Bullshit.
“Black” just means a person with a certain degree of melanin content in their skin. It’s a fairly worldwide term. How do you think that ethnicity is described in Britain, which never had slavery or Jim Crow?
And it’s fairly absurd to suggest it means “descendants of slaves.” There are any number of dark-skinned folks in this country whose ancestors immigrated well after the passage of the 13th amendment, yet they still self-describe as “black.”
I’m essentially with Diogenes and Gobear on this. While I don’t believe that it is racist per se I do think it’s culturally insensitive because I’m firmly of the belief that this girl (and other’s who start “White Pride” clubs) are being childishly contrary. They see what they think is a social double standard and set about rectifying because, after all, no-one should have “special priviledges”. However, by doing so they are pissing over the original purpose of ethnic societies which was (among other things) to provide a free forum where members could band together against prejudice.
In the real world, white people are still more likely to thrive than their black counter parts. To quote Chris Rock “Being born white is like always having five bucks. Being born black is like always being fifty cents short.” While examples of this are (thankfully) becoming rarer as time goes by, more insidious evidence of subtler racial prejudice against black people is still readily available. In the much maligned ‘Bowling for Columbine’ Michael Moore made the point that news coverage of violence had increased by over 600% in the last decade and that a disproportionate amount of the increased airtime devoted to coverage of violent crime was apportioned to the “Black Male”. This fosters an antagonistic atmostphere of “otherness” where black people are regarded as the other, a dangerous minority. The fact that the great majority of newsreaders are white doesn’t help.
And that’s just one example.
There is still a valid purpose to these “ethnic clubs”. It is a purpose which whites can only help advance by not doing stupid shit like starting their own exclusive clubs. The student in question may think she’s helping to eradicate a double standard but in reality all she’s doing is reinforcing the incorrect and dangerous idea that black people have nothing to complain about anymore vis a vis racial bias against them. That is culturally insensitive.
I’m white, by the way.
They were encouraged to join up; in fact, the girl stated that everyone was invited to join.
Point of fact, while we never had Jim Crow in Britain, we certainly did have slavery.
http://www.goacom.com/overseas-digest/History/4slavetrade.html
If you can get it, ex-slave Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography is an important account of Britain’s slave trade.
I’d also recommend Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as a good examination of the British using slaves in their colonies.
Good suggestion! You can get it from amazon for $6.95
I stand corrected – I knew about the colonies, but I wasn’t aware of slavery having a physical presence in Britain proper, which is what I was referring to.
I think my point (that “black” hardly means “descended from slaves”) still holds, though. A few slave auctions at Bristol and Liverpool, with the merchandise being shipped off to colonies thousands of miles away, is a far cry, culturally speaking, from having slavery in your own backyard. Slavery simply wasn’t a part of everyday life in Britain in the same way it was in America. And Britons were abolitionists before abolitionism was cool.
'African-American" means descended from slaves, and being a black American is a distinctly different experience than being a white one.
I think it’s dishonest not to acknowledge that “white” and “black” are not just interchangeble sides of the same coin.
First, I’d think that to anyone “black” means more then “dark skinned”–at the very least it would mean “dark skinned and of African origin.” Or in non-US English speaking countries is it used more broadly? E.g., do the British call dark-skinned Indians “black”?
In America, where I live, the vast majority of the black people are descended from slaves–as far as I know, there was never a non-forced mass immigration of people from Africa to the Americas (or if there was, the history and immigration classes I took didn’t mention them). Yes, they exist, but as far as I know they are a minority (which is why I said it usually means “descendents of slaves.”)
I’ll agree that the terminology could all be much better defined. DtC has suggested “African-American” as meaning “descended from slaves,” but your arguments could also be used (with validity) against that as well.
Maybe we should just start saying “Descendents of Slaves” instead of “black” or “African-American.” If it happened, do you wanna bet how long it would take before some well-off white girl in the 'burbs decides to make a “Descendents of Indentured Servants” club? 
I guess my biggest issue with groups like this is that often they are nothing more than a thin cover over white supremacy. This group could be different. But I know that when a white student organization was begun at my high school, its core group was made up of the worst racists that I encountered there (I don’t just mean jokes, I mean physical harassment of ‘uppity’ blacks students). In contrast, the Black Students Coalition (of which I was a member, though I am not black) was very open to everyone.
I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to be suspicious of the motives behind this group, as most other examples I’ve seen are either manifestations of overt racism, or anti-PC sentiment in general.
Actually, it means an American of African descent, whose ancestors may or may not happened to have been slaves. Unless you want to tell one of my wife’s former colleagues, the son of African immigrants, that he isn’t an African-American. **
I don’t think I ever suggested otherwise.**
I think it’s dishonest to suppose a monolithic, continent-wide culture (and then some, counting the Carribean nations) based solely on one’s skin color.
The notion of “black culture” is every bit as absurd as that of “white culture.” There may well be Jamaican culture, or Ethiopian culture, or, yes, African-American culture, but those things are as genuinely distinct as Italian culture or French culture or British culture.
