Rich Benjamin: My Road Trip Through the Whitest Towns in America
trsThere isn't much on Rich Benjamin, but he is categorized as a social observer. Benjamin is a senior fellow at Demos, a multi-issue think tank, and is just completing a novel on money, loss and heterosexual melancholy. The main subject of his speech is on his 2009 book Whitopia, he took a 26,909-mile journey through the heart of America's whitest locales, small towns and exurbs where white populations are concentrating as America, meanwhile, becomes ever more diverse. His book asks America to imagine itself in 2042, when whites are no longer the majority and what form will diversity take? Rich traveled to Forsyth County, Georgia, St. George Utah, and finally Coeur D’Alene, Idaho in a sense to see with his eyes what towns of America in reality hold. His goal is to create a connection with the people of these towns to see what really goes on in their minds.
The speaker’s key argument for Rich in his speech is that these towns are so closed minded and are known as a “Whitopias”. For the diversity of America is constantly growing these whitopia aren’t stunting the diversity growth, but it goes to shows the mentality of the past still lingers. Benjamin’s position on this matter is just to inform to the public that racial and social differences remains in these whitopias. For example while in Idaho Rich noticed that he counted more confederate flags than black people. In Utah he found poker, in Idaho he found guns, and in Georgia he found God. All of these American town might have been separated by thousands of miles ,but they all seemed to share the same characteristics and judgments.
For his definition of a whitopia he described it as more than 6% of the population growth since 2000, 90% of that growth comes from white migrants, and eff-able social charm, a pleasant look and feel. In his time in Idaho the people of the town noticeably put a lot of effort and money at the gun ranges. This activity is similarly linked to activities of the other towns such the game of golf or the sport of fishing. While in St. George, Utah the public held regular and active protests in contrast of Immigration. The compound of the Aryan Nation was found in Idaho and the speaker of the compound said they don’t found themselves as a white supremacist, but a white separatists. In a comedic sense he found the activities of fishing and golfing to come in handy when traveling these towns. There was no direct counter argument stated in the speech, but on could have been the Aryan Nation speaker. His words about being a white separatists shows he isn’t confident enough to admit his social views. Fortunately, in Georgia Rich was viewed as less exotic due to the rich southern history it posses from the past.
Personal Statement: I do agree because it is evident that America as a whole is growing rapidly not just in numbers, but in diversity as well. These whitopia’s are just full of ignorant groups of people just can’t accept the fact of change in the future there will probably more of these towns, but there will be more diverse communities to counter act the effect. Racism by Tom Buchanan would be an example of the type of people who would be part of a whitopia. As a matter of fact I believe that if Tom had the choice he would want all of West Egg to be this type of whitopia. Race differential was very evident in the time of The Great Gatsby because in the A and E version of the move all of Gatsby's servants were African American butler's. However oddly enough in the 2013 movie version of The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan's servants were both Caucasian and African American. In my opinion the reason why the director did this is to ease of the negative publicity the movie probably would have gotten if all of the servants were African American.
The speaker’s key argument for Rich in his speech is that these towns are so closed minded and are known as a “Whitopias”. For the diversity of America is constantly growing these whitopia aren’t stunting the diversity growth, but it goes to shows the mentality of the past still lingers. Benjamin’s position on this matter is just to inform to the public that racial and social differences remains in these whitopias. For example while in Idaho Rich noticed that he counted more confederate flags than black people. In Utah he found poker, in Idaho he found guns, and in Georgia he found God. All of these American town might have been separated by thousands of miles ,but they all seemed to share the same characteristics and judgments.
For his definition of a whitopia he described it as more than 6% of the population growth since 2000, 90% of that growth comes from white migrants, and eff-able social charm, a pleasant look and feel. In his time in Idaho the people of the town noticeably put a lot of effort and money at the gun ranges. This activity is similarly linked to activities of the other towns such the game of golf or the sport of fishing. While in St. George, Utah the public held regular and active protests in contrast of Immigration. The compound of the Aryan Nation was found in Idaho and the speaker of the compound said they don’t found themselves as a white supremacist, but a white separatists. In a comedic sense he found the activities of fishing and golfing to come in handy when traveling these towns. There was no direct counter argument stated in the speech, but on could have been the Aryan Nation speaker. His words about being a white separatists shows he isn’t confident enough to admit his social views. Fortunately, in Georgia Rich was viewed as less exotic due to the rich southern history it posses from the past.
Personal Statement: I do agree because it is evident that America as a whole is growing rapidly not just in numbers, but in diversity as well. These whitopia’s are just full of ignorant groups of people just can’t accept the fact of change in the future there will probably more of these towns, but there will be more diverse communities to counter act the effect. Racism by Tom Buchanan would be an example of the type of people who would be part of a whitopia. As a matter of fact I believe that if Tom had the choice he would want all of West Egg to be this type of whitopia. Race differential was very evident in the time of The Great Gatsby because in the A and E version of the move all of Gatsby's servants were African American butler's. However oddly enough in the 2013 movie version of The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan's servants were both Caucasian and African American. In my opinion the reason why the director did this is to ease of the negative publicity the movie probably would have gotten if all of the servants were African American.