The KKK is not white culture, but that doesn’t mean it’s not shared culture.
Please expand on that.
Whiteness is a term to sum up the systems, policies, and practices that help reinforce white supremacy and protect the wealthy and powerful, using racial division as a tool. That’s not a culture.
Cultures have common foods, music, rituals, dialect, etc. That just doesn’t fit for white Americans as a group. We were never forced together, separate from other groups, in the way that Black Americans were, or Jews were, or Asian Americans were, etc. It doesn’t necessarily require oppression, but it does require something that pushes the group together, and separate from other groups. That never happened for white people in America. A white New Yorker probably has a lot more in common, culturally, with a Black New Yorker than a white Texan. On the other hand, a Black New Yorker probably shares a lot of food, dialect, ritual, etc., with a Black Texan, because of those forces in our history.
That never happened for white people in America.
Please expand on that
I think this is an important point. In my opinion, class provides a far clearer lens through which to view social division than race. A poor black man in any part of the country has more in common with a poor white man in any other part of the country than with a rich black man in the same state, perhaps even the same county. Obviously, this wasn’t always true, but I think that today it’s the most accurate paradigm, one which is overlooked by those who rely on racial distinctions to analyze social division.
If we use Japan as an example, a lot of Japanese culture overlaps with what is being referred to as ‘whiteness:’ - xenophobia towards foreigners, aversion to dark-skinned people, focus on academics and professional success, a low crime rate, etc. But it would be nonsensical to say Japanese people are being “white” in doing so. They are just doing what Japanese culture has been for a long time.
Was Hermain Cain being “white” by supporting Trump and the GOP? Is Bernie Sanders being “non-white” by supporting democratic socialism and race equality?
Swarthy Swedes and Germans? Had he met any?! You could put a bunch of all those people in a room and good luck telling the difference until they spoke.
I think though, that even though there was prejudice against people from various European countries, they were still treated very differently to eg Chinese immigrants, and it wasn’t legal to enslave them, so there must have been some idea that they were more similar, even though not considered ‘one of us’?
Isn’t Hispanic often used to mean Mestizo, in the same way Americans often used African American to mean black? (And BigT now seems to using black as synonymous with African American.)
Are you talking about within America or not? You’re being really unclear. There’s no one ‘black culture’ in the world, Africa is a huge continent containing hundreds of different groups who live very differently, follow different religions etc. It’s got even more variety than Europe. Do you think a black immigrant to America would feel they have more in common with the majority white US culture, African American culture, or neither?
Again, are you talking about values shared by white Americans, or all white people everywhere? The latter set is going to be a whole lot smaller and may not be particularly distinctive.
That sounds like you are only talking about America. But how is it different to saying Trump appealed to racism and fear of the ‘other’?
As I recall, in his first campaign he claimed reducing illegal immigration would mean more jobs and higher pay for black Americans, and he promised more police to reduce crime. Don’t think it got him too many votes though.
Do Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans have any more in common than white Americans? I don’t see why they would. African American culture is different because it’s native to the US and based on shared experience.
The debate would be much more streamlined if people would just say things like, “Many whites are bigoted, and voted for Trump for that reason - but we’re also seeing some Hispanics, Asians, even blacks jump aboard the same pro-Trump bigotry train as well.” That would have been simple and clear.
Instead, the article author felt the need to say that Hispanics, Asians, etc. are now doing “whiteness” - which makes it nonsensical.
I think there’s a bit more to it. Perhaps the PoC who voted for Trump preferred an assimilationist model where they can subscribe to the majority culture and become part of it, to a multicultural model. The author might have been saying that? It’s not really clear.
It’s the kind of jargon that obfuscates because it’s so far from the conventional meaning of the word, and you’re never quite sure what they mean by it. Sometimes I think that’s a feature rather than a bug.
I would agree. I think when people are referring to “White Culture”, they are really referring to a Caucasian-dominated upper-middle and affluent class culture that enjoys a position of entitlement in American society. Basically people who work in leadership roles and high paying jobs in large corporations, law firms, investment banks, and so on. They tend to live in high priced urban enclaves, well-groomed suburbs and gated communities, shop at the same stores, send their kids to the same elite schools, etc.
“Swarthy” Swedes and Germans. That’s hilarious.
I admit ongoing curiosity about what you picture these shared values that define white culture to be.
So, suppose that the majority of white people stopped voting Republican and instead became liberal Democrats. Would that mean white people were no longer “white?”
That’s the point. A racist like Franklin would reply, “Are you being willfully blind or disingenuous? Just look at them; they are obviously black.” Definitely not White, that’s for sure.
Hmmm; however, I think that, e.g., country-music huntin-n-fishin “good ole boy” “redneck” working-class stereotypes are also considered part of “white culture”, although not generally associated with “upper class” or “affluence”.
Hell, the term “redneck” is directly derived from whiteness in the sense of a physical characteristic (getting one’s pale neck sunburned from laboring outdoors in the sun).
In the context of multi racial whiteness, no one ever accused a non Caucasian of being a redneck. They accuse them of wearing khakis and voting republican.
This is true. However, in the context of the OP, I think what is more relevant is the “whiteness” that holds the majority of the economic and social power in this country.
The working class, less affluent, and “redneck” classes of whiteness are still important as a source of votes that keeps the powerful White Elite in the style they are accustomed to. I would even go so far as to say that people like Trump hold the White Elite up as an example of “what poor whites might aspire to, if only Liberals didn’t conspire to ship those jobs to immigrants and minorities”.
Anyhow, that’s my theory that I spent 2 minutes on.