Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

So for older white men, the 1960s presented a delicate dilemma. On one hand, they did want to stand up, come forward, and express an identity like so many others had done. Why not us too? On the other hand, as members of the right, they had objected in principle to cutting in line, and disliked the overused word “victim.” Still—and this was unsayable—they were beginning to feel like victims. Others had moved forward; they were the left behind. They disliked the word “suffer,” but they had suffered from wage cuts, the dream trap, and the covert dishonor of being the one group everyone thought stood unfairly ahead of the line. Culturally speaking, the entire North had “cut in” and seemed to move the South to the back of the line, even as—and this was forgotten—federal dollars had steadily moved from North to South.