3 ms·

"...but are not allowed to cultivate, maintain and respect our own (American) culture." Could you give an example?

• seertaak 10y ago
  One example would be the adoption of European, and "ethnic" literature in lieu of the American literary canon -- even in American Literature courses! There's a comment about this by the late Andrew Breitbart, you can google it. (He studied American Literature.) That's just one example, there are literally millions. Here's another way of looking at it: - if a African American outwardly expresses his cultural origins and identity, this is called "affirmative" -- a word with positive connotations; - if an Italian American expresses ties to his cultural origins, it's considered less inspiring, but still ok - if an white European American expresses pride at his cultural heritage, then he's usually derided as nativist, racist, xenophobic, or, worst of all -- an old fogey.
  • davidcollantes 10y ago
    There is something odd on that example. An Italian-American is a white European, Italian-American.
    • seertaak 10y ago
      Exactly. It makes no sense. The story is similar with regard to Irish cultural heritage. Actually, it does make sense if you look at it through the right lens. "Oppressed" => affirmative "Hegemonic" => racist, bad AFAICT, this is how the calculation works. And to be fair, it's not entirely without merit. It just seems to me the pendulum -- which was too far in the pro-European heritage direction before -- has now swung too far in the "European/White bad, everything else good" direction.
      • deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    • daemin 10y ago
      Well kind of, in the last century 1900-2000 in Australia, Greek and Italian immigrants weren't considered "white". The only immigrants that were considered white were from the UK (and maybe France, Germany, and the Nordic countries). There is a semi-derogotary slang term used for people of that descent in Australia, but it escapes my mind at the moment. Nevertheless the people immigrated from Greece and Italy and made a significant impact on Australian culture.
      • unlikelymordant 10y ago
        Wog is the slang term you are looking for I believe
        • wavefunction 10y ago
          wop
        • daemin 10y ago
          That's the one, seems I've been outside Australia long enough to lose some slang. It doesn't seem very derogatory now (context matters more), and the community has taken it up as their own.
    • ZeroGravitas 10y ago
      And the quote apparently comes from a Jewish-American, which seems to have a vibrant culture even as people become less religious and/or inter-marry.
  • nugator 10y ago
    This seems to me, as a Swede, as the same rhetoric used by nationalists here in Sweden as well as nationalists in other countries. But it's more a feeling than a fact. " - if an white European American expresses pride at his cultural heritage, then he's usually derided as nativist, racist, xenophobic, or, worst of all -- an old fogey." This is also just your words and feelings, not an example of where a white European American expresses pride at his cultural heritage and is derived as something negative.
    • Chris2048 10y ago
      > This is also just your words and feelings unless it actually happens. Do you want a study citation?
      • nugator 10y ago
        If it happened you can give an example of when it happened. But if someone states: "...but are not allowed to cultivate, maintain and respect our own (American) culture." he/she must back it with something other than feelings. If this is a fact there must be hundreds of examples.
  • avisser 10y ago
    > if an white European American expresses pride at his cultural heritage As a white guy who was raised in Upstate NY, and had festivals throughout the year for Italian (a Columbus Day Parade + multiple social clubs), Greek, & Ukrainian festivals, a huge St Patty's Day parade, etc, this doesn't ring true. We didn't have a single festival for brown people or native people. There were no Women's parades. Yes waving a Confederate flag will bring a little judgement from me, but that feels like the exception.
  • avisser 10y ago
    > if an white European American expresses pride at his cultural heritage As a white guy who was raised in Upstate NY, and had festivals throughout the year for Italian (a Columbus Day Parade + multiple social clubs), Greek, & Ukrainian festivals, a huge St Patty's Day parade, etc, this doesn't ring true. We didn't have a single festival for brown people or native people. There were no Women's parades. Yes waving a Confederate flag will bring a little judgement from me, but that feels like the exception.