#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 am a loser with too many names and too much time. i think the reason why i’m skrewd up is cuz my dad rapes me… Blak pwr
I have 2 daddys and the both rape me in my closet. that why i is a racist asshole yo.
Remembah my name: Micheal D. Also known as ADMikey, also known as Michael.
I’m the asswipe who puts ‘+’ symbols at the end of my comments….my autism makes me do dat shit…
This really is rubbish. You pretend to speak for all white people, but who actually mean is white Americans.
Thats the point
Waaay to suck the funny out of this site.
I bet #129 will be “claiming to be part-Indian” when he goes to the nearest tribal HQ (assuming they got a casino, smoke shop or an illegitimate business operation), said he’s Cherokee from the island of Neverland, and dresses in Afro-centric leotards to identify his garb one of the shamans. The tribe will laugh their butts off and assume he’s a white guy in mid-life crisis searching for his identity. He will give out facts like “Did youy know the Cherokee are more numerous than Jews, Irish and the Chinese”. and “the Navajos live in teepees out in Salamanca or Foxwoods”.+
I actually don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. My autism messes me up like that.+
Er… Portuguese? Really? Are you sure?
I forgot to mention the millions of Portuguese speakers in former Portuguese colonies in Africa (ie Angola)
The majority of Portuguese speakers or nonwhite or mulatto and from Brazil
Mulattos and black people make about 50% of the Brazilian population. There are also other minorities, such as indigenous or Asian people, but they are very few. Approximately 47% of the population is what you could call white. Often they are multi-ethnical, though.
Although there are other small non-European countries or regions, like Macau, that do speak Portuguese, there’s also Portugal, which is also, obviously, the native land of Portuguese, so I don’t think it’s much accurate to say Portuguese is a non-white language.
Just a comment.
*the majority ARE nonwhite* sorry for the typo
I can’t stand it when (white) people say ‘soba noodles’. That is so redundant!
White people steal cultures all the time, from converting in Eastern religion to Native American tribal identity cards. What’s next? The next black-American current music fad. Sadly, I don’t know what is the new black-American music fad. What was it again? I realize how much WHITE I AM!+
Steal cultures huh? Well I have a question for you. What makes you white? I am considered white, however, I am German, Dutch, Irish, Indian, And Polish. So you say that I steal cultures, while I have many cultures making up my pedigree.
I’m sorry but.. erm .. German, Dutch, Irish and Polish … Aren’t they all white??!?!?!!
reminder: Portuguese was originally spoken by people from Portugal.. And they are also .. White.
For one thing: I have multiple ethnic origins/backgrounds, such as French, Flemish-Dutch, English, Scottish, Ulster Scot or Scotch-Irish, German-Bavarian, Cherokee, Osage, Leni Lenape and Shawnee Indian. I could probably have Jewish from what I was told on my French dad’s side and hadn’t found Black American in my mom’s side from my curiousity. What makes a person “white” has more to do with color than the actual ethnocultural identity, a serious problem in America is how “white” are you or how much you have to be considered “white”. Honestly, it never mattered much to me on what color a person is, it’s what inside that counts. +
I’m in the same boat. I’m also English, Scotish, Irish, German, Dutch, Austrian, Swedish, Polish, Hungarian, Swiss, and Canadian if you want to count that too as my Grandpa emigrated from Canada. When you are that mixed; what do you do? If I celebrate any of those cultures people either laugh at me because I’m very little of each or they think I’m stealing their culture.
That’s an accusation by minorities in America to go around saying white people steal cultures. Rock and roll music by Elvis Presley in the 1950′s made not only white Americans nervous at first, but African Americans studied the basis of Elvis’ musicology to find he stole Black music without asking the Black community. He’s also accused of taking bits of so-called ethnic pop music of the 1950s by Jewish, Italian and Chicano (Mexican American) artists, as if he travels into the Lower East Side NY City, West side Philly or South L.A to find what works to sell his “white-washed americanized corporate” music. Blame the evil corporations, not Elvis. +
Gee in accusation huh, so explain Buddist beads , kabbala, R&B, practically most Hip Hop culture pioneered by blacks ,Japanese and Chinese symbol tattoos, slang, metro-sexual.. Only to name a few … I guess this is all just imagined .
Most of the regional Hispanic culture in Cal. was stolen and morphed into marketable commodities, any rich white guy in the L.A. area live in a spanish-style architectural home on a street named for something in the Spanish language?
How about them Anglos in Mission Viejo? The town north of San Juan Capristrano was built in the 1960s known for a colonial Spanish charm. Then there’s Rancho California in the Inland empire and the Spanish days Fiesta de Santa Barbara. I never knew Anglos in Cal. loved Hispanic culture.
