What’s Wrong With White Women?

What’s Wrong With White Women?

by John Hinderaker in Crime, Leftism, Liberals, Riots

Joel Kotkin takes up a question that has lately been on many minds: “Why are young white women so angry?” He notes that the cities that are most violently left-wing are also the whitest:

[T]hey remain predominantly white at a time when most big cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston – are roughly two-thirds non-white. White people represent 60pc of the populations of Minneapolis and Seattle, while in Portland the figure is nearly 70pc.

It is ICE that is diverse, not the white radicals who riot against law enforcement:

Ironically, the very organisation these people have been protesting against – ICE – is heavily Latino in many parts of the US and around 30pc staffed by Latinos at a national level. Inconveniently for the progressive narrative, both shooters in the tragic death of Alex Pretti appear to have been Hispanic.

I don’t think the death of Pretti–a criminal who died, albeit accidentally, while committing a crime–was particularly tragic, compared with millions of other deaths. But the point remains.

On a national basis, the progressive Left is estimated to represent roughly 8pc of the total US population. …

The illiberality of these folks was revealed in a recent study in the Left-leaning Atlantic, which dubbed them “the most politically intolerant Americans”. It found that the most intolerant county in America, for example, is located not in rural Alabama but in Massachusetts (Suffolk county). This is an area dominated by universities and is home to diversity-obsessed mayor Michelle Wu.

But why white women, in particular?

Look at the demonstrations and they aren’t dominated by “people of colour”. Instead, the crowds are made up to a considerable extent by white people, especially women. This also seemed to be the case with the recent No Kings protests, according to research from American University scholars. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert described these demonstrations as “a kind of group therapy playing out in the streets”.

There evidently is a significant portion of America’s white women who are in need of such therapy:

[P]rogressive white people are now perhaps the most radical and agitated section of US society. Gen-Z women, in particular, are more likely to take radical positions than their male counterparts. These include the “fangirls” rallying to the cause of Luigi Mangione, who is on trial for murdering health care executive Brian Thompson in broad daylight. This female dominated cult seems determined to elevate him into an almost Christ-like martyr.

Progressive white women have absolutely no moral sense. They seem to think that by defending murderers, rapists, child molesters and drug dealers, they are doing good. What causes such stupidity? College is probably part of the problem:

Young women’s radicalisation may stem in part from the fact they are now far more likely to go to such indoctrination mills. Today, 47pc of women in the US have college degrees, compared to just 37pc of men – a 10-point gap that has widened dramatically. Research published in 2024 showed 2.4 million more female than male undergraduates enrolled in American colleges (8.9 million vs 6.5 million), and in 2021, men received only 42pc of bachelor’s degrees – the lowest share on record.

This indoctrination is most common in the humanities and social sciences, departments that also tend to be more female. Students in these disciplines have been at the forefront of campus unrest about whatever is the cause of the day – climate change, transgenderism, Gaza and now ICE.

A walk down memory lane! The “issue” constantly changes, but it makes no difference because the issue is always bogus. The cause of riots isn’t the alleged issue, rather it is a form of mental illness. More on the role of education:

Indoctrination in such things as the “settler colonial” paradigm at universities no doubt plays a part. This phenomenon now extends increasingly to high schools.

In Minnesota, it is now a legal requirement to teach anti-Americanism, beginning in kindergarten.

There is more at the link: it is mostly single women, and women without children, who are manning the far-left barricades. As usual, I think economic causes are underappreciated:

There also appears to be an economic component. Women, particularly unmarried women, tend to be employed more heavily in “helping professions” such as medical care and teaching, even as many traditional male jobs, particularly in manufacturing, construction and transportation have disappeared. Whereas high taxes and regulation pose problems in the general economy, women predominate in fields that benefit from more government spending.

Hence the over-representation of teachers and nurses in the ranks of the rioters.

Whatever the cause, these far left (and often violent) women are dragging down the cities where they live:

In 2020 Minneapolis, the site of George Floyd’s death, suffered several days of intense rioting after the killing. At the same time, Seattle also erupted, spawning a mini-Havana near its downtown, while Portland, half a continent away, suffered sustained rioting.

All these cities, once considered beacons of successful urbanism, are all suffering from a loss of domestic migrants, high property vacancies and persistent crime. Portland now has the second highest crime rate in the US and its once fashionable downtown is down on its luck. The same can be said of the once flourishing cores of Seattle and Minneapolis.

Wherever it goes, leftism brings destruction. The role currently being played by white women in that destruction is understandable but, by historical standards, weird.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/02/whats-wrong-with-white-women.php