foreign workers, but also because the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that’s been embraced by corporate CEO’s is rapidly eliminating manpower heavy jobs across America!

Donald Trump, born of extreme wealth and a member of the Billionaire Boys Club since the 1980’s, has never been a populist “man of the people” for even a single day in his life. While there were position papers, books, journal length articles, podcasts, Tik Tok reels and yes, his own social media feeds that proved, beyond all doubt, that Trump’s real base is comprised of billionaires seeking to expand into trillionaire status (see Elon Musk), the loyal MAGA base, from middle class to poor and overwhelmingly white, found themselves so enamored with his fake populist anti-man rhetoric that blames “others” for their economic ills, that they were too blind to recognize that Trump has never hidden the fact that his government is here to serve the richest one percent!

The fact that the most economically strapped in our nation will go to great lengths—even give up their lives—to defend the rich and famous is hardly new; abolitionist Frederick Douglass often noted that during his time as an enslaved child and young man in Maryland, that some enslaved Blacks, when gathered with others from nearby plantations, would argue and fight over whose slave master was richer! A century later, President Lyndon Johnson famously noted, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pockets. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

So it’s clear, crystal clear, that the problem in this country...from the very beginning...has been the extremely wealthy who have lorded over the serfs of all races by keeping us fighting for scraps—while they grow wealthier from our collective labors!

Again, now that AI is set to even render labor in myriad industries unnecessary, more and more serfs will find themselves unemployed, underemployed, disillusioned, despondent, and in despair from realizing that not only are ends not meeting, but the political classes who are being pimped by the patrician classes will continue to promote policies that provide zero safety net for the plebeian classes to which better than 80 percent of us Americans belong, for better or worse!

So the solution, mind you, never should have been Donald Trump, and if we are to be real about it, perhaps the solution may never come solely from moderate to conservative Democrats, either, due to their fealty to corporate donations and political PAC’s that are designed to maintain power in the hands of the privileged few. That, however, is a “Hobbservation” for another day…

But today’s Hobbservation stems from the need to address where the work is needed, while the laborers are few. Now, with a nod to the fictional gangster Tony Soprano, there are certain industries that are “recession/depression” proof, with one being his own, organized crime, and the other being the movie industry. While humorous, all jokes aside, there are employment areas where jobs surely exist, but the problem is that in our secondary and post-secondary schools, many of the same young white “Bros” who flocked to Trump simply are not flocking to these professions for their own upward mobility purposes.

One such field is construction and the related trades; yesterday, I spent time with my first cousin once removed, Rev. Tony Williams, owner of Williams Drywall Company. As we sat eating and conversing during a birthday gathering for our family member Docia Hall, Tony noted that his biggest issue right now is the lack of skilled workers. Cuz noted that many young men are attracted to the prospect of earning $35 or more per hour, but simply are not cut out for the back breaking work over long hours as in ages past. This sentiment has been echoed many times by one of my best friends, Kenneth Taite, owner of Haggai Construction & Development, who often tells young mentees that they can earn far more money in the construction trades than they can in the streets, but realizes that his advice is often ignored because too many young Black “Bros,” like their white counterparts, are not willing to put in the grind.

Celebrating Docia Hall with my Williams cousins yesterday including Rev. Tony Williams, standing to my right (left in this picture) with a checkerboard shirt…

A second area that’s ripe for employment includes health related jobs! From physicians, to physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory/physical therapists and all points in between, these positions still require human beings—not robots—and the “wants ads” are filled with open positions in these areas that pay good wages and benefits.

A third area is the education field; in just about every school district in America, there is a severe teacher shortage that can only be filled by intelligent, educated people who are ready to instruct and guide in liberal arts and STEM subject matters.

So, while the young “Bros” will not get rich like Donald Trump or Elon Musk in any of the above fields, or not even as rich as Joe Rogan and the other social media influencers that they spend hours listening to, they would be able to earn a living and break through the fog that has many depressed and even suicidal due to their misguided belief that “others” (people of color) are keeping them from being “real men who can provide.” Indeed, the opportunities are there if, and only if, they are willing to turn off the talking heads and put in the work.