"White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people"
About this Quote
A lot is packed into Holly Near's careful understatement: "a longer journey" sounds gentle, almost therapeutic, but it lands as a blunt cultural diagnosis. Near, a musician whose career is tied to movement work and communal singing, chooses the language of travel instead of blame. That matters. "Journey" implies change is possible, but also that distance is real, measurable, and not optional if you want to arrive anywhere better.
The phrase "white middle- and upper-class men" functions like a demographic spotlight. She isn't targeting individual villains; she's naming a group historically cushioned by institutions that minimize friction: policing that protects, workplaces that presume competence, politics built around their comfort. If you're rarely forced to notice the machinery, you don't develop the reflexes to question it. The subtext is that privilege doesn't just confer advantages; it creates emotional and intellectual lag. You can be decent and still be behind.
Near's wording also resists the modern temptation to make oppression into an identity competition. She doesn't say others are morally superior. She suggests many people, by necessity, have already traveled: women, people of color, working-class folks often learn early how power works because it affects their rent, safety, and dignity. For white, economically secure men, the education is less compulsory, so the catch-up is longer.
In a culture that treats self-awareness as a badge and allyship as a pose, Near frames it as labor over time. Not a confession, not a hashtag, not a quick "I get it". A journey: slow, uncomfortable, and, if taken seriously, transformative.
The phrase "white middle- and upper-class men" functions like a demographic spotlight. She isn't targeting individual villains; she's naming a group historically cushioned by institutions that minimize friction: policing that protects, workplaces that presume competence, politics built around their comfort. If you're rarely forced to notice the machinery, you don't develop the reflexes to question it. The subtext is that privilege doesn't just confer advantages; it creates emotional and intellectual lag. You can be decent and still be behind.
Near's wording also resists the modern temptation to make oppression into an identity competition. She doesn't say others are morally superior. She suggests many people, by necessity, have already traveled: women, people of color, working-class folks often learn early how power works because it affects their rent, safety, and dignity. For white, economically secure men, the education is less compulsory, so the catch-up is longer.
In a culture that treats self-awareness as a badge and allyship as a pose, Near frames it as labor over time. Not a confession, not a hashtag, not a quick "I get it". A journey: slow, uncomfortable, and, if taken seriously, transformative.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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