Saturday, August 4, 2007

You're not really white, you're more pinkish

I'm Indian, and I love my Indian heritage, and I'd call India my second most favorite country, but my primary nationality identity (although my primary overall identity would probably be Christian) is American. Still I like to joke occasionally about brown pride. I mean it's more of an ethnicity thing (although I tend to identify more my identity as Malayali). I also acknowledge the legitimacy of black pride among African Americans. But then when you go with white pride, I've got to really to object.

Well if you can have black pride why not white pride. Well, let me explain a little bit. With African Americans you have a common history, common customs, and a common artistic history, although it is integrally mixed and integrated with general American culture (that's why although I admit to the idea of an African American ethnic identity, I'm a bit more skeptical about the idea of a purely black culture). However, whites... well who are whites? European descendants? Well I guess, but most of them immigrated before the idea of a pan-European identity was that well-established, many are from ethnicities that historically have not been identified as European, and many of the communities in the US have histories of deep conflicts between each other. When it comes down to it, although white is used in the census as all Caucasian (including Arabs), it really amounts to basically the non-minorities. And so basically white identity is based on the idea of who it excludes, and well, that seems pretty shallow, and honestly very easily and almost always hateful, with very little to hold it together as a source of love.

But then what should white people do about their identities? Well, come on, they have their own ethnicities. There aren't really white Americans, but there are Irish Americans, Italian Americans, German Americans, English Americans, etc. And sure you can celebrate that heritage and you can have pride in that, because it is a celebration of a common history of community and experience.

So to all you white pride people out there, get back to your roots, and I mean your real roots, look up what country your ancestors came from and use that for pride, or simply chuck it all out the window and just use American for everything (even though even with a strong ethnic identity, you can still keep your primary nationality identity as American), but just remember, it's not just you pinkish skinned people who are Americans, it's anyone who loves America deeply and truly.

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