I think thousands of irreverent and crude comedians have made the observation that everyone is encouraged to embrace and be proud of their ethnicity – except white people.
I once had a college professor say that white people have no ethnicity. I still don’t know how she could have arrived at this erroneous conclusion. She said we have no culture. To her credit, when someone says “ethnic” as an adjective, you can almost be certain they are not talking about anything culturally or ethnically associated with white people. It is a term that means “anyone but white people.” I really don’t know why the connotation of this word is so strikingly different from the denotation. If you don’t know what the actual definition of “ethnicity” is, you missed out on an earlier article. Go check it out.
So we’re left with the idea of embracing your ethnicity: what does it mean, who can, who can’t, and why. I think “embracing your ethnicity” means to understand your roots, your ancestors, what they believed, what you receive from them, what you owe to them, and the larger sphere of people and faces to whom you belong. Basically, it’s a history lesson you grow to love and want more of, a lesson that tells you who you are in many aspects.
I think anyone can embrace their ethnicity and I think it is appropriate and even vital for people to do this. I’ve noticed white people refer solely to it as “geneology” and maybe that’s the more politically correct term. It’s a more subdued celebration; an academic embrace. Whites are bound tightly to this and nothing more; they cannot speak out in class about how proud of their ancestors they are or about how great they think the literature of their people is or any of that – at least not in the pluralistic sense. Any one ancestor, sure. Say if you’re kin to Sam Houston or William Faulkner then its okay. Just not as an ethnicity, you see. I don’t really agree with this limitation – it’s a double standard – but I see why our society keeps to it. A few supremacists have ruined it for everyone. Thanks guys.
I’ve noticed a few places into which it’s safer to tread with ethnic pride for white people. One is “I’m Irish.” Everyone loves an Irish lad or lass – especially in March. Likewise, being a Scot is safe too. I think one could be proud of a Viking heritage, quite possibly. And what a bloody group, eh? Being Spanish might work. Celtic could mean Irish, Scottish or Spanish (as Celts settled there and in other parts of Europe) so Celt ethnicity is in vogue. Because of their darker complexion, I don’t think people mind if you’re Italian and proud of your ethnicity. But God forbid you be proud to be ethnically French, German, British, or any of those other countries that are ethnically frowned upon. (Or lacking ethnicity, as my college professor would say.) As a blanket statement, no white person can simply say, “I’m proud of my ethnicity. I’m proud of my heritage in western civilization,” and be viewed on the same level as a person claiming pride in a different ethnicity.