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So, whats the deal with white people? <Culture Association>
An-D
EnthusiastAshevilleRegistered User regular
EnthusiastAshevilleRegistered User regular
Hopefully I'm not the only one that has noticed/experienced this...but here it is.
Basic Question Of The Thread
Do you think white people are more prone to cultural appropriation?
While there are always exceptions to the rule, I have found that in this age of computers and digital watches, that white people (in the United States at least, not too up-to-date on white-people culture in other countries) seem to try to associate themselves more often with other cultures, than people of other races.
Quick Examples:
- "Wiggers"
- "Wapanese"
- Those people with red hair so they immediately think they're allowed to continuously drink to excess because their 1/100 Irish and its in their blood.
- Or even people that are a quarter-plus Native-American or European (or some other country) and they obsess over that bit of blood and associate 100% of themselves with that aspect.
- Et Cetera
I guess, basically, I want to figure out if this is something other people have noticed as well and if so...why? I'm all about respecting and learning about other cultures, but when you go into the "deep end" as it were and ignore the culture of the country you were born in/live in now, that kind of bothers me....and generally, I've experienced white people doing this a lot more than other races. Is it just some kind of rebellion-thing? Lack of culture in the area?
Hopefully I worded this in a generally understandable way (first D&D topic :winky:)...I found it a bit difficult to put into intelligent words, but there it is.
Basic Question Of The Thread
Do you think white people are more prone to cultural appropriation?
While there are always exceptions to the rule, I have found that in this age of computers and digital watches, that white people (in the United States at least, not too up-to-date on white-people culture in other countries) seem to try to associate themselves more often with other cultures, than people of other races.
Quick Examples:
- "Wiggers"
- "Wapanese"
- Those people with red hair so they immediately think they're allowed to continuously drink to excess because their 1/100 Irish and its in their blood.
- Or even people that are a quarter-plus Native-American or European (or some other country) and they obsess over that bit of blood and associate 100% of themselves with that aspect.
- Et Cetera
I guess, basically, I want to figure out if this is something other people have noticed as well and if so...why? I'm all about respecting and learning about other cultures, but when you go into the "deep end" as it were and ignore the culture of the country you were born in/live in now, that kind of bothers me....and generally, I've experienced white people doing this a lot more than other races. Is it just some kind of rebellion-thing? Lack of culture in the area?
Hopefully I worded this in a generally understandable way (first D&D topic :winky:)...I found it a bit difficult to put into intelligent words, but there it is.
An-D on
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But whatever, I'll respond. Do you have any sources for your claim? You're just saying "well, from my experience..." and for all we know there could just be a high amount of white people doing that in your area.
Not to mention, I know a fair amount of black people that act white, as well as asians that act white, and blacks that are obsessed with Japanese culture...
See what I did there?
What a glib generalisation.
I think the motivating factor here in the US is that we have comparatively larger areas with a single culture. Since people don't regularly interact with other cultures (you might find the same culture for a thousand kilometers around), they tend to mistake their own culture as a lack of culture. Americans often fall into the trap of seeing themselves as without a culture of their own rather than seeing themselves as part of an American culture.
In Europe, a German can't help but notice that he is a German. He sees frequently the differences between his culture and that of, say, France, a hundred kilometers away. That's less true in America. Here American culture is sort of the baseline, and it tends to fade into imperceptibility if you don't regularly encounter other cultures.
The red hair/Irish thing... please, other than anecdotal evidence, offer me some proof. The next point... so what, I should evenly divide (or proportion) my time between two (or more) cultures as to please you/society?
I should probably ban fireguy from this topic, so I don't have to read the resulting freakout.
Fine.
It's a struggle to be different.
Then again, I don't really care about my family's past that much. I know I'm English for at least the past five generations on both sides of the family and that we've been working class through and through till really my parents' generation. Otherwise, not really something I'm going to waste time and money on.
I strain moisture from the atmosphere using millions of tiny nanotubes on the outside of my carapace.
