Many of the people that insist neither they nor the confederate flag are racist are strong advocates–formally or informally–of white pride or white supremacy, and white pride is no different than racism.
You can bear witness to these questions: Why is being proud of being white racist? How am I racist for white pride but that guy isn’t racist for his black pride or his hispanic pride? There are two important answers to this.
“White” isn’t a thing.
We have Italian heritage, St Patty’s day parades, German American social clubs, British pubs, French cuisine and French restaurants and French Fries, French bread, French kissing…
We will never have a white pride parade in New York City. We will never celebrate white history or white heritage month or go to white pubs. Why?
“White” is just a social construct. Before America there was no such thing as white. Even now outside this country, most people are confused by the way we use that term. Germans don’t think of themselves as white. French and Italians don’t think of themselves as white. Northern Italians don’t even like to be confused with Southern Italians. These are distinct cultures from distinct nations. The Irish were treated as bad and in some cases worse than blacks when they began flooding into America.
I love the celebration of European heritage. Hell, the word “heritage” would make me immediately, achingly hungry if it weren’t for the frequency of unfortunate debates involving “white heritage.”
What does “white heritage celebrate”? Everything that is an answer to that question (the south, the civil war) in this context traces a direct line to the history of slavery, the aggressive segregation and suppression of black culture, to white supremacy, and the hate groups that grow after civil rights progress faster than kudzu in late July.
White supremacy has no connection to actual cultural heritage free of racism any more than the confederate flag itself.
You might be an idiot if…
Racism, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the belief in the superiority of a particular race leading to prejudice towards people of other races. Celebrating Irish heritage is nothing more than that. Celebrating white heritage, however, is problematic because technically there is no heritage to celebrate as white, because white has no heritage that is divorce of racism. White pride as a term in use is only used by cultures that have connections to racism.
If you take part in any event or attend any event or business that is based in an ethnic heritage, you will generally find an inclusive atmosphere. Potential participants have no inherent reason to feel alienated or afraid of becoming involved. We all have an intellectual understanding of what Black History month is. At it’s best it’s an attempt to educate and familiarize all citizens with the humanity of the black experience.
If we’re being intellecually honest, we understand that a white pride gathering is not openly inclusive to the rainbow of ethnic culture. The clarion call of “White Power” will not be confused with “Kiss me, I’m Irish!”
Racism is a concept that people don’t want to use explicitly. Many believe whites are superior to blacks, that there is something inherently inferior about African Americans, but they get angry when they’re called racists. A white person will actively DO something that demonstrates institutional racism. Someone else will call that person or that action racist and the response is “race baiting.”
I’ve got news from you. You can cast a line in the water all day with the best bait in the world. You won’t catch a damn thing if there isn’t something to catch. If you leave your wallet or purse on a table and turn around for a moment. If you catch someone trying to take it and they call you a wallet baiter. The only real questions that remains is how hard are you going to punch them in the face?
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