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That said, I also get frustrated when other light-skinned people give those of us who actually have Indian ancestry- Cherokee in particular- a bad name by prancing around in Indian costumes or selling some bright pink dreamcatcher they made over the weekend while watching Oprah. As a “white” Indian, It’s not easy having to challenge both white people’s and full-bloods’ preconceived notions of what it means to be Cherokee. But guess what? Being Indian isn’t easy. Never was and probably never will be. But that doesn’t mean I suddenly “opt out” when it’s uncomfortable. I don’t disregard my European ancestry. But I feel most connected to my Tsalagi roots and want to help preserve the culture and language. Perhaps if the French culture and language were being equally threatened I’d put just as much effort into preserving it.

Anyway, all that is sort of off-topic. Like someone mentioned above, the Japanese, for example, would interpret things differently. In fact, a couple of Japanese friends of mine actually presented me with a yukata for my birthday, which they expect me to wear next summer. So… should I not wear it for fear of offending non-Japanese strangers who might get offended? If my wearing Japanese clothing was considered offensive to the Japanese, I’d be less inclined to wear it, of course. But another point is that the historical relationship between white Americans and Japanese is very different from the one between white Americans and Native Americans. So it might not be the best comparison.

I think it’s healthy to appreciate the culture of other people, but part of showing respect to another culture is to respect them the way the want to be respected. If my Japanese friends feel respected when I dress up in a yukata, then by golly, let’s have some fun and take lots of pictures. But maybe my American Indian friends don’t interpret me wearing a fake headdress as a sign of respect. Maybe it’s insulting. So why not do a little research and find out how they’d like to be respected? I think that’s part of all of our responsibiilty when we interact with people from other cultures.

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I was with the Japanese students and we were waiting for the exchange students to show up. OMG when those girls walked up in their yukata and slippers you would not have believed the hooting and hollering from our (usually quite shy) students. They were so excited that the foreigners had done that. The cameras were out in full force and everyone wanted a photo with them.

My students were saying how honoured they felt that these foreign people would go to the length of making such a gesture. They had no question that the girls had done it as a means to show respect to their host culture. (Turned a lot of boys’ heads too, might I add! But that’s another story.). The event also seemed to endear the students to each other as the conversation and the evening seemed to flow happily into the wee hours.

I think, as someone said earlier, it’s all in your motivation. Showing a genuine interest and respect in a culture can come out in these sorts of actions as long as you heart is in the right place.

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I am pretty sure I know what it means to be white, you know, being white and all, and though I don’t find it cause to celebrate and be proud (because I had nothing to do with it – it’s not like an accomplishment or talent or something) it isn’t something to be ashamed of either. It just is what it is. Am I proud that my eyes are hazel? What on earth does that even mean?

Where are you getting this persecution? You have a disturbingly heightened sense of imagined guilt. What you seem to be proud of is white skin, perhaps because of the varied ancestry or a lack of affinity for one culture or another. I don’t know. Rather than embracing your own multi-cultural heritage, you homogenize it to a color which has no universal traditions or culture per se. My own Euro-mutt ancestry is something I find interesting. It survives in a few family dishes, some distant cousins in Europe, and family names. I itemize it out to foreigners when I travel and they find it fascinating and so “American.”

I doubt (but admittedly don’t know) that you have lived a life of being told you are not good enough because you are white. Other than perhaps on a basketball court or dance floor. Historically, many of other shades have been told such, openly, frequently, and with acceptance of society (OK, even white people were told — not as whites but as Poles, Irish, etc.). But one philosophy that some internalized in the African-American community is that no one can shame you for who or what you are. That’s something you accept upon yourself. Black pride wasn’t about supremacy, it was about rising up from second-class to say they deserved the good seats in the bus as much as the next guy. You rarely hear it anymore (not like back in the day) and it isn’t a rallying cry of Hey you white guys suck, it’s more like “let’s lift ourselves up.”

Perhaps what makes your white pride sound racist to some is that claimed alliance with color without any other cultural unifier. It is the same rhetoric we associate with white supremacists. What’s their shared culture exactly? Not saying you are of that ilk by any means! Just saying the associations of that sort of pride bring that sort of thing to mind. Like a person from India sporting the swastika is likely not going to strike people first as a guy making a religious cultural statement. (By the way, the swastika is illegal in Germany these days, UNLESS you mean to use it as that previous incarnation/cultural symbol. So even there they make a distinction between two seemingly identical objects, just like I suppose there is a distinction between white pride and white supremacy.) And anyway, since most people of the world wrongly believe that white=rich and powerful, it can also just sound like rubbing people’s noses in it. Just sayin’.

By the way, no matter how white your skin is, if the percentage of heritage is right (one-sixteenth is it?), the government will give you the benefit of Native American ancestry.

I say we go find these guys who are shaming you for your skin color and lecture them until they snore. I just went to Germanfest in Milwaukee. Irish Fest is coming up. Festa Italiana was two weeks ago. Polish Fest. Greek Fest. No one protested. On the contrary, everyone attended and celebrated right along with the Irish German Italian Americans. Then there’ll be African Fest, Native American, an Asian festival (talk about vague generalization), Arabfest… it goes all summer around here and all are well attended. Half the festivals are for white folk, but even they all distinguish themselves from each other. Why? (That’s a real question for discussion.)

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You should at least be ashamed of your atrocious spelling and grammar. Worry more about losing your own language than the “heritage” of having white skin. That was horrible.

Regarding the absurdity of your multicultural paranoia: the fact that you don’t refer to your culture as Irish, Italian, German, Polish, French or any of the myriad European cultures shows you have no European culture and little understanding of culture to begin with. You can blame that on other cultures that don’t originate in that region or are non-white if you like, but it sounds like sour grapes noting their efforts to preserve theirs and suggests your only “culture” is the color of your skin (which will preserve itself barring severe sunburn or tanning beds – be careful!). Why doesn’t your culture stand up within the multi-cultural system? Because it no longer really exists. Why else would you have to “research” it? Reading up on where I came from and eating a few dishes or incorporating a few odd things into a Christmas celebration is good but it is a whole lot different from attending the same pow-wow my father, my grandfather, and his ancestors did. In that case it was not studied, it’s just how you grew up. And the Hopi woman, as cynical as she may be, is at least understandably annoyed that college boy read a chapter in his Lonely Planet guide and now is “in touch” with the spirits of the ancients.

The only reason we all share “white” culture is because we’ve become homogenized like white milk, and a 3rd generation Asian American or Hispanic American from the same socio-economic group is about as likely to be as culturally white as you are once they’re diluted into the American pot. If you feel people are trying to make you ashamed of being white, you have some sort of complex. If you feel your culture is threatened by multiculturalism, you are on Mars. Go to Thailand, Japan, Turkey, a hundred different places and watch this latest generation wholly embrace American culture. It’s the “other” that is threatened, not your white culture. Your culture, when you figure out what it is, is part of the m-c movement (that’s what multi means); share some space a little. The Illuminati aren’t out to get you. Besides, they’re white so you get a pass and secret handshake.

Frankly I’ve seen plenty of European-based cultural references in general textbooks, particularly German, Irish, Italian and a few other recent immigrant groups. “Whites” are quickly losing the majority (and thus must feel threatened when they realize they let their ancestral cultures go unlike some minority groups who may cling to it a generation or two longer as security) Textbooks will one day reflect the shift in balance. Then whites will be wailing for multi-cultural inclusion.

If you have nothing else to be proud of, at least you have skin to fall back on. Kudos.

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