I like stuff that makes me think and potentially reconsider my positions. Here is one of those. I’ve seen the following post shared on multiple social media sites from various different authors. The oldest post I could find was on Simple Thing Called Life*.
“A common and seemingly reasonable argument for white pride or white nationalism is “why can’t I be proud of my culture?”
Well, you can. Always have been able to. We have Irish pride celebrations, we have German drinking festivals, we have Serbian food festivals. Any European culture you can think of has multiple organizations in North America dedicated to taking pride in their heritage and NO ONE gives them shit for it.
But, you see, when you start talking “white pride”, that’s not a culture. That’s a skin color. There is no white culture, never was. There is no pan-European culture, never was. Europe is a continent, not a culture or ethnicity.
Now, some of you are probably about to go “But wait! Black pride! How is that okay?“
Well, easy. Go find a black person and ask them if their ancestors were slaves. When you find one who says “yes”, proceed to ask them “what country in Africa were your ancestors from?” Do you know what their answer will probably be? “I don’t know.”
This is because their culture was taken from them. It was beaten out of them. They were enslaved, Christianized, and then whitewashed. The one unifying feature they have as a people is that history of slavery and that history of being black. They can’t have Liberian pride, or Congolese pride, or “insert African country” pride because they have no fucking idea where their ancestors came from other than the broad region of West Africa.
Meanwhile, us white people can often trace our ancestors to specific cities and regions. I can trace my mother’s maiden name to a single fucking village in Ireland. I know where I came from. I don’t have white culture, I have Irish culture.
So that’s why white pride makes you an asshole, but black pride actually makes sense.”
*After I managed to lose several posts, I had to publish this post again. I think I gave a different source the first time, but can’t remember. Anyway, if you are the author of the original piece let me know. I’d love to give you credit. If you hate that I reposted your stuff here let me know also, and I’ll remove it.