re casey:
ok so i wasn't saying that everyone should stick to t heir own kind and never try anything new. But i guess what i was trying to criticize was the way that white people dont' acknowledge and appreciate their own cultural things too. So yes, taco night...but appreciate the value and cultural heritage that exists in a meatloaf.
so yeah that's what i was criticizing, this lack of appreciation for their own distinct white americanness.
blaze
1 comment:
I gotcha. I think one of the problems with "white culture" is that because white people have been here the longest and look basically the same, we kind of have a mixed glop that certainly feels like not having a culture at all. And, in direct contradiction to what I JUST said, another problem is that the U.S. is so big, and so white people in the South have a completely different context than white people in L.A. I think the point I'm trying to make is that you can't look at a white person and really know what kind of food he eats or music he listens to. However, if you take a person from a culture that's been more isolated, you have a pretty good idea of what that person eats and listens to. I think white people do sort of feel a lack of identity, and so they latch on to others' customs. Can this be done in a completely obnoxious way? Yep. But is it for the most part harmless? I think so.
I think this is also probably why I latch on to my mom's Irish-Mexican side. I can point to my mom's side and say, yes, we have an identifiable culture. Catholicism probably has something to do with this, too. With my dad's side, there's no feeling of culture or history. We're just white. We have family traditions, but not any that we can identify as part of our ethnic heritage.
Perhaps my response to your posts is triggered by the fact that I am currently on vacation with my whole paternal side of the family, and if I have another salad of iceberg lettuce and ranch I will cut off my tongue.
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