4 ms·

Ok, but the people who look like me, who have historically been called "white people", do have a distinct, shared culture (or the people who aren't "white" woul

by dqv 6mo ago

Ok, but the people who look like me, who have historically been called "white people", do have a distinct, shared culture (or the people who aren't "white" wouldn't be able to point out how we act and what we do and our manner of speech). So what are these people called? What is their culture called? What are we renaming white-people tacos to? (and, no, tostadas are not the same thing as white-people tacos) While I don't think my culture needs to be preserved nor do I care about being a "racial minority" (I live in a neighborhood where the majority of the people who live here are "non-white" - and, no, I didn't gentrify, it's actually just a very young neighborhood), I do want to be able to share my culture and traditions with other people. That's the whole basis of culture... sharing it with others. And there's another thing. People who don't look like me call me "white people". What should they be calling me instead? I think it would be a lot easier to shut white supremacists down if we had competent answers to these questions instead of thought terminating cliches like "white people don't have culture".

archagon 6mo ago
As a Russian person, my cultural heritage is Slavic, not "white". Ignoring skin tone, I’m not sure what my Slavic background has in common with — for instance — Italian or Irish culture. In fact, Italians, Irish, and Russians would not have been considered fully white in America during various parts of the last century. The notion of a "white race" is a recent invention borne of slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people What are your cultural traditions? How much do they overlap with mine as a fellow "white" person?
- dqv 6mo ago
  > As a Russian person, my cultural heritage is Slavic, not "white". Ignoring skin tone, I’m not sure what my Slavic background has in common with — for instance — Italian or Irish culture. In fact, Italians, Irish, and Russians would not have been considered fully white in America during various parts of the last century. Well, yes. If you weren't dispossessed of your culture generations ago, then you won't identify with a grouping of people who were dispossessed of theirs in service to the idea of "whiteness". You are caught up in the racial definition of whiteness, but I'm talking about culture. For the same reason a Ghanaian expat isn't black, neither would you be white. There is a reason many black Americans reject the term "African-American": it makes no sense - they were systemically dispossessed of their African roots generations ago. > The notion of a "white race" is a recent invention borne of slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people Yes, we know. I am specifically talking about the resultant culture that derived from this invention. If you can understand that black culture developed out of this invention through racist policy, then it should be possible to understand how this artificial separation did the same to white people. > What are your cultural traditions? How much do they overlap with mine as a fellow "white" person? What are my cultural traditions? I don't have a complete answer to that. We don't exactly have a "whiteness studies" major at colleges, and I wouldn't want one without serious and thoughtful consultation with the groups of people hurt by colonization. To study even part of a culture is lifelong work. It took black academics decades to create a complete definition of racism as we know it today. And many more decades to describe black culture, which still hasn't been fully mapped out. To untangle what white culture is and what it isn't will also take many decades.

by dqv 6mo ago

archagon 6mo ago

As a Russian person, my cultural heritage is Slavic, not "white". Ignoring skin tone, I’m not sure what my Slavic background has in common with — for instance — Italian or Irish culture. In fact, Italians, Irish, and Russians would not have been considered fully white in America during various parts of the last century. The notion of a "white race" is a recent invention borne of slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people What are your cultural traditions? How much do they overlap with mine as a fellow "white" person?

dqv 6mo ago
> As a Russian person, my cultural heritage is Slavic, not "white". Ignoring skin tone, I’m not sure what my Slavic background has in common with — for instance — Italian or Irish culture. In fact, Italians, Irish, and Russians would not have been considered fully white in America during various parts of the last century. Well, yes. If you weren't dispossessed of your culture generations ago, then you won't identify with a grouping of people who were dispossessed of theirs in service to the idea of "whiteness". You are caught up in the racial definition of whiteness, but I'm talking about culture. For the same reason a Ghanaian expat isn't black, neither would you be white. There is a reason many black Americans reject the term "African-American": it makes no sense - they were systemically dispossessed of their African roots generations ago. > The notion of a "white race" is a recent invention borne of slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people Yes, we know. I am specifically talking about the resultant culture that derived from this invention. If you can understand that black culture developed out of this invention through racist policy, then it should be possible to understand how this artificial separation did the same to white people. > What are your cultural traditions? How much do they overlap with mine as a fellow "white" person? What are my cultural traditions? I don't have a complete answer to that. We don't exactly have a "whiteness studies" major at colleges, and I wouldn't want one without serious and thoughtful consultation with the groups of people hurt by colonization. To study even part of a culture is lifelong work. It took black academics decades to create a complete definition of racism as we know it today. And many more decades to describe black culture, which still hasn't been fully mapped out. To untangle what white culture is and what it isn't will also take many decades.