For most of history, white guys have had it good. Every single president of the United States has been a white guy. Up until two years ago, every single Super Bowl coach was a white guy. Almost all top executives of American companies are white guys. The vast majority of Nobel Prize winners have been white guys, though that's not true of the last 15 years or so.

Indeed, the demise of the white guy from the lists of the Nobel Prizes mirrors a change in our global society at large. It turns out that white guys might not be the smartest bulbs in the bunch. Or, more specifically, that white guys aren't any better or brighter than folks who aren't white guys. They've just benefited from the march of history.

I know, most white guys would hate to claim that they've been the beneficiary of any special favors. In fact, most white guys I know harbor stories of "reverse discrimination," whereupon they have been put down by the Man because they're white. Hell, it's even happened to me.

Or maybe not. Maybe the folks really thought the other person was the better candidate. Why inject race or gender into the mix? Maybe it really was me, the me that doesn't get the job. I can live with that.

The old folks in the media have been making a big thing about "will Americans vote for a woman?" or "will Americans vote for a black guy?" Silly rabbits. Just ask the kids. Young people readily assess people as black, white, male, female, gay, straight--they just don't worry about it so much. My parents are kinda fixated on questions of race and gender. A few years back I was listening to the Dr Frank solo CD (Show Business Is My Life) while my dad rode with me in the car. The songs are acerbic assessments of bad relationships. You could hear them as vicious rants against women ('cause, well, they are) or, if you're familiar with Frank's regular band, The Mr. T Experience, you might think that he was making fun of people who would say such things. Or that he was simply saying mean things in order to be funny. Gender might (or might not) have anything to do with it. I took the whole thing as a lark (I like mean humor, myself). My dad heard it and declared it the most misogynistic stuff he'd ever heard. Glad I didn't have any Geto Boys in the discer.

Anyway, my parents and I have similar views on most things--politically, anyway. But where they're fairly militant, I'm more of a live and let live kinda guy. I thought Pulp Fiction was freakin' hilarious. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't. Where they see oppressed folks, I simply see folks. Not all black folks or women are continuously stepped on by the Man. Take Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Both have taken all sorts of crap because of who they are. On the other hand, millions of people have voted for them. I think it's safe to say that society at large (excluding hardcore Republicans) doesn't have a big problem with either as President. That seems to have surprised a lot of folks like my parents (who still express significant worry that Americans at large will refuse to vote for a black or woman president). But not me. People my age have their prejudices and all, but they're more likely to express themselves along economic or political lines rather than racial or gender ones.

Which leads us to the end of the great white guy parade. John McCain will be the first white guy to be defeated by a non-white guy in a presidential election. And I don't think you'll hear much from the likes of Rush Limbaugh (who has already "pledged"--whatever that means to him--to withhold his support from McCain in the general election) or the other nuts on talk radio. It's not because of some sudden adherence to political correctness, but rather that a racial or gender difference means nothing next to a political divide. These folks can come down on Obama for supporting "socialized medicine" or a pullout from Iraq or whatever. The cosmetics don't matter.

Now, I don't think this election will stop the grating white guy whine. There are still plenty of affirmative action cases in the courts. There are school desegregation cases wandering around. Plenty of opportunities for the old white guys to whine about their inevitable decline. And boy, we white guys sure know how to whine.

Know what I say about decline? If it's inevitable, you might as well lean back and enjoy it.

Jon Worley declines to come up with a better joke to end this column.