The Kabbala accusation is pretty unfair since white people borrowing from it has been going on since the middle ages and christian kabbala has been around since the rennaissance.
So white people want to learn “non-white languages” like Portuguese as you have stated, because they don’t carry the “bad things” the white culture has, yet who the fuck started slavery the Portuguese you dumb knob
[...] can’t have any valuable traditions in your culture. SWPLs will watch you and steal them. You can’t do anything without some ignorant-ass SWPLs fucking it [...]
well, brucifer, this particular non-white person would prefer it (and does prefer it) when whites don’t even try (because then they descent into stereotypes) and thus don’t know about other cultures, but are also not racist. if making an attempt means making a stupid/annoying/racist/stereotypical attempt (which it most often does, in my experience), then i’d rather you not even try. just be white. and i’ll just be indian. and we can get along. and i don’t have to listen to your stereotyped attempt of knowing my culture.
Do you have any idea why stereotypes exist? Think of it this way honey, it’s when something is done over and over and over and over again, so it becomes expected, and normal. So I suggest that your cultures stop doing the same shit if you don’t want to be expected to, and imitated as acting in such a fashion.
Stereotypes exist, generally, because they are portrayed in the media and taught at home. Most people gain their knowledge of minority cultures (well, of most things, actually) by watching television and listening to anecdotes from people who don’t know any more about a subject than they do.
Those “information sponges” buy into what they hear and believe it, rather than take the time to really learn the truth about other cultures. It’s easier. It would take time and effort to really educate oneself. It is much easier to spew generalizations as though they were facts.
Jessie B, are your “stereotypes” based on seeing the same actions repeated over and over by people you actually know who belong to a certain culture? Or, are they based on media portrayals and chatter you’ve picked up from others? Do you even really know (and, I mean really know) people of other cultures well enough to understand things about that culture?
Tee, I do not stereotype anyone. I was just making a point as to why they exist. I have many friends, and I mean friends, that are from all different cultures and religions. I understand different cultures because I am an open minded person. I don’t intentionally learn different cultures, I mean that is not a life goal or anything, but I have many friends from all walks of life and I care for them so I pay attention to the cultural aspects of their life. I never assume anything I have heard in the media to be true. I believe in making my own opinion of people from experiences I shared with them, not what others have experienced.
What pisses me off is all the people who accuse whites of stereotyping cultures, then they stereotype whites on BET and other channels and shows all the time. I understand that stereotypes exist because of reoccurring actions, however, you can’t bitch about stereotypes being applied to your culture and them stereotype a different culture. That is a little hypocritical don’t you think?
Let’s see how many Native American tribes are out there? Hhhmmm…Apache, Arapahoe, Blackfoot, Cahuilla, Couer d’Alene, Chemeheuvi, Cheyenne, Comanche, Hopi, Kiowa, Lipan, Lummi, Modoc, Nez Perce, Paiute, Salish, Spokane, Ute, Yuman, Zuni, too many to name here. 564 federally recognized tribes have members in all 50 US states and territories, plus laskan Natives, Canadian Indians (Metis), and Latin American Indians (or mestizos). +
ALL cultures are artificial social inventions. Any culture on earth has swiped ideas from others, have had their own ideas swiped, mutated, amplified, diminished, warped and hopefully … evolved. Whenever someone start pissing and moaning about their supposed “traditional” culture being “lost” I want to ask them, at what time in history then, did their culture become somehow stuck in cement? That said, it is rather disingenuous to complain about white folks knowing little about other cultures, then turning around and complaining when they make an attempt … even if it is merely to get a more “authentic” “ethnic” meal.
Mexicans think of taco bell the same way the French dislike McDonalds. Taco bell is fast food, but faux-Mexican cuisine and white people are more comfortable without seeing any Mexican things (except hiring “Mexicans” illegally to work in the back kitchen is OK). However, the old stereotypes of Mexicans in sombreros riding donkeys armed with pistols asking to “breeng mi yeur freetoo cheeps, yoo greengoh” may not be present, but in the minds of white people like the blogger, it’s not authentic but accurate in his mind. +
The French don’t dislike McDonald’s.
True, to eat there and come back complaining about how its effect on French cuisine is unflavorful. Jean Marie Le Pen and other French nationalists started the American cultural invasion of France nonsense. They should go back to anti-immigration/xenophobic rhetoric to made monsieur Le Pen an infamous controversial man throughout Europe. +
lol
double LOL. My Dad is one of the French people chose to live in America. The thing is McDonald’s was first welcomed in the country in the 1960s or 70s, to only discover our way of eating isn’t like theirs (obviously). 4 small meals per day, one hour eating time and the precise culinary style (slow food) is what the French are known to eat quite well. +
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