#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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I say this. Everybody wants to know what its like to be another nationality. If you don’t agree, fine. But Im black and Im interested in knowing what its like to be Puerto Rican or something. I think their beautiful people and love how they take pride in their coulture but Im still proud of mine. I don’t think there is anything wrong with being an expert at another coulture. This blog is true though and funny. Take a joke folks.
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).
Portuguese , non whites ??????
You would’nt be amerrucannnnzzz Whitout Vasco De Gama !
Christian lander the bitche !!
umm…. you ARE aware that Portuguese is the common langauge in Brazil right? last time I checked, most Brazillians are not white, although a large number do have some withe heritage.
OMG! A lot of these comments (about the blog) are so racist and judgemental, its sickening. All of these SWPL blogs aren’t meant to be taken offensively. Its all in fun. Ease up and grow up!!! If you’re white and none of that stuff pertained to you, then sit back and enjoy the humor, or shut up and keep it moving. No one wants to hear your whining. I mean, are we in preschool or what? He’s not saying that ALL white people are like the white people that he’s writing about in the blogs. But the majority that he’s (me too) come across and dealt with are like this. It is what it is. Get over it. You’re not going to like everything that everyone has to say. Its HIS opinion and he’s entitled to it. All your whining and making racist remarks to one another, isn’t going to change the blog. If anything, its just going to give him another blog to write. Hahaha!
“It is what it is. Get over it. ”
I will when you get over the fact that all black people love basketball, watermelon, and doing jail time; and all Mexicans love tacos, sleeping, and carpentry.
“Its HIS opinion and he’s entitled to it.”
Doesn’t that hold true for the people you are telling to “stop whining”. Oh wait, I forgot that opinions are only ok for one side!
[...] the allure of obscure Korean cultural references and the jealousy it will inspire in all your other white friends. Also note the appropriately placed Aux input after the [...]
OMG , that’s so trew! hahaha
Why are you always saying what white people like, and trying to represent how non whites feel about that? You don’t speak for white people, and you certainly don’t speak for non whites, since you aren’t one. Stop pretending to be black or whatever you imagine you are. Speak for yourself, stop trying to represent.
Someone’s got their panties in a bunch. It’s a joke. Why are you getting so mad.
This is simple, white people hve made their culture so transparent that other ethnicities can easily become and american, dutch etc… so to try to look a little less stupid for their complete lack of mystery they want to understand(whilst never succeeding) other cultures. it’s a reaction to criosity and jealousy. besides what is white culture? burgers, nfl, beer…
i think that no white person is an expert on any other culture, if anything they get everything wrong….the title should be interest outside of white culture…an honestly seeing white women in traditional indian clothes is sickening!
Forreal? Like, what if the white chick was marrying an Indian guy and they wanted to have an Indian wedding? Or what if she’s in an Indian dance group? Would you really vomit if she wore an Indian dress? Would you also be sickened by an Indian woman wearing something traditional from another country besides India?
White people = transparent = easy for others to become American? What? White = American?
How can a white person not be an expert on “any other culture”? White isn’t a culture.
White culture is just burgers, NFL, and beer?
Aren’t you forgetting about:
o the Republic
o Capitalism
o Individualism
o Humanism
And that’s just off the top of my head.
I don’t claim to be an expert on any culture but my own, but please, realize that there’s far more to white culture than a few hobbies that some white people happen to enjoy.
You are being hypocritical. You are in one post bashing people for trying to learn about other cultures AND for being ignorant of them.
WELL, if you don’t want white people to learn about other cultures, and you don’t want them to be ignorant of other cultures, what do you propose they do?
Smelling Indian Women is sickening.
Why are you offended by his or her comment? I guess you’re one of those white people that like to wear Indian clothing? That is the only reason why I think you’d try to retaliate w. a comment like that?
You wish you had rich culture and heritage.
You wish we didn’t win, but we did.
Before our culture was corrupted by Christianity, our way was that one could do whatever she wanted as long as she could do it herself and could kill whoever tried to stop her.
Obviously, Christianity didn’t change that, but we try to pretend that’s not how it is nowadays.
So have your rich culture and heritage, but I do say, it doesn’t seem to have done you much good.
@”Anglo-Saxon”
I’m guessing by your name and speech that you regard yourself as a Folkist Asatruar? If that is the case, I will let you know now that no Folkist, no racist, is a true Asatruar.
By blathering about your groundless beliefs, you do all of Asatru a grand disservice. Not once in any ancient heathen text are other non-white races condemned, and there is genetic grounding for any meaningful difference between the races either.
