# Does "White Culture" Exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 8, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483 "2026-01-08T17:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/21 "2026-01-08T19:37:28Z")
Are there any websites that tell us what white people are specifically supposed to be proud of? ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/22 "2026-01-08T19:39:35Z")
I keep seeing this sense that only outgroups get cultures, which seems incorrect to me. It’s been since undergrad that I had a sociology or anthropology class, but I don’t think that’s how culture works. The part I find disturbing is the same sense of someone talking about “regular” food versus ethnic food. Anything that is not food from their culture is weird in a bad way, and their culture’s food is normal. The old joke about how “in China it’s just called food,” is a reminder of how when inside a culture it might be hard to recognize, because it’s all normal. From a strictly objective and academic sense, I don’t see anything wrong with taking pride in positive aspects of a culture, whatever they happen to be. **However** , anyone who talks about pride in white culture is going to immediately make me assume they’re a white supremacist in a way that I would not immediately assume about Puerto Rican pride, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/23 "2026-01-08T19:44:46Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > **However** , anyone who talks about pride in white culture is going to immediately make me assume they’re a white supremacist But can you find any evidence to the contrary online? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/24 "2026-01-08T19:47:26Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I keep seeing this sense that only outgroups get cultures, which seems incorrect to me. It’s been since undergrad that I had a sociology or anthropology class, but I don’t think that’s how culture works. Nobody will complain if you talk about British culture, or German culture, or French culture, and those are hardly “out-groups.” ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/25 "2026-01-08T20:08:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That’s the thing - in the US, we have this very particular circumstance where a huge group of people were kidnapped from their native cultures, brought half-way around the world, had all connections to their original cultures systematically erased, and then spent centuries being told that they were inherently worthless because of their skin color. The concept of Black Pride grew out of that very specific context, but now people want to treat that like the default, and every racial group should have its own Pride movement. But other racial groups don’t have that history of not knowing where their ancestors came from. I don’t need “White” pride, because I know my roots are in Scotland and Ireland, and I don’t need White “pride” because I didn’t grow up in a society that was built around the idea that I’m inherently worthless because I’m white. Well said. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/26 "2026-01-08T20:15:52Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I _know_ people aren’t doing this on purpose, but I think that those claiming there is no white culture are unintentionally othering non-white groups. The way I hear it is: unique aspects of non-white groups are those groups culture, but whites can’t claim a culture because what would be white culture is common to all of the non-white groups. > > Does that make any sense? Another way of saying it is that the “base” culture is white, and other groups add their own bits of culture on top of it, leaving the impression that white is the default state of being. That’s how I hear it, anyway I think you have it reversed; “white culture” isn’t the base underneath, it’s the blanket that’s been thrown on top of everyone else’s identities. The reason there is no _uniquely_ white culture is that white culture has imposed itself on everyone else to the point that everyone is familiar with it. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/27 "2026-01-08T20:16:37Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > In reality there’s a pretty wide diversity of American cultures, mostly defined by geographic regions, and by urban vs rural disparities which are probably even more significant than geographic ones.. Hell, there’s at least three distinct cultures in my rural county, and a pretty good argument could be made for more than that. And almost everybody living in the county, by appearance and census standards, is “white”. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/28 "2026-01-08T20:19:49Z")
> [@bobsmom101](#): > > If someone wants to declare publicly that they only wish to “date” Jews or left-handers or cross-dressers or Mongolians, then what’s it to you? Save the outrage for when they cross the line into criminal territory. Well, long-time lurker, if someone wants to declare publicly that they’re racist, I reserve the right to insult them even if they haven’t committed any crimes. People aren’t responsible for their sexual attractions, and if a white person has only ever wanted to date other white people, that’s not a problem. But if someone is willing to pre-emptively declare that they will never consider dating a non-white person in the future, that’s problematic IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/29 "2026-01-08T20:26:23Z")
