RE: Is it possible to maintain and respect cultural heritage and not be a racist
March 10, 2015 at 4:01 pm
(This post was last modified: March 10, 2015 at 4:03 pm by Regina.)
(March 10, 2015 at 3:52 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: Race and culture are not the same thing, and can easily be mutually exclusive. What is the definition of a "white" person? Or better yet, what's the definition of a "black" person? How about "Hispanic"? My culture as someone who would be considered "white" is nothing like that of a "white" person living in Rich Hill, Missouri (I just watched the documentary). What about someone from Haiti vs. someone from Zambia? You'd consider them both "black", probably, but what do their cultures have in common? Similarly, what race are Filipino people?I completely agree.
The problem is, people throw around these terms "white", "black", "Hispanic" etc as though all of these groups are monolithic homogeneous ethnic groups.
In reality, if you take white people for example, you've got a massively diverse group of people who practice different religions (or no religion), speak different languages, have different values and cultural practices, and very different histories. Go to Greece, then go to Sweden, the culture shock will smack you in the face. I'm of Maltese, Irish and German descent, and within my own family I've seen these differences. Same goes for Black people, Asians, or any other "race".
"Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an airplane" - sarcasm_only
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
