#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
January 23, 2008 by clander
White people are pretty conflicted about their culture. On one hand, they are proud of the art, literature, and film produced by white culture. But at the same time, they are very ashamed of all the bad things in white culture: the KKK, colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow laws, feudalism, and the treatment of native americans.
One way they can make up for it is becoming marginally acquainted with foreign cultures. It is generally acceptable for a white person to learn a few terms in a language spoken primary by non-whites (such as Chinese, Tagalog or Portuguese). They can then use these phrases to order certain ‘more authentic’ dishes in restaurants.
White people can also take passing interest in film, politics, music or art from these countries. When they actually meet someone from that country, or at least who has parents from that country they cannot wait to engage you in all the details that they have learned.
“Have you heard the new Andy Lau CD? It’s awesome!”
It is imperative that you recognize how special and unique this white person is for knowing about your culture. Acceptable responses include “Wow, I’ve never seen a white person order chicken feet,” or “How did you find about that film? I didn’t think they had dubbed it yet.”
These responses will fill white people with that self satisfaction they need. Also, they consider a reminder that they are not racist, which also makes them feel terrific.
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this is an AWESOME web site
and I know what I am talking about as a half Puerto Rican half european american (HA! Spanish) lady living in Brooklyn which White People LOOOOOOOVE
Absolutely right.
I think the author should have taken into account that every single culture has participated in slavery, and most of them have had worse laws than the Jim Crow laws mentioned.
Interesting fact- black people in Africa took white people (slavs, hence the germanic word “slave”) as slaves far before the American thing happened. He also forgets to mention that a good deal of white people didn’t agree with slavery.
Sucks, but all cultures do it/have done it. In all reality, American slavery was less rough than slavery in other cultures.
White American culture is, in reality, just a mixture of all the different European groups that immigrated here and has evolved (or devolved, depending on what aspect we’re looking at) into a separate thing. Whoever says we don’t have a culture obviously doesn’t know the meaning of culture. Even a mixture of other cultures is a culture.
#77 has some HUGE Balls…
Maybe he should take a history lesson on the greatness and advances of non-white cultures which were borrowed, stolen, or plagiarized by the Greeks and then handed down to the Romans
Ever heard of the Egytian Mystery Schools?
What about Colonialism or Neo-colonialism>
See, When the suck the resources out of one place and hand it over to another …the place you sucked it out of usually ends up being fucked up.
Read John Perkins Confessions of an Economic Hitman…
Read anything written by Chomsky
Read Howard Zinn
These are your own white scholars telling you about the history you want to disregard as you hail your own greatness.
Read “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” by Max Weber.
A group of mostly white people at the beginning of our nations history developed a work ethic and drive that laid the foundation of capitalism in the modern world.
I think that is substantially important.
Bitches.
http://whiteprivilege.com/definition/
I am well educated and well compensated for it.
But, I not white. Although most of my friends are.
I sometimes get discriminated against from time to time but, I learned in college that you can’t share that with white people because they are incapable of understanding.
It’s a sub-conscience function of white privilege.
As a social experiment i’ve taken a few of some really good white friends to all minority functions. They couldn’t wait to leave. Of course they were being nice about it.
My point was….Welcome to my world…in the workplace…when we go the the places you like to frequent 90% of the time.
True. I hate being the only white at a large social gathering (feel paranoid that people are looking at me etc) , but i expect my husband to be the only brown guy for at least half the places I want to go. He handles it OK but I should appreciate him more and respect him more for this, it is a total double standard.
I am a black male.
I grew up around and know a lot of different types of white people.
This blog is silly in the sense of it only captures a small slice of well educated uppermiddle class white people.
This blog reminds me of the “Smug” episode of South Park.
When people were smelling their own farts and enjoying it.
(look it up on utube)
All white people aren’t like this…
Just the ones who live in my gentrified neighborhood after they priced out the Dominicans and blue collar white folks.
If everyone was as honest “in person” as they aparently enjoy to be in this posting, there would be no need for this blog. It is fascinating to me that people can post such racially disturbing CRAP (ie #75 and #77), but in all of my years of being a Black-Latino in this country, not ONCE has anyone expressed anything remotely as candid as some of these posts. The mask of anonymity seems to do wonders for some…
This blog is screamingly funny. My Latino half (Venezuelan father) is laughing its a** off, and so is my white half (Scots-Irish mother), albeit more self-consciously. This reminds me that the comment I used to hear most often when mentioning my Venezuelan background was, “Oh, Venezuelan women must be some of the most beautiful around, because your country always does so well in beauty contests.” (Yes, it’s a positive stereotype, so I guess I shouldn’t gripe, but the truth is that Venezuela, like Texas and a couple other US states, is obsessed with beauty contests and knows how to game the system.)
Another one I love is that a lot of white people who dislike the autocratic, press-muzzling, civil-liberties-destroying, you’re-with-me-or-you’re-against-me George Bush seem to revere the autocratic, press-muzzling, civil-liberties-destroying, you’re-with-me-or-you’re-against-me Hugo Chávez. Go figure. This phenomenon might somehow tie in with post #62, “Knowing what’s best for poor people.”
(Full disclosure: I’m an Obama guy, I’ve never voted for Bush and wouldn’t do so even if my life depended on it.)
So, because I’m Injun, I don’t make rugs, or jewlery. I do know medicine men, but no I don’t have them saved in my cell phone. My name is hard to pronounce, and no you can’t name your grandchildren with my name. And no I don’t dance for rain, or know any songs to heal your herpes outbreak. But thanks for asking. Oh, and no I don’t get thousands of dollars for just breathing.
Ha ha ha! That’s excellent. I’m not native American myself but I wish I were so I could tell people “no, you can’t name your grandchildren ‘Leanne”‘.
This blog is hilarious!
I hate it when white people think that just because I’m Korean, I speak other asian languages.
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