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"because many people are uncomfortable recognizing white identity" There is no unified "white" identity. I am white, my ethnicity is Romanian. There is no shar

"because many people are uncomfortable recognizing white identity" There is no unified "white" identity. I am white, my ethnicity is Romanian. There is no shared identity between me, and for example someone with German heritage. So to capitalize "White" is silly in my eyes. edit: unified may have been a poor choice here. "Shared" is what I was getting at. Of course people across the US have different experiences and opinions.

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
There's no unified black identity either though. There are millions of black people in both USA and Africa, but their cultures and lived experiences are so incredibly different. Not to mention the diversity within the country.
- andrewzah 6y ago
  ...black people universally get discriminated in a systemic fashion in the US based on their appearance. This is not unique to any one state. Obviously people in different states lead different lives. It's still possible to have a shared identity through facing similar struggles and discrimination. Just because I grew up in IL and my cousin grew up in CA doesn't mean we can't have a shared identity as Romanian-Americans either. edit: I have amended this and my parent post to clarify I meant a shared experience, not a unified one.
crazygringo 6y ago
To be clear, neither is there any unified "Black" identity, any unified "Native American" identity, etc. Identities are generally fluid and reflect matters of degrees of commonality and shared experience. In your case, there are certainly some things you share in common with Germans, e.g. you share an Indo-European linguistic heritage which you don't share, for example, with someone who has Japanese heritage. Of course that's simply an academic point -- you're free to feel whatever degree of identity affinity you like, which is what matters. Identity is constructed.
- andrewzah 6y ago
  "Identities are generally fluid and reflect matters of degrees of commonality and shared experience." Well sure, and this is what I believe is happening with the Black identity. Unified may have been the wrong word to convey what I mean. I have zero reason to feel anything like that with a "white" identity, germans being just an example. There is no real anti-white discrimination in a systemic sense like what black people face, so I see no reason that white would warrant a capitalization. There is just no similar shared identity.
cforrester 6y ago
To follow up on this, there is no unified "black" identity either, but there is a distinct Black identity especially among African-Americans. This is in large part because of the way their identities, cultures, languages, and traditions were forcibly stripped away from them upon enslavement. African-American cultures thus distinguished themselves with combinations of cultural elements preserved from African nations, as well as elements of mainstream American cultures due to the extreme pressure to "assimilate," later immigration from places such as Caribbean nations, and newer elements developed uniquely by African-Americans.

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago

There's no unified black identity either though. There are millions of black people in both USA and Africa, but their cultures and lived experiences are so incredibly different. Not to mention the diversity within the country.

andrewzah 6y ago
...black people universally get discriminated in a systemic fashion in the US based on their appearance. This is not unique to any one state. Obviously people in different states lead different lives. It's still possible to have a shared identity through facing similar struggles and discrimination. Just because I grew up in IL and my cousin grew up in CA doesn't mean we can't have a shared identity as Romanian-Americans either. edit: I have amended this and my parent post to clarify I meant a shared experience, not a unified one.

crazygringo 6y ago

To be clear, neither is there any unified "Black" identity, any unified "Native American" identity, etc. Identities are generally fluid and reflect matters of degrees of commonality and shared experience. In your case, there are certainly some things you share in common with Germans, e.g. you share an Indo-European linguistic heritage which you don't share, for example, with someone who has Japanese heritage. Of course that's simply an academic point -- you're free to feel whatever degree of identity affinity you like, which is what matters. Identity is constructed.

andrewzah 6y ago
"Identities are generally fluid and reflect matters of degrees of commonality and shared experience." Well sure, and this is what I believe is happening with the Black identity. Unified may have been the wrong word to convey what I mean. I have zero reason to feel anything like that with a "white" identity, germans being just an example. There is no real anti-white discrimination in a systemic sense like what black people face, so I see no reason that white would warrant a capitalization. There is just no similar shared identity.

cforrester 6y ago

To follow up on this, there is no unified "black" identity either, but there is a distinct Black identity especially among African-Americans. This is in large part because of the way their identities, cultures, languages, and traditions were forcibly stripped away from them upon enslavement. African-American cultures thus distinguished themselves with combinations of cultural elements preserved from African nations, as well as elements of mainstream American cultures due to the extreme pressure to "assimilate," later immigration from places such as Caribbean nations, and newer elements developed uniquely by African-Americans.