What happened to White cultural identity?

[gopher]

I ask because I had a lengthly conversation about this a little bit ago. As a half hispanic, half white person, I find myself really identifying as a Hispanic, even though my skin is white and I was raised without much Hispanic influences. Now, I wonder why that is. I have noticed that other cultures/races are very culturally identified. Take African Americans, for example. There is an identity of "us", of heroes to the culture, the MLK's, the Malcom X's, the Fredrick Douglases. A lot of other cultures have that as well. Hispanics have their La Raza, the Cesar Chavezes, the Salvador Allendes. There is an identity for those cultures, one that white/europeans lack. What I find is that white culture likes to organize in deeper roots, not cultural but in economic, political, and religious identity more than the other cultures out there.
Any thoughts?

[Paul Hanson]

I should imagine that various white supremacy groups (KKK, etc.) have made it tricky to be proud of being white without being labelled as racist.

[chequita guevara]

We whites have America as our cultural identity. We are the real Americans, not hyphenated Americans. We have our heroes, our history, our culture, but instead of binding it up in a small group, we attatch it to our nation (or our region, if we're Southerners).

Furthermore, you only notice the culture in proximaty to other cultures. Since we do our best to ignore other cultures, it's hard to notice what about us makes us different from them (except that they're dirty, smelly, and need our help all the time). However, when confronted by foreign cultures in their own land, we suddenly realize what is American about us, what makes us different.

It's hard to do that in the United States, since Canada and the US have very similar cultures. There is probably no comparablly sized area on Earth with such a dearth of cultures.

Also remember that many whites do not consider Black and Hispanic cultures/histories/etc. to be legitimate culutres in this country. The very fact that there were "multiculturalism wars" demonstrates this. Why should whites have been so resistent to the notion that there are other histories involved in America . . . unless it was confronting, challenging already held ntions about who were were as a people.

[Lars-E]

I read or heard somewhere that white Americans today are insecure.

[Shi Huangdi]

"We whites have America as our cultural identity."

The are plenty of minorities who have descendats who loved this country so much they fought and died for it. I really don't think there is too much of a cultural diffrence between Americans, although ethnic groups do carry pieces of culture from their descendants-- but basically we are pretty much the same.

[Chowlett]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
We whites have America as our cultural identity.

Not all of us do.

My cultural identity is Britain, and for some weird reason Scotland in particular. Weird, because it's not my ancestral home.

[chequita guevara]

He was speaking in regards to America, but the same idea could be transported across the Atlantic. You're not white, you're British or French or German. Especially true in those countries, because you nationality is defined around historical lineage. An African or Black Carribean living in Britain can never really claim to be English or Scottish or even British. Her ancestry is from someplace else.

In America, since we are all from someplace else (with the oft ignored excetion of the Indians) so nationality isn't the same. Still, historically, only whites were considered to be Americans. Our history is still largely only concerned with white chievements. Black history is relegated to two parts of American history, the argument over slavery and the Civil Rights movement. Hispanics don't have a history in the US. Asians manage slightly better than that, with building the railroad and being sent to concetration camps in WWII. Indians only exist as someone to be fought or victimized by the US. In each case, whatever any of these groups did outside of their interaction with whites is ignored. More susinctly, the only relavence anyone from these groups has historically is in their interaction with whites. None of these groups exists in isolation from whites or has any history of importance that does not involve us.

Hence the need for Black history, and Hispanic history, and Asian-American history, and Indian studies, etc. That was just a starting point. The real task is to integrate them into the story of America, and abolish the need for seperate studies.

[Goingonit]

White identity is to some extent the default. However, the reason it is not as strong is that a major purpose of identifying with a group is to make you feel special. However, if you are identifying with the majority, you are saying "I'm special, just like everybody else"; it doesn't work as much. People cling to their differences.

[Kyle]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
In America, since we are all from someplace else (with the oft ignored excetion of the Indians)

Well, they too came from 'someplace else.' Really, the only difference between us and the "native" americans is that they've been here a really, really long time.

The real task is to integrate them into the story of America, and abolish the need for seperate studies.

Indeed

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Kyle
Well, they too came from 'someplace else.' Really, the only difference between us and the "native" americans is that they've been here a really, really long time.

Yeah, but no one else was there before them, so that makes them the original inhabitants, kinda like Icelanders and Polynesians.

[gopher]

The real task is to integrate them into the story of America, and abolish the need for seperate studies.

Amen, but methinks it will not happen for many generations


EDIT: Got that damn quote slash right

[GePap]

White?

And what exactly is white? Do you include the dirty Italians ? Those damn Pollacks? Those Drunken Irish? The sub-human Slavs? The Jews!!? White is a label created to divide Europeans from everybody else, and it is a totally false identity, since 'white' groups have different histories, languages, from each other.
That's why there are Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans, and all these other European hyphens out there, or why there is a German-American parade in NYC just for Germans, not all 'whites'.

As for 'hispanic', that is also crap. Which hispanic do you feel like gopher? Mexican, Argentine, Chilean, Brazilian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Guatemalan, Costa Rican, Panamanian, Honduran, nicaraguan?, so forth and so on. Back in Latin America, 'hispanic' exsist only as a way to separate out gringos and eurotrash, but most 'hispanics' hate each other as much as anyone else. Go to a Mexican neighborhood acting Puerto Rican and see how long you last.

Lesson of the day- the bigger the identity label, the more it is a work of politics and history, not real connections or feelings.

[JohnT]

I thought that "White Cultural Identity" was roughly synonomous with "Western Civilization." Or something like that.

[Bereta_Eder]

Re: White?

Originally posted by GePap
And what exactly is white? Do you include the dirty Italians ? Those damn Pollacks? Those Drunken Irish? The sub-human Slavs? The Jews!!? White is a label created to divide Europeans from everybody else, and it is a totally false identity, since 'white' groups have different histories, languages, from each other.

I agree the "white" identity is a made up, a hoax. never existed. I wonder who thought it up and why?

could it be the americans so they could differantiate themselves from the blacks without dividing themselves?

or was it the english to differantaite themsleves from the colonials?

who ever it was it did one hell of a service to modern racist ideology and it still goes on in those countries that had something to do with manufacturing that "white" identity.

[Hydey]

At least Australia had the
"White Australia Policy" to cling on to