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December 2003
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George,

I'm not so sure that "whites" can't play the racial identity card. If a "white" person appeals to a specific ethnic group of people within the "white race" who tend to stick together in ethnic communities, such as the Irish or the Italians, then a "white" person wouldn't sound racist.

For example, where I grew up in New Jersey, there were (and still are I imagine) a large number of people of Irish descent, and the majority of them were very proud of the fact that they were "born Irish", albeit in the United States of America. Some of them had a - minor dislike let's call it - of the English, even though their ancestors had immigrated to America over a century before and they had never had to deal firsthand with the centuries-old tensions between the Irish and the English.

I've seen a lot of Americans of Italian, Greek, Polish, German, Portuguese, etc. descent show pride in their cultural heritage as well. I've seen plenty of festivals celebrating European ethnicities in my life. Aren't all these ethnic groups considered "white"? I suppose the only sort of "white" cultural festival that would seem ridiculous to Americans would be an Anglo-Saxon festival, since Americans have kept many of the cultural traditions of "mother England" (the language especially, which plays a very important part in a culture's identity), and thus would not really be seen as much of a departure from the cultural "norm".

But of course, being the melting pot America is nowadays, more and more Americans are of mixed ethnic background. I've heard that the today's youngsters (under 20) are the most ethnically diverse group of Americans to date. And with more and more intermarriage, ethnic cultural traditions fade, because it becomes too difficult to pass on every single tradition from every single culture that one has ancestral ties to. And given that we live in a globalized society nowadays, this trend will only increase.

At any rate, it seems that unless you're of 100% Anglo-Saxon origin (and there are fewer and fewer Americans who fit into this category anymore), I don't think it would be perceived as racist to be "white" and proud of one's ethnic heritage - just as long as you just don't use the word "white" and "proud" in the same sentence.

I don't know about you, but I've always had problems with generalized racial nomenclatures which appear on the U.S. Census bureau such as "white", "black" and "Hispanic".

If a Spanish-born person were to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, would such a person be considered "Hispanic" because of his or her language and culture or "white" for being of European ancestry? Spain is in Europe, you know.

And come to think of it, what kind of label would we stick on a U.S. citizen born in Malta? Malta is a Mediterranean island which lies directly between Sicily and Tunisia, and is just an hour or two ferry ride from either. Malta is jouning the EU in May, but their native tongue is Maltese, which is considered a "Semetic" or "Afro-Asian" language, just like Hebrew and Arabic. Would such a person be considered "white", "black" or "other"?

Voilà. Something to argue about at your next dinner party.

Joseph Cheek (electronic mail, December 19, 2003)


Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.