Something I've seen over the years (and re-surfacing lately) is this question of "why are white people the only ones not allowed to celebrate their culture?" This always enrages me, but I've had a hard time articulating why. My instinct was, well what do you mean by white culture? I don't personally feel like I'm part of some broad group of "white culture." Do they mean racist white culture? But now after listening to the videos on white culture and privilege, it is clear to me the reason that question is so absurd is that pretty much all mainstream culture is white culture. It is celebrated every day. People of color, native peoples, and other groups have to fight tooth and nail to have their cultures recognized, to lift their histories and experiences up above the noise of mainstream white culture. And white people, having to hear for a few days about someone else's culture, rise up in anger to say, "what about us?" This is a perfect example of white entitlement. I'm glad I now have a better way to articulate why that is f-ed up and will do so whenever I hear those kinds of questions.
I have a lot of pain and rage towards white culture, identity and most specifically entitlement. I am glad that we are talking about white privilege. I appreciated Mercedes Peters speaking to white privilege based on skin color not associated with race and discussed white passing privilege. I continuously hear from folx that they don’t understand and/or believe people who have darker skin and/or are Black because they themselves do not experience what others have. People forget that white privilege is not something that people do a background check on to see if you really are white, it is assumed by the color of your skin, and other attributions that people associate with ytness.
I am reminded of the video about the history of race in the USA. "White" and "Legal" used to refer to Anglo-Saxons only, but once more Europeans began migrating to the USA, the White norm began to include Slavs, Celts, Iberics, and Hebrews. White culture has been all mushed up together. Perhaps when identifying with a culture, white people must look a little further than what the early 20th century started to call “white,” and look further into the past to find more identity in the roots.
Maybe the trend of DNA testing will help. My mom found out that we are not Irish, but actually Scottish, so we’ve been doing more research about our family from Scotland. I feel more connected that way. I look “white,” but there’s more to it than the peach color of my skin. I’m not sure what that means about celebrating a holiday, but it helps me to feel connected to something bigger.
This one black actor clearly said in an interview, "I do not want black history month, would you want a white history month?" The white interviewer uttered an instant no. Then it occurred to me as never before, that we need to celebrate black and white history all year, together. Black history is not black, it is American history. Why only one month and all focused on blacks as if they should not need focus all year? Why do we need to make blacks feel that we make it special for one month, or like we have to put it on as an event in order to remember to celebrate it? There should be no difference other than every day celebrating humanity. He also said stop talking about race, stop calling each other white or black and start using each others names.
After talking mostly about what someone else said, here is my own thoughts. I believe we have all been influenced by media, history and it has shaped our attitudes. I think we all have to make a team effort to change the ways we think to be able to change what is happening. The way we think come out in unintentional hurt, but if we change our ways of thinking we will be more sensitive to how we treat others. If we buy into the hateful expressions we see or hear on social media, we will become that attitude. We have to make an intentional effort to make changes, first ourselves, then in our homes, then in the communities and then our world.
I'm Hispanic but I feel that I experience "White Privilege" just by being a light skinned female when compared to darker skinned Hispanics or even Hispanics with Spanish accents. I never thought about it but I've been told that I could "pass" as a White person because I might look like one. I could "pass" as a White person because I don't speak with a Spanish accent. It isn't anything that I'm proud of but without truly asking about me or who I am, people might assume that I'd take advantage of it but I'm quickly learning through this course that it isn't something to be proud of.