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#All right who wants to field EVERYTHING that is wrong with this one? #Because it’s kind of bugging the shit out of me.

YOU RAAAAAAAAAANG~?

We’ll start with the lesser offense and comment on the fact that it’s weird to have race and orientation mentioned in one thing. I mean, explain to me what would a gay white, black, native, or latin person have? Is the “gay” pride different if you’re of a specific race? Does one supersede the other?

But let’s go ahead and assume they meant straight white pride (which is already an unfortunate implication) and move on.

How about how you can literally pick any medium and see how many more “(straight) white people” there are at the top? Musicians, actors, artists, there’s a steady majority in all of them.

Or how there’s no shortage of “(straight) white” characters for people to look up to, or flail over, or love. While there is a huge shortage of literally any other type of person who gets the focus as anything but comic relief or as the antagonist.

Or how people even assume that a character is straight and white even when there’s no specific mention of their appearance at all

Basically, it’s not difficult to be proud and white at the same time.

So, no, you shouldn’t feel bad for being white. That’s not the point. The point is that shouting “(straight) white pride!” offends people for the same reason that shouting “straight pride!” would offend people.

When you’re in the minority (even if it’s just in terms of focus), you shout “__ pride!” to get the attention you need in order to be seen and heard so that people will look at you and remember that you’re there and important.

But if you’re already the focus, if you’re already able to leave your house and not receive suspicious looks just for being outside, if you have your pick of idols that people don’t scoff at for being of a race that “doesn’t make sense” (hello Spiderman incident), then why the fuck are you even shouting?

It’s like when Mary J. Blige sang a duet with Elliot Yamin and sang over him for almost all of it, even when it was clear that she was just supposed to do background in some parts.

We already know that she’s important. We already know who she is. Putting herself in the forefront over a lesser known person just made her seem like she wanted to stay the focus. Which is a huge fucking dick move for anyone to make.

If I may add, it’s all right to be proud of your heritage. Irish, German, Scandinavian, European pride? Totally okay. Have at it.

But being proud of your skin color when it’s been the sole reason why millions of people have been enslaved, discriminated, prejudiced against, and killed? Not okay. So no, no “white pride.” Go be proud of something that hasn’t smothered the rest of the world beneath its heels.

^Bringin’ this back around because she remembered what my hands forgot to type.

You had to start this during finals week, didn’t you Will? I know my opinion doesn’t matter much to tumblr by and large, but this is one of those things that I feel like I need to ramble on about anyway. I acknowledge that it’s not going to make me popular… First of all, I am 12th generation American. Before that, some of us in my family were English. Others were from Norway, and still more from Germany. The first five generations of men with my family name were knights. I am fiercely proud of all these things, and many more like them when it comes to my heritage.

However, I didn’t feel like I was allowed to be proud of that until about four years ago. I’d had authority figures tell me in no uncertain terms that being proud of my race was an act of supremacy, and it seemed like the masses agreed. Of course, there’s always been that caveat of, “Well it’s ok if you’re proud to be British…” But not white. A friend of mine tried to start a white student club at my college, and was turned down on the premise that it was too broad. We could have German clubs, or French clubs instead.

But there’s a Black Student Union. There’s an Asian Student Association. There’s a Student Organization of Latinos. These groups were not given the suggestion to be Ghanian, or Mongolian, or El Salvadorian (respectively). And before your eyes gloss over with blood and murder, please bear with me. I support these groups, and everything they do for the students at my school. I don’t want the takeaway to be that I’m just a bitter kid who didn’t get a clubhouse.

But the attitude is one that leaves many white people confused and ashamed without a good reason. Because of those attitudes, I didn’t look into where I came from for a long time. I didn’t look for things that I could own as a part of my identity. I would lie down and let people tell me I had no culture, and that any culture I did have was mired in slavery, bigotry, and hatred. 

To many, I am the antichrist; I am male. I am white. I am upper middle class. And just to spit further into the face of common decency, I am heterosexual. Many people take one look at those descriptors and write me off as the face of oppression. If I had any respect, I would go to my corner and shut up because “my people” are rich, famous, and already in the limelight. And how dare I assume to know anything about disenfranchisement. 

This is not about competition. And as a side note, I don’t want the white middle class heterosexual to be overrepresented in pop culture. I don’t want to be made into a faceless member of an average majority. I most certainly do not want to be the focus of anything unless I earn it by my own individual merits and hard work. I believe that viewing ethnicity with an air of competition is a sign of weakness and insecurity. At the same time, I feel that everyone should have the right to celebrate their common bonds of race and heritage. But never at the expense of another person’s dignity, happiness, or well-being.

I have literally bled and been bruised for that principle, and not just on behalf of white middle class straight males. This unnecessarily long rant is not a diminishment of any people group because of their gender, skin color, sexual orientation/identity, or heritage. It is simply a caution that many people who aim to champion equal rights and respect are running the risk of pushing the pendulum too far in the other direction. No people group deserves to be sold short or put into a box, and that includes people who do identify as white. While I recognize that no one here is saying that being white is a bad thing in and of itself, I do feel like it’d be easy for someone to get that impression when we’re told that we’re smothering the world beneath our heels.  

To be white is to be many things. And much of that definition rests on the decisions of the individual. As such I can only speak for myself. But I am saddened that people like me are expected to shoulder guilt for things that are beyond our reach, simply because we have a certain skin color. Those expectations are threatening to rob us of our cultural identity and replace it with one that others would assign us (a cultural identity of oppression and bigotry). I would hope that people don’t automatically assume that our collective pride is based on prejudice or supremacy. 

I am a patriot. I am a knight. I am a man of the sea. I am white. And chances are good that many of you reading this will be somewhat indignant over that last fact, even though it is at least partially to blame for all of the preceding ones. But I refuse to apologize for the good things in my ethnic history in the same way I have always refused to perpetuate its mistakes. 

^More elegant than I could have put it. Simply put, equality for all, not just the few. And because white people “have enough” should never create a notion of “take it away”, but rather give everyone else the same. Unless of course the freedom is detrimental to others.

alyxandra:

i just… want jason segel to be my brother.

(Source: eriksens)