In truth, race is simply a social construct, made up by rich Europeans around the 16th century so that they could convince poor Europeans that they had more in common with rich Europeans than with poor Africans/Asians/Americans.
Unfortunately, the gambit worked, and we have to deal with the shit from it to this day.
But you, you would do well to learn what heathenism is all about before you go pretending to know what you’re talking about again.
Check this article for a more thorough rebuttal of your beliefs: http://www.uppsalaonline.com/uppsala/racism.htm
Oh, and if I misunderstood and you’re not Asatru but just some crazy white supremacist, you’re still doing the world a disservice, that article will do you some good anyway. Maybe someday you can pull your head out of your own ass.
*Line 7: sorry, meant NO genetic grounding
Santosh. This site is meant to be fun(and really is, I have recommended it to all i know), but since you feel the urge to comment on white culture, I’ll fill you in a bit. We come from all different areas of the world. My families migrated from Ireland(think St. Patrick’s Day) and Italy(The country shaped like a boot). I hope your still with me.(If not proceed to the oven, place temp at 450 and stick your head in it). White is our skin color. Not our culture. It seems that we have all been grouped together into this blob that people love to hate. I’m not rich, I don’t walk like I have a pole up my rear, and I don’t speak like I’m being graded on vocabulary. The reason we seem so transparent is that we have birthed a new culture, along with African Americans(weird how I’m scared to say black for fear of being labeled a racist.) Latin-Americans, Asian Americans and so on. It’s called an American Culture. We love our sports(baseball, football, etc..) because we grew up playing them everyday. That’s hardly restricted to “white” people though. Turn on an NBA game and count the countries represented on the court.(I’m assuming you can count past 10 here). Americans also invented such small advances in technology such as the automobile, box telephone, polio vaccine, the light bulb, the computer, a million uses for peanuts, the artificial heart,etc…….. We have an undying affection for movies that has spread all over the globe from India to Latin America. Your welcome. So next time you would like to speak on “white culture” realize that there is no such thing and that your just ignorant to the fact. We have an American Culture that has spurred some of the greatest(and worst achievements). I think that your little rant on people with white skin is true, but your tone is racist.(what is white culture? burgers, nfl, beer…) Although you may not have known this racism can be applied to all races. So, relax, turn on the game, have a beer, and enjoy the American culture constantly improving from combining of all of the great cultures in the world.
how are you combining cultures with american ideal? no way, last i checked the national sport of cambodia isnt nfl. look white europeans have their own culture, and its rooted in inferiority complexes and futility. you all were heathens before you became christ loving loonies. india has done everything but whites ty to devalue our accomplishments with the false aryan invasion theory and other bogus ideas. we are a great race responsible for many things indians are. among them is the language i’m writing and communicating to you in. white people are not internal beings, everything they observe they reflect in actions and thoughts. they are not designed to be internal beings(spiritual beings) because they are nothing more than barbarians. in hinduism/buddhism/sikhism no one other than indians can be part of those religions(if you reall study and ask you’ll find out) and in ancient india non indians were called mlecchas(barbarians) in essence any non indian. my history lesson can go on.
as far as white culture it IS simple. you see anyone can become a part of your culture, look who the leading doctors, it professionals, engineeers making all the money in america and europe are….indians and orientals…..
It just occurred to me, thinking further about your post, how wrong you are. First of all, regardless of which “white” culture you’re talking about, there are thousands of examples of great thinkers, writers, musicians, scientists and artists who have helped to shape the modern world.
Here are a few fairly important “white” folks from Europe and America: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Einstein, the Wright Brothers, Edward Muybridge, George Meliés & the Lumiere Brothers (motion pictures), Thomas Edison, Karl Benz (invented the automobile), Mark Twain, François Truffaut, The Beatles, William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Cezanne, Bach, Beethoven, Woody Allen, etc. The list continues. Try reading Proust before maintaining your hypothesis about a supposed lack of introspection.
There is an equally large number of people from “non-white” cultures that have accomplished similarly great things. It’s ridiculous to make generalities about someone’s potential based on where they were born and/or what color they are. Also, while doctors, IT pros and engineers are all very important, those are not the only three occupations worth pursuing, and occupations are only part of what makes up an individual.
Let me get this straight. It isn’t “Aryan” peoples, but rather Indians who are the absolute be-all, end-all incarnations of humanity.
White-skinned people cannot think about spiritual, sublime things, they can only superficially, externally react to things they encounter. They cannot introspect. Only Indians (and perhaps others from the Asian continent,) who are oftentimes capable of acquiring degrees in Engineering and Medicine, are somehow elevated beyond barbarism.
