USA Today says it’s not a good time to be over 55, white and male. As the Daily Beast summarizes it “old, white men get canned first.”

And President Barack Obama seems to be doing his bit (as the likes of Glenn Beck have already figured out).

He just announced the Presidential Medal of Freedom list. The President is giving out 16. Last year George W. Bush gave out six, with another 3 squeezed in before he left office on January 20.

Let’s see. Bush’s list included Tony Blair, Tom Lantos, John Howard, Gen. Peter Pace, Judge Laurence Silberman. He had a few people of color – Donna Shalala and Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.

Obama’s list includes the Grameen Bank’s Mohammad Yunus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Joe Medicine Crow, Sidney Poitier, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Chita Rivera and Sandra Day O’Connor. When all those people show up it’s not going to look like a very White House.

There are a few white guys on the list – one is dead (Jack Kemp), one is ailing (Ted Kennedy), one is in a wheelchair (Stephen Hawking), one is gay and has been dead for 30 years (Harvey Milk).

Hmmm, what is the message the President is sending out?

We knew White Men Can’t Jump. Now it seems they can’t win medals either. Unless they are dead, gay or wheelchair bound. This is a new America. And no amount of Bud Light quaffing in the White House can disguise that.

But don’t despair. White guys can call MALDEF or NAACP or GLAAD or NOW who can teach them on how to fight for a place at the table.