Does the chess club exclude those who do not understand the game, or does it embrace all persons interested, from experienced player to cheap seats watcher?
My knowledge of Judiasim comes from being the token goy in a company where I was the only Gentile. During my employ, I sought to learn more about Hebrew culture, and was taught much by a fatherly man with whom I had many discussions regarding the differences between his religion and mine.
The girl said nothing about exclusion, power, or other imputations which various posters have alleged. Could it possibly be that she has altruistic views, not uncommon to teenagers?
At a previous job, one of my co-workers was a naturalized American citizen from South Africa. I was always tickled that she, a blue-eyed blonde, was an actual African-American.
It seems this is all taking place in a predominately white community so it does seem a little asinine. However, whites with half decent jobs should remember that being white is no garantee of the good life. As I mentioned in the previous thread on this same club:
**
For one thing, it gives students a chance to spend time with other students of their background. They can explore their heritage, discuss the ways they affect society and society is affected by them, have some fun, etc. If a purple kid with a yellow striped ass hits a growth spurt and suddenly notices people edging away from him on the sidewalk and holding their bags tighter as he passes by, it might be a good thing for him to have a group he can talk to honestly about the experience.
I have yet to see a separate, race-based school group that wasn’t voluntary. It seems counter-intuitive, but when school kids are given a place to explore their racial identity in a positive way, they’re more open later to other people of other races. It seems like the girl who wanted to start the Caucasian Club wanted to do something along these lines, but stumbled in naming the club.
I’m with the kids on this one. I can see plenty of reasons to start a Caucasian club. What if white people are in the minority in that area? Is it okay then? Or since they are still in the majority nationally, then they get screwed? What if they want to discuss racial relations in a comfortable environment? White people have to interrelate to black culture as much as black people have to interrelate to white culture. Perhaps they wanted to discuss that. Just because white kids want to get together to talk about things particular to them it’s racist!? That’s one of the biggest bunches of crap I’ve ever heard. Just because they are in the majority doesn’t mean that they have issues that are particular to white people. If they aren’t excluding people, or spreading hate. I don’t see what the problem is.
Name one issue that is “particular to white people.”
I’d tell him. I’m willing to bet he’d agree, too. DTC is right, “African-American”, as a synonym for “black American” means “descendant of U.S. slaves” (the etymological flaws of the term “African-American” have been discussed far enough that I don’t need to comment on it further). African immigrants are just another immigrant group.
So don’t call it the damn Caucasian Club. What the hell does that mean? Caucasian = White, so they’re basically starting a “White Person’s Club”. What have the majority of all Caucasian people experienced due to the color of the skin?
African American on the other hand is not synonomous with Black. African American means people who’s ancestors lived in Africa, and were transported to America. Most, if not all, were transported as slaves, and were treated as thus. So, since they were all treated the same, they banded together to find people who had similar experiences to them for solace. So regardless of their ancestral heritage, they have a common culture. Once again, remember the Harlem Renaissance?
My high school had an Armenian club.
And you know what? It was needed. There were a lot of Armenian students. There were a lot of misconceptions about Armenians (they were generally lumped in with the “Russians” at school [which in turn were mostly Ukrainian]) and not a lot of support for the socially or academically. The club gave them a place to be comfortable and discuss the experience of being Armemian in a suburban high school and about what it is like to be the younger generation of recent immigrants (I know marriage, church, dress and the like were big issues between many Armenians and their parents). It gave them a chance to dispell some of the myths running through the school and a way to advocate issues affecting them in the school and community…
And it was pretty called for. People started respecting Armenians quite a bit more when they became a more visible and organized group. We also had a Black Student Union, MeCHA, International club (a mix of Western European and East Asians), Ukrainian club, a Vietnamese dance club, a Hmong organization and probaby quite a few other groups that I don’t remember.
All of these groups do have a collective experience. Chances are, if you are mad because your mom made you give your Christmas money to a Buddhist temple because you got over illness during the last year, your not from Ukraine. And it might be nice to have a group to tell that story to that would sympathize and maybe offer suggestions on how to handle your parents. Racial and cultural groups do exist. We can’t just pretend that everyone is the same without trodding down some pretty improtant parts of people lives.
All I know is that the school I went to was one of the most racially diverse places imaginable, and it had signifigantly less racial tension than any other place i’ve been to. Somehow that school managed to find a balance between acknowledging and supporting a collective racial/cultural experience without it becoming divisive. The only way race would get you beat up there is if it became known you were a racist (and that did happen). I was shocked when I went to a neighboring suburb and was threatened because I appeared to be from a member of an anti-racist group.
My take on the situation is this. A Caucasion club is cool by me. Join the milleu! But if my suspicions are right and this was done to make some sort of whiny and half baked point…well, thats kind of annoying. In the same way starting an “Persecuted Christians” club would be. It’s not the problem they are making it out to be, and ultimately their big problem is that everyone isn’ admitting that their way is the best/only/American way.