At last, the true master-race is revealed and should take it’s rightful place!
Jobs & Money = the most important aspects of people.
My point, in case anyone misses the sarcasm and agrees with me, as I have been horrified to notice in a couple of other instances on this site, is that the notion of a master-race is ridiculous, and the implication that skin color or heritage is likely to affect a person’s ability to seek God or the sublime is one of the more racist things I’ve recently heard. While I understand that the the blog itself is all in satirical fun, the untamed wilds of anonymous posting do not seem to restrain themselves to such nobility.
Hey Nick. I was reading until you got to black or African American. Honestly a lot of us prefer Black. I speak for myself though so nobody start attacking me. But, most Black people in America don’t really go by African American. Africans don’t even like us. So I say Im black. So you can say black. :0)
i think this argument is fair. white people always think they can just spew a few facts and impress non white people, when really they’re getting laughed at. i completely agree white people make their culture transparent and it’s because of this that many regard whites as open books. think of all those minorities who’ve beenin america or europe who know euopean language and customs without even trying that hard. whites are like the ball that rolls down the street an needs someone to pick it up, they have no way of being knowedgeable on outside sensations because they are no programmed to understand.
This is BS. I think the reason that people are able to integrate quickly into other cultures is that they are human, and humans adapt quickly. To say that someone with a different color of skin couldn’t adapt as quickly is erroneous and stupid. It also might be an aspect of certain cultures to be more welcoming of outsiders than other cultures, which doesn’t seem like a negative thing. I mean, people complain (reasonably) about all the horrible, racist things that “white people” have done, so condemning them for being welcoming, too, seems a bit thick.
you forgot NASCAR
Not Aryan,
He’s writing about white people in larger cities. NASCAR would be in a redneck book.
>>>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.
he forgot NASCAR
white culture your an idiot. Irish=white Polish=white. completely different cultures.
True. I had a class with a white girl who acted “black” and our teacher was black and because she didn’t have the typical “black” accent. She spoke proper English, and dressed very conservative, this girl wants to call her a sell out?? Why is she a sell out?? I don’t act like that either! Just what excatly do you think of us??
I know how that feels. I was called a sell out by a white person for the very same reason. I have even had white people look at me in shock to find out that I was Puerto Rican because A) I didn’t act very “Puerto Rican,” whatever that means and B) I don’t look very “Puerto Rican,” which I found ironic because I look closer to the original inhabitants. My least favorite request was “Say something spanish.” Which annoyed me to no end, because it made me feel as if I was a cheap parlor trick, trotted out for their amusement. Thank God that as I got older that question seems to be less and less common.
LOL! And I was just watching mtv the other day about Perto Ricans in New York. They call themselves Nuyericans. Interesting but you know how white people are. Once they see that, then they thing everybody is that way. And I hate it when white people always associate anything negative with being ghetto. Unless you are from the ghetto, don’t talk about what is ghetto please. Everytime I have a problem with something and white people are around, someone has to tell me not to get ghetto. I don’t care how loud I get or how much attitude I have. Just because Im black and mad about something doesn’t mean Im being ghetto!
what about the fact that everyone else in the world tries to get down with white culture??
Ever been to Brazil, they love all things american.
What about Asians, who assimilate to the point of silly?
Brasilian is not a race of people. We have all races in Brasil just like in America. I’m white from Brasil.
The “white culture” u talking about was probably evented by the non-whites in the US lol. Honestly though not to be disrespectful, but when I think of America I cant think of anything thats american culture. Everything is the culture of another country. CUlture is something that everyone in the country share. Food, traditions, blah blah.
Learn how to spell, and I promise to Stopusingwikipedia.
So based on your definition – everyone in Spain eats paella and has tapas every night and I guess all French people eat baguettes and cheese and celebrate Christmas? What about the Jewish, Muslim and Asian populations in those countries…are they not a part of the culture? Don’t they enhance the culture by just being who they are? _ I am not singling out any country as better or having more culture. We have not been a nation for thousands of years, but that doesn’t diminish our culture – all of them combined.
