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Let me explain to you, by virtue of being part of a majority culture or dominant culture, your white father already benefits. His ways and norms and cultures an
by erenyeager 3y ago
Let me explain to you, by virtue of being part of a majority culture or dominant culture, your white father already benefits. His ways and norms and cultures and mores are the “default”. He gains a leg up already by not being discriminated against like the marginalized people in society. You benefit from your own ancestors’ benefits if they acquired wealth or at least didn’t pass on trauma to you… but I’m not even talking about the sins of your ancestors applying to you (that’s a very Christian concept btw). I’m saying you benefit now and your father benefited then from being part of a majority group.
As an example, it is very common in US culture to make eye contact in business, but in other cultures this is not the norm and even considered rude or wrong. Many people live in the US who come from Asian cultures where this is the case. When white Americans try to force people to make eye contact and think it is about “respect” they are completely enforcing their way on others and this can lead to marginalization.
Another example, handshakes. Men and women in many cultures and religions do not shake hands because of gender differences, and this is often a matter of respect and beliefs. When white Americans or Europeans try to force people from opposite genders to handshake, even when this is against the way of life for other individuals, this is a form of oppression. And it’s not even far fetched to say oppression exists in handshakes… in many news articles there have been cases where European countries cancelled citizenships or deported people based on someone’s refusal to handshake the opposite gender because of the cultural and religious beliefs.
- dcow 3y agoYou don't need to explain, I am deeply familiar. Any culture has pros and cons. You’re acting like the only positive culture history has seen has been “white” culture (which is kinda racist in and of itself). Of course people build cultures to achieve positive social outcomes!!! That’s life, meng. What you’re explaining does not justify reparations and conveyance of generational guilt. Look at the comment I responded to. I asked whether I deserve scorn. You’re arguing that I deserve scorn and somehow need forgiveness literally for being white. The micro fluctuations in cultural benefits you’re describing isn't tangible in any way. You’ll just be shouting into the void forever trying to equalize every culture so that no differences remain. And you’ll hate a lot of people from different cultures along the way. And guess what: our law already treats people equally, we’ve already achieved legal equality. Finally, logically, it simply doesn't follow: culture (a) at one point in history did something we now consider wrong. Culture (a) listened and changed. Culture (a) removed the bad parts and kept the good parts. Therefore the remaining good parts must be bad and culture (a) must be dismantled and destroyed and anybody who participated in it and shares its majority skin color shall be scorned and etc. It’s just stupid.
- erenyeager 3y agoOk from the contents of the comment it appears you may not be interested in recognizing historical wrongs & working towards rectifying them. Even statements like “full legal equality” are very clearly biased towards certain beliefs, views, and culture. In reality there are many laws that have been written with nefarious intentions & this includes selective enforcement or enshrining one particular cultural standard over another. The crack vs cocaine laws of the 80s in the US is a very good example. >You’re acting like the only positive culture history has seen has been “white” culture I’m certainly not stating this. If it seemed that way then now I will plainly state white culture is certainly not the only positive culture. Every culture has positives and negatives. This is not about generational guilt, it is about establishing justice. Generational trauma and current day injustice has been enforced against minority groups. >guilt I’m not here to grant any white people forgiveness or make them feel guilty. this conversation need not focus on the feelings of guilt of white people. Guilt with no action is not helpful. Don’t feel guilty for something you didn’t do. Just don’t support oppression and help in establishing justice. It’s better if instead of denying established evidence because someone is afraid of feeling guilty, that we focus on how can we as people in society use this evidence to do better today, given the historical context. Why do you see establishing justice as an attack on white people and their culture?? Unless your culture is to promote injustice which I don’t think most people desire, I don’t believe you should be opposed. This is not about dismantling a culture and making everyone the same. It’s about establishing justice. If a culture has injustice and oppression, then no doubt these elements must be opposed.