Still not seeing it. There are a huge variety of differences between various white groups. A Brit is likely going to have less in common with a white american then a black american is. Maybe it's a more American centric occurence with the fact that you have had so much turbulence in the countries make up in the last few hundred years. Still pretty dubious of that though, you anything to support your assertion?
Just my cynicism.
They're pretty weird over here, too. "I'm 10% Scottish, 15% German, 25% Irish, and 50% Swedish." I never saw people talk much about where their great, great, great grandparents came from before coming here.
It is something people take pride in.
It's not wrong.
Just pathetic.
You are not your parents or your grandparents.
Like I said, struggle for identity.
The trouble with trying to adopt another culture is that unless you actually move and actively live in the midst of that other culture, you can't really wholly identify with it. You get a warped idea of 'tradition' and stereotypical views of what that culture is about.
Its a nation populated by successive waves of immigration from an extremely wide variety of countries and cultures. I hardly find it surprising that people talk about where their ancestry is from.
When I was in North Carolina in the suburban sprawl that is the research triangle, I was surrounded bu kids from every state, randomly uprooted and thrown into a new high school. Not only was my campus only about 2 maybe 3 years old when I got to it, but a majority of the kids in my age group had maybe moved in at about the end of middle school.
I wouldn't say that the white kids were cultureless, or rampantly clinging to other cultures because I think that alot of the pretty influential/popular cultures that area are inherently white (Preppy/sports, Skaters, Indie rock and Garage bands). But I think that alot of Identity crisis occurs. Perhaps kids that don't identify one of those social cultures in suburbia rationalize and claim their independence from the suburbs by clinging to something outside of it.
You kidding? Most people probably couldn't tell you what state their great grandparents were born in, let alone where their ancestors came from.
My best guess is I'm 45% German, 40% English, 10% Irish, and 5% Other. The only reason I even know that is my dad was into geneology for a while. I've never given a shit.
As for those examples, St. Pat is a day when everyone pretends to be Irish, even or especially if you have no Irish ancestry. And I've never met an American, or anyone, named "the III". Even Jrs are rare without maybe looking back a generation or two.
Its more or less the same in Canada, though theres a much larger French influence of course. And while there are other countries that have experienced immigration from many places, how many of those countries have the vast majority of their population descended from immigrants in the last, say, 100 years?
People here identify themselves by their heritages to differentiate themselves from other Americans and to have something to take pride in. There's nothing wrong with that.
If you don't look at a culture as "white," but as the subcategory then you see, well, more culture.
Thats pretty much what I'm trying to talk about. Its great to have some curiosity and pride about where you came from, but theres a point where it just becomes...well, for no better word really, foolish. I was born in the United States, so I associate myself with that...pretty much without question. Its kind of weird that that just doesn't come naturally to others (to me anyway).
Why?
Why can't you simply be your own person? Why do you have to be "American" or "Turkish" or "Latin"?
Why do people feel such a strong urge to identify themselves with their nationality? Why are you feeling pride with that nationality? Even if your ancestors did great things, they were different people; they were not you. The fact that you carry some of their genes does not entitle you to any pride, because having someone's genes doesn't make you that person.
People don't exist in fucking vacuums.
Elaborate.
I'll certainly try:
People have identities. These come from a lot of different things. You aren't your parents or your grandparents, but they lived so that you could. Lots of your ancestors gave up a lot to continue their family line (maybe), your country also doesn't exist without the people in it. Your country is made up of the people in it.
You kind of owe the things that created you to do good by them. Your family, your friends, and yeah, your country.
False dichotomy. Not feeling family or national pride does not equate to not loving your family or nation or not recognizing their existence.
Some of us enjoy a sense of community. I think this is the big one, really. Humans are not solitary creatures.
Yeah. I feel like the only rational reason for feeling pride is personal accomplishments.
People do have a sense of identity that is related to family and nation, but I don't see how pride factors into that.
you aren't recognizing things which defined their existence.
I mean the whole thing is basically about claiming a piece of the glory on the basis of association.