In all fairness, this is because whites don't need more rights. They pretty much have everything as it is. The only move to lobby in race would be to prevent others from getting more.
A legitimate concern, for sure. Not sure what the comforting thought is, except maybe that ultimately "blacks" are and will remain a minority in numbers. Not to mention the rising rate of interracial marriage.
The gap closing is happening both ways... It's mostly due to whites becoming as poor as blacks rather than blacks lifting themselves out of poverty. That's what has whites alarmed. It's also worse when you see that the government positions of authority are immune to economic changes. Therefore you have minorities in charge unaffected by economic change who never lose their positions. This is the main reason why I coined "black supremacist socialists". If the trend continues we'll have government elites based on race who are better off than most of their constituents. AND these elites are only motivated by race politcs.
For certain, there's no real danger of blacks overtaking whites in population or in social/economic status. But that doesn't placate those who have power, money or influence from feeling secure.
I think there is a much bigger cause of this, and it hasn't anything to do with color at all, but government in a nanny state. Politicians are increasingly less likely to make the right (and hard) decisions, and instead continue to provide handouts that we cannot afford because they know it gets them votes. Black, white or hispanic, people tend to vote for the free ice cream. It's only educated thought and self-discipline that makes "evolved" voters realize that this is not realistic if you want sustainability and continuity in quality of life.
There's data out there but you have to analyze it yourself... This CNN article says... http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/24/news/economy/americans-poverty/index.html Look at the graph lower on the page where poverty is broken down by race. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/12/povertyandincomeest/ib.shtml It's gone up from 9.1% in 2000 for whites to 12.5 % in 2011... That's a 3.4% increase... But when you compare percentages alone it's a 37% increase in the rate of poverty for whites. That 37% increase represents the rise in poverty numbers for whites from 9.1% to 12.5%. Numerically it's a large number of whites and that's something percentages don't reflect.
Yeah, I don't need all that data to agree. Rising disparity in class levels is easily located, and since whites make up the majority of those numbers, you can reach the conclusion that whites are sinking economically. Everyone (by race) is sinking economically. The few at the top may be predominantly white, but they are too small a number to counter the vast majority.
If we examine that image further we see that black poverty rose from 31.2% to 37.4% during that same period. That's a rise of 6.2% representing a change of 19.8 % and a much lower number numerically overall. What that tells us is that whites are getting poorer at a faster rate than blacks. An increase of 37% for whites vs. 19.8% for blacks. This is where "white pride" needs to meet reality... The reality is that it's the whites that are getting left behind and it's the whites that aren't competing well anymore.