Culture, then, is what we do differently than other cultures, right? I’ve lived all over the US, and now I’m in Montana. In a capital city back east, 3/4 of my friends were black. Here, I think there’s one black guy in town.
I have an example of black culture, for contrast. Because of their kinky hair, they have to style it differently, so the young girls fall into the habit of picking, rolling, and braiding each others’ hair, often doing the same for the boys.
I’m glad someone finally brought up Elvis! I can only think of two… three rock bands fronted by blacks, King’s X, Living Colour, and Sevendust. Yes, rock was based on blues, rockin’ chair, soulful, toe-tapping blues. That white boy sped it up, made it easy (and fun) to dance to, and swiveled that pelvis right into our collective conscious.
One other thing I have to add, something terribly important that is missing from this discussion… and I just realized that it is another part of “white” culture. Class! The average cracker doesn’t even realize that we have a well established class hierarchy, aside from “rich”, middle class, and “poor”, usually lumping themselves in the lower category, because the Jones’ yard is always greener. I believe that there is a white culture in America, but that culture varies within different class groups, most of which the lower class is not even aware of.
All the other people who brought up ‘other’ cultures are missing the point. American white culture is the culture without a history. Ya, 200 years? Yes, black american culture does too, but they had previous culture to bring with them, and were easily distinguishable from all other cultures here. What happened to us European immigrants, is we all came here, the blacks are working on the farm (I’m taking a LOT of generalizations here, just bear with it), and my new Russian neighbor looks a lot more like my German uncle back home. Only one more generation later, and the kids never met their European relatives, they grew up together, and the blacks are still grouped off, doing the heavy labor.
As a white American, I have practically zero sense of my race. My whiteness is defined by not having a culture. That’s we we’re lumped in the category “white” in the first place. I have no sense of nationality, other than “American”, my race is so mixed, that I don’t even WANT to know (other than being a quarter native, what’s the luck to have TWO indian great-grandmothers). My oldest daughter lives on a nearby reservation, their whole family is tribal… and they’re “white”! You wouldn’t know except for their facial structure… I know because I see their doppelgangers ALL the time, what I call swimming in the gene pool. Most of the doubles have fairly dark skin. Lots of trailers on the rez.
The most multicultural place I’ve been is Hawai’i, where there is very little variation in the culture of races. There, you are either a tourist, or ‘long time resident’, easily distinguishable from a tourist by 1) your tan, and 2) the quality of your ‘aloha shirt’, because you’ve had the time to shop for the good stuff. Ironically, I have twin quadroon daughters there, with their mother, who is half latina. lol So if my ideas are stated crudely, I PROMISE that it is only to simplify explaination. But now I’m part of the problem! I’m diversifying not only my whiteness, but my twins’ culture as well. Thankfully, their culture will be “Hawai’ian American” now instead of some vague mulatto strangeness. I think I understand, now, why their mother never felt at home here, and wanted to move back there.
Oh shoot. I have to go write her now. Good luck, hope I sparked some neurons.