'The end of white America'?

By Ruben Navarrette (Contact)
2:00 a.m. January 28, 2009

What is it with white males? You would think that a group that occupies so many powerful positions and controls so much wealth would be secure enough not to be rattled by a few silly comments. But in the aftermath of the inauguration of the first African-American president, skins are thin.

It's a new day – one in which, as some people see it, white males are both convenient villains and our society's newest victims.

Even the fact that white males are overrepresented in the Obama White House staff and Cabinet doesn't do much to reassure them that they haven't lost their place at the head of the line. And now some in the blogosphere and on talk radio seem to be cracking under the pressure.

Talk-show host Michael Savage recently warned his listeners that for the next four years, the Obama administration and those who support it would be constantly plotting to victimize white males.

What set Savage off were comments by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich who, in testifying before Congress on President Obama's plan to create more than a million new jobs as part of the economic recovery, said:

“I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers. I have nothing against white male construction workers, I'm just saying that there are other people who have needs as well.