Culture: (5 a: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations
Here are a few positive pieces of Americana for you to mull over : New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Hawaii, Alaska, Rock and Roll, country music, rap, rhythm and blues, blues, go-go, rock-a-billy, latch key kids, tail-gaiting before/during/after football games, FOOTBALL (not soccer or rugby), drive thru’s, Philadelphia Cheese steaks, Southern Fried Chicken (or Steak ;o) ), birth of flight, jazzercise, Lake Tahoe, Grand Canyon, Appalachian Mountains, Great Lakes, The Mississippi River, Colorado Rockies, New England accents, Southern lilts with Ma’am and thank you sprinkled throughout, The Midwestern corn-fed R and a nasal twang, West Coast easy and inviting speech, love of baseball and the desired destination for so many who desire more for their families and more opportunity.
People from all over the globe are very anxious to become citizens and or residents of this country with limited culture. Why is that?
Culture: (5 a: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group ; also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time c: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization d: the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic…
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture
I like this comment. Thanks
Rap, jazz… American culture. Dick Cheney shooting a colleague in the face while hunting… American culture.
cost of 12 ga. Mossberg = 429.95
cost of 1 box of birdshot = 14.95
having the guy you shot in the face apologize to you for getting in your way = priceless.
so true. and white people also like to think or at least brag about appreciating your own culture more than you do. over here, in Peru (that’s in south america, white people), it’s hilarious to look at gringos buying all sorts of crap at very high prices just because they “look” typical and ethnic. like this american tourist that bought a “ritual inca marijuana pipe, blessed by shamans and blessed with the spirit of the lion”. of course, it was all bullshit, but the american guy must have felt on top of his whiteness with his pipe.
Ya. You’re saying that it’s annoying how they brag about knowing everything about Peru, but then suggesting it would annoy you if they can’t figure out what continent it’s on? Which is it? Would you rather have them take interest to and explore Peru, or be completely oblivious to its existence? Does everything annoy you? And where do all these “white people” you are referring to come from? As if there aren’t any white people in South America. I forgot, everybody from the US and Canada is white, and everybody from every other country isn’t.
I get that the gist of this post (and blog) is funny and light-hearted but it’s what shows up in the comments that is really distasteful and stupid.
OHMYGOD you’re so right about this.
And this NEVER EVER happens in America. I have never seen a foreign person buying some ridiculous thing in New York because it’s tipical american stuff.
Oh, wait, yes I have.
Maybe you should know what you’re talking about a little bit before you start bashing left and right.
You referance white Americas apparent lack of geographic proficiency.. What do you base your claim on?? I’ve heard stereotypes about whites that are accurate, but oddly I’ve never heard that one. There seems to be one of two possibilities, either I’m under a misaprehension, or you’re a complete Stroke who has a resentment towards white people but cant think of a decent objection to them..
You say “on top of his whiteness” because he bought a shity souvenir?? Again you’re proving to be a rather ignorant Latino, which I’m not all that surpised to discover.
We go to other countries to have experiences, to learn about other cultures. We by souvenirs for two reasons 1) As nothing more than a trivial “symbol” to remind us of our trip( you think we believe your primitive myths?? ha! 2) To support the economy of the country we are visiting. Most white Americans have engrained in our minds, a compassion for countries less prosporous than our own. Be thankfull that we travel.. There are many Latin countries who’s economy really chiefly on Western (White) Tourists. Educate yourself:)
wow, that was racist.
“you think we believe your primitive myths??”
You mean the virgin birth? I think so.
Umm….THe majority of brazil is not white most brazilians are brown or black. How about going there instead of using wikipedia
You obviously never been there either…If you have, you never went to Santa Catarina, Porto Alegre,or any where in the South. We have places that speak German before they learn Portuguese. Ignorante!
OH excuuuuuuuuuuse me ….so someone from southern brazil who learned a few words in broken german from some half breed parent is superior to someone who learned brazilian portuguese from the get go. That makes a lot of sense. Brazilians can be the most idiotic people on this earth. i’ve yet to meet one who doesn’t claim to be “italian/german” or Portuguese/Swiss or some other even more stupid combination when they’re clearly part black and or native latino. Just to let you brazilians know, we Americans are all laughing at you. Especially the ones with names like Washington, Wardinton (yes i met one with this name) Wilson, Anderson, etc., all with typical brazilian last names. Ludicrious. A bunch of sorrier wannabes i have never met. Even Puerto Ricans are much prouder of their heritage, not only do they speak proper Spanish but they carry solid Spanish names like Jose, Carlos etc., I’m Italian btw and I HATE when one of these guys goes around lying to people that he’s Italian. I have to keep myself from strangling the pathetic fucker.
Um Marcelo..this is a blatant lie. No one speaks german before they speak portuguese in brazil. And yes even the german descendend brazilians have some negro blood.
Maybe because we can’t afford to take a year off?
spent all ur money on fried chicken??
Well played.
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