[Moderation] I’ve split this conversation out of the “What Were You Thinking” Pit thread, which was inspired by this post in the “[WhiteDate and several other “White” sites scraped for data](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whitedate-and-several-other-white-sites-scraped-for-data/1026414/1)” thread in P&E. [/Moderation] ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/30 "2026-01-08T20:36:30Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > To flip it around, there is certainly a Black culture in the United States, but I would wager that there wouldn’t be in most of Africa. There is probably a group of things that we could broadly agree are part of “Black American Culture”. But trying to claim the existence of some global “Black Culture” that embraces all Blacks everywhere as some people do is just as absurd as claiming a global white culture. The groups are just too diverse to have even the most basic commonalities. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/31 "2026-01-08T20:39:28Z")
> [@What were you THINKING?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/6233): > > can you find any evidence to the contrary online? I don’t even want to look, because if I search “white pride” I know exactly the kind of places it will take me. > [@What were you THINKING?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/6234): > > Nobody will complain if you talk about British culture, or German culture, or French culture, and those are hardly “out-groups There are lots of ways to pick how you draw your groups. Country, ethnic heritage, ancestral heritage, religion, age group, skin color, political affiliation, economic status, gender, and on and on. All of those things can have their own cultures, which overlap a great deal with other circles created with the same or different classification. > [@What were you THINKING?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/6236): > > I think you have it reversed; “white culture” isn’t the base underneath, it’s the blanket that’s been thrown on top of everyone else’s identities It can be both. White culture can impose itself on other groups, and still exist as a culture. My argument isn’t whether or not white culture exists. I think it does, but I refuse to define it. My argument is that denying it exists is a (probably unintentionally) racist stance. The same as someone saying, “I don’t want Indian, I just want normal food.”\[1\] * * * 1. to avoid distraction by the analogy, the point isn’t that someone prefers cream of potato soup over Aloo Gobhi, it’s the normal/abnormal distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/32 "2026-01-08T20:41:47Z")
Since we’re here in GD, I’m curious what those who believer there is a white culture would define as white culture. And, even though above I used some out-of-my-own-brain examples of famous people and buildings from European nations, I don’t think they’re particularly good examples- they are cultural artifacts, but they are history. What, today, is a thing that white people do that is a cultural signifier of their whiteness across national borders. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/33 "2026-01-08T20:45:18Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I don’t even want to look, because if I search “white pride” I know exactly the kind of places it will take me. Well, that tells you something, doesn’t it? > [@echoreply](#): > > There are lots of ways to pick how you draw your groups. Country, ethnic heritage, ancestral heritage, religion, age group, skin color, political affiliation, economic status, gender, and on and on. All of those things can have their own cultures, which overlap a great deal with other circles created with the same or different classification. That’s great, but how does it relate to your claim that “only out-groups can have a culture”? > [@echoreply](#): > > I think it does, but I refuse to define it. Why not? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/34 "2026-01-08T20:51:25Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I _know_ people aren’t doing this on purpose, but I think that those claiming there is no white culture are unintentionally othering non-white groups. The way I hear it is: unique aspects of non-white groups are those groups culture, but whites can’t claim a culture because what would be white culture is common to all of the non-white groups. > > Does that make any sense? Yes. In fact I often see it used intentionally to silence dissent. People will claim that they want no discussion of politics or cultural issues or the like, then immediately start pushing right wing/white culture and politics\* while insisting that _that_ isn’t cultural or politics. It’s just How Things Are. At any rate I _do_ think that there’s a such a thing as "white culture (mainly defined as “the culture adhered to by people who call themselves ‘white’”), and a European culture, Asian culture and so on. _As well as_ American culture, French culture, Spanish culture, Japanese culture, etc. Because culture isn’t some singular binary thing where you are _either_ part of one and only one culture or an outsider; it’s a fuzzy Venn diagram. People can be part of multiple cultures to various degrees, cultures can have practices in common, and what is an isn’t part of a culture is vaguely & subjectively defined. People trying to force such vagueness to fit into neatly sorted, mutually exclusive boxes is the problem. A common one, many people don’t like that the world is _full_ of things that don’t fit into such boxes. EDIT: \* Also, “white culture” meaning _“culture as practiced by white people”_ and “white culture” defined as _“being a Republican white nationalist”_ are two very different things. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/35 "2026-01-08T20:56:33Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > The part I find disturbing is the same sense of someone talking about “regular” food versus ethnic food. Anything that is not food from their culture is weird in a bad way, and their culture’s food is normal. The old joke about how “in China it’s just called food,” is a reminder of how when inside a culture it might be hard to recognize, because it’s all normal. Food may not be a good example because many of us love certain ethnic foods. I like Indian food, and absolutely adore Japanese food, and there’s a lot of great stuff from the Middle East and Asia. And Greek food is terrific. I love “Chinese” food but I suspect a lot of what we have here in North America has been adapted to domestic tastes. OTOH, foods in some countries are … well, they’re something else. Anyone interested in a **[grilled rat on a stick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-on-a-stick)**? Or, perhaps, **[toasted grasshoppers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapulines)**? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/36 "2026-01-08T20:58:21Z")
I think in the US, there isn’t really a separate, distinct white culture. The prevailing culture is often described that way, but it’s not specific to white people, and it’s not specifically American either, being primarily derived from British and other European traditions. As a result, I can totally see why some white people might be a little disaffected by that. It does seem like everyone else has their own culture, except us. And any attempt to carve out anything as “white” is instantly and automatically decried as racist or whatever. I’ll go a little further and speculate that’s why we have so many “Irish”, “Scottish”, “German”, etc… people in the US who are pretty far removed from their original immigrant ancestors. For example, I could probably claim being of German heritage, with the most recent immigrant ancestors of mine being Germans to Texas… _in the 1830s and 1840s._ But it’s the closest thing to an ethnic identity I’ve got. I also suspect that this sort of ambiguity about ethnic identity is something that the right-wing is leaning into pretty hard by trying to supply their version of what white ethnic identity is, and also who’s not invited to that particular party. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/37 "2026-01-08T21:02:27Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > There is probably a group of things that we could broadly agree are part of “Black American Culture”. But trying to claim the existence of some global “Black Culture” that embraces all Blacks everywhere as some people do is just as absurd as claiming a global white culture. I was speaking from solely an American context, you are correct to point that out. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/38 "2026-01-08T21:08:03Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’ll go a little further and speculate that’s why we have so many “Irish”, “Scottish”, “German”, etc… people in the US who are pretty far removed from their original immigrant ancestors. For example, I could probably claim being of German heritage, with the most recent immigrant ancestors of mine being Germans to Texas… _in the 1830s and 1840s._ But it’s the closest thing to an ethnic identity I’ve got. Kind of the opposite, I think. “White culture” is what those immigrants were forced into as their original culture was systemically persecuted out of existence. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/39 "2026-01-08T21:08:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > that tells you something, doesn’t it? > [@echoreply](#): > > **However** , anyone who talks about pride in white culture is going to immediately make me assume they’re a white supremacist Yeah, I even already said it. > [@Miller](#): > > how does it relate to your claim that “only out-groups can have a culture”? I’m not claiming only out groups can have culture, I’m claiming that I’m reading other people make that claim. I think any group can have culture. I don’t study this area, so I’m sure I’ll get things all wrong, but my naive view is that a small friend group can have a culture of their in-jokes and shared interests, and a few billion people can share culture around soccer/futbol/football. > [@Miller](#): > > Why not? Because I’m just not educated enough in things related to discussions of what is or is not culture (I’d be more comfortable discussing Iain M. Banks), and I don’t want to get into endless arguments about how something I say is a white tradition was really derived from a Mexican practice, so doesn’t count as white. Or that non-white people also do the thing so it doesn’t count, or whatever. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I often see it used intentionally to silence dissent Yes, exactly this! “We’re keeping politics out of the office, therefore you’re not allowed to talk about being trans.” Going to public school in Texas, I saw this all the time with regard to religion. A bland prayer to the Christian god was not considered “religious,” because there was nothing in it that would even be controversial to a Catholic. It’s the denial of something existing in order to impose (often that very thing) on people that don’t want it. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483/40 "2026-01-08T21:10:40Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > There is probably a group of things that we could broadly agree are part of “Black American Culture”. Are there? Now, if you change that to “African-American Culture” and recognize that recent African immigrants do not, necessarily, identify with “African-American Culture” you might have a point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-white-culture-exist/1026483.md?page=3)