I think it works in concentric circles. The English profess to despise the French, despite the fact that most of the Brit upper class are descended from frogs. The Brits and the French together despise the Germans, the aforementioned three hate the Slavs, all of Christiandom hates the Musselman, and anyone outside the monotheistic area of Europe and the Middle East is by defenition a heathen.
And as for the Chinese, why do they call their country the “Central Country” (or “Middle Kingdom”, if you will)? 'Cause they’re the ones that are in the center of all that’s civilized.
(Of course, I’m emloying caricatures here to make my point.)
Re. those murals of the different races’ accomplishments that someone mentioned–the “white” one would have to be bland and uninspiring; if there were a mural that really trumpeted the accomplishments of European/white American civilization, who doesn’t believe that there would be an absolute shitstorm of protest? On the other hand, instead of “an incoherent jumble of small bland images with no thematic organization whatever”, there could be just three simple words in letters six feet high:
We are all proud of our own race. Some just feel more embarrased when the hate-filled members use that pride to put down others. In fact, World History is a compilation of all of our achievments.
No, it is not racist to have pride in your own race. I figure everyone pretty well has pride in their own race, which is natural.
You can be proud of your nationality and your genealogy, though if you listen to the news and read too many message boards, it would appear to be wrong to do so.
Ignore them. No matter what race you are, be proud of it.
No, Portuguese, Spanish, English, French did so. Not everyone was “white” – e.g. lots of Portuguese in the colonies historically would not fit most North American definitions of white. Further, most “whites” did not take part in any of the stages of Imperialism. It’s more than slightly silly to feel proud of this.
Well, I find most manifestations of “ethnic pride” to be logically specious, but its part of human nature to feel group identity – I get all warm and fuzzy about my dear extremist Calvinist ancestors despite the fact I loathe everything they stood for – well not everything, but you get the point.
A modicum of respect and good feeling for one’s ethnic group is natural. Just don’t get irrational about it.
In practical terms, “white pride” is usually synonymous with the more hienous forms of white supremacy. Black pride seems to cover a larger spectrum, although there are the counterparts to the white supremecists.
All in all, I feel an educated person should be proud of him or herself, not some group of dubious real connection to you. Spyder being of course the notable exception here, but then he has serious issues.
K2dave: in re “ending slavery” see notes above. You may understand how logically and factually deficient this statement is.
(On the other hand it is an illustration of the logical defect in “ethnic pride”.)
racial pride serves a purpose, at least theoretically. It is not generally a good thing for a group of people to be depressed about their heritage or to be of the opinion that they are genetically inferior. An example would be african-americans a hundred years ago who believed (or we’re told) that they came from savages and were genetically predisposed to acts of savagery. Then along came Marcus Garvey and Black history month, which were not entirely bad things. (I don’t much like being forced to use Black history stamps though and they give you a funny look when you ask for non-Black history stamps.) Beyond that, taking pride in one’s race just seems silly to me and when carried to extremes it becomes downright dangerous.
Sure, a little “ethnic pride” once in a while is fine.
I don’t get being pride about your race? You didn’t work for shit, you were just born that way. Does that mean that you should throw your own personal parade about it? You can, but I don’t see the point in it. It’s much easier to sit on your ass and do nothing and take credit for other people’s accomplishments just because they are/were from your race than it is to actually go out there and do something yourself worth being proud of.
