Straight White Middle-Class Married Men Are OK

I'm a straight, white, middle-class, married man. 

If you listen to the media, that means I am:

A racist
Oppressive
Sexist
Stupid
"Whipped"
Cowardly
Sexually impotent
Corrupt
etc...

The truth is, I'm none of these things.  Like most people, across the demographic spectrum, I'm a reasonably nice, reasonably competent guy who tries hard to be productive, to take care of my family, to treat others fairly, and to be the best person I can be.

I hear minority groups rally against people like me, claiming I oppress them, and I'm left confused and a bit hurt.  I see racism perpetuated by people who insist on separating themselves from mainstream society, then blame me for the consequence.

I don't personally know anyone who is overtly prejudiced.  I personally would welcome any good, honest person to be my neighbor.  I try hard not to judge or pre-judge people, but to accept them for who they are.  I love people and would never deliberately oppress anyone.

Our culture does have some intrinsic racial and sexual oppression built in, but I've seen major advances in this area over my lifetime.  I have hope that one day demographics will not play a part in a person's social status or opportunity for success.

Unfortunately, I believe this intrinsic oppression is sometimes perpetuated by the oppressed people themselves.  We see voluntary segregation in every population area of the country.  We see militant activists causing division between groups.  We see movements to give certain groups preference over the supposed "oppressive" groups of our society.  We see over-sensitivity among minority groups that cause real complaints of oppression to lose credibility.  These things create animosity and work against positive change.

Personally, I believe the worst obstacle to equality, however, is this attack on the majority group -- straight white males.  Historically, we have held the power and controlled the money in this country.  To a large extent, we still do.  I fail to see how this inequality can be addressed by threatening the group in power.  Most white men are willing to extend opportunity to anyone willing to follow the same rules we follow.  Racism and sexism still exists, but it improves daily.  The vast majority of us don't deserve to be vilified.