It’s weird to have pride in race if you experience no adversity because of it. Since white people don’t face the same kind of challenges white pride just feels like “I’m proud of my privilege”, whereas with black pride it’s more “I’m proud of who I am despite the challenges I face because of it”. Same goes for other things like LGBT pride, it’s celebrating who they are even if it cause them a lot of hardship.
Couldn’t it be sort of an affiliation with the full history of the White Man, for better or for worse? I don’t take pride in my skin color, but it does represent a fascinating time in human history and early human migration. This is purely academic of course, no actual person who says they are “proud of being white” would ever say that or likely even be aware of the history and the science, but it could be.
The problem lies in the definition of “pride”. You can be proud of who you are without comparing yourself to others. You can be proud of who you are without thinking less of others, or treat them as inferiors. In fact I’d say it’s mandatory but not everyone gets that.
Not sure where I’m going with this, not arguing for or against per se, just exploring the concept because it’s complex, interesting, and sadly ever so topical.
Anyway “white” is too broad an identifier to mean anything, unlike groups which have had their cultures systematically oppressed. There’s already widely accepted celebrations of “Irish pride”, “Italian pride”, “Polish pride”, etc. Not a lot of specifically “English pride” celebrations because the British empire already made that the default for centuries.
This “pride” thing is specifically meant to mean “we survived, and continue to survive.” Anyone advocating for “white pride” doesn’t even understand what they’re talking about. There is no “white identity” to be protected because it has never been under threat of annihilation. It’s like stationing a battalion of troops around a public park in a suburb because you’re convinced that The Enemy wants to take it over. Nobody’s coming for your playground equipment.
It’s weird to have pride in race if you experience no adversity because of it. Since white people don’t face the same kind of challenges white pride just feels like “I’m proud of my privilege”, whereas with black pride it’s more “I’m proud of who I am despite the challenges I face because of it”. Same goes for other things like LGBT pride, it’s celebrating who they are even if it cause them a lot of hardship.
Couldn’t it be sort of an affiliation with the full history of the White Man, for better or for worse? I don’t take pride in my skin color, but it does represent a fascinating time in human history and early human migration. This is purely academic of course, no actual person who says they are “proud of being white” would ever say that or likely even be aware of the history and the science, but it could be.
The problem lies in the definition of “pride”. You can be proud of who you are without comparing yourself to others. You can be proud of who you are without thinking less of others, or treat them as inferiors. In fact I’d say it’s mandatory but not everyone gets that.
Not sure where I’m going with this, not arguing for or against per se, just exploring the concept because it’s complex, interesting, and sadly ever so topical.
Agreed
Anyway “white” is too broad an identifier to mean anything, unlike groups which have had their cultures systematically oppressed. There’s already widely accepted celebrations of “Irish pride”, “Italian pride”, “Polish pride”, etc. Not a lot of specifically “English pride” celebrations because the British empire already made that the default for centuries.
This “pride” thing is specifically meant to mean “we survived, and continue to survive.” Anyone advocating for “white pride” doesn’t even understand what they’re talking about. There is no “white identity” to be protected because it has never been under threat of annihilation. It’s like stationing a battalion of troops around a public park in a suburb because you’re convinced that The Enemy wants to take it over. Nobody’s coming for your playground equipment.
If you look close enough at the definition of any word, it kind of breaks apart.