It is bittersweet to think that only with the increased visibility of dysfunctional poor white communities will conservatives finally stop blaming the victim and understand that...

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... these behavioral shifts at a population level are best explained by changes in the environmnent.

In other words, many conservatives have been able to make the racist argument that if black folk just "act better" then they will have similar outcomes as whites.

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I contend that the differences one sees between racial groups can ultimately be reduced to the different environments they navigate.

OK, so now in the Rust Belt we have high unemployment, single motherhood, and drug addiction.

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The conservative argument could be, I guess, that those white folks decided "en masse" to start doing those things, and all they need is for somebody to "teach" them how not to do drugs. Act like Asians, I guess.

But of course...

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...that is not what will happen.

Because these folks are white.

Instead what is going to happen is a narrative will be propogated about how the US economy "left these folks behind", they are "doing the best they can".

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This is a more realistic and evidence based narrative, and I hope it takes hold. It will help those people and not blame them for societal conditions out of their control.

It's too bad it will take the narrative to be cloaked in "whiteness" for people to accept it.

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