There is yet another article in the NY TIMES about ” the crisis of white identity.” The whole concept sounds deeply bizarre to me. I’m white but I never had any “white identity”. Never felt the need for one. And hey, I’m better off because I don’t need to be wasting my time on any dumb identity crisis as a result.
People should go find something useful to do with themselves.
I heard this theory in a Sociology Class and I was pissed because the subject was based on racism and I am used to being the only white person in the room that hears how terrible whites are but then I heard that (Whites are affected by Racism also) and I was like YES!!!! but then I found out its that we dont know what to do with ourselves once our hierarchy is taken away….but I hate to say it but as I have progressed and gotten over my defenses and this TRUMP election has shown me a lot about my white associates …..I didnt realize how fear can make people act..
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true
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What about Austism identity?
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“I’m white but I never had any “white identity”. ”
Yiou grew up in an almost exclusive white environment – any identity only comes into play when there are significant numbers of people who don’t share it.
“Never felt the need for one”
Everybody needs identity – without identity there is no consciousness.
How do you feel about your immigrant identity?
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People have to hide in groups when the task of developing as individuals becomes too onerous. As we all know, I don’t shirk that duty. ☺ Collective identities stink because they don’t exist without a degree of self-mutilation.
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“Collective identities stink because they don’t exist without a degree of self-mutilation.”
Only if you let them. I think we’re speaking at cross purposes. My identity is based party on unchangeable facts about my life and party how my life his turnng out (including choices I’ve made and things that have happened).
Recognizing the component parts doesn’t limit me and not recognizing them doesn’t help me expand my horizons.
Part of my identity is white (because I grew up in the desegregating South where it was impossible to not have a racialized identity). The past is unchangeable but I don’t limit myself to that.
I suppose you’re talking about weaponized politicized identity as a club to hit other people with (which is stupid, terrible and counterproductive).
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I think a problem is for dismantling identities to work then all ethnic identities need to be dismantled. There cannot be a double standard.
In the US it is taught that being proud of being white is racist and covering for a lack of personal accomplishment. However if you are black, you need to have black pride or you are an uncle Tom.
Also on the world stage Hungary received a lot of criticism for not helping out the migrants. Countries like Japan don’t like to take very many immigrants and Japan gets very little criticism for it’s isolationism. Many of the multiculturalists that I know love Anime and Japan which I find inconsistent for some one that values multiculturalism.
If there is a community that is almost all white it is a huge issue and the community needs diversity. If the town is almost all Chinese like a China town, I never hear people say how it’s such and issue and that the China towns need more diversity.
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Ethnicity is a clumsy, meaningless invention.
Everybody agrees that ghettoization of immigrants is a tragedy. I’m from an immigrant group that tends to ghetoize a lot and it’s extremely sad. So here you have somebody saying it’s a huge issue. Please remember this occasion. 😉
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I will remember this occasion.
Some of the China towns I’ve been through did not seem ghetto even though they are ethnically homogenous. Maybe there are some liberals that speak of making these areas more diverse but I have not heard them.
The nation of Japan is also economically well of yet they get less criticism than the poorer nation of Hungary for similar views on immigration.
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Japan will have serious, serious problems if they don’t overcome their insular mentality.
The only China Town I’ve visited is in Toronto and it’s huge. Many families there experience the tragedy of children wanting to escape and parents trying to bully them back. It’s sad.
As an immigrant, I don’t see the point of recreating a mini- old country in the new country. Why leave at all, in that case?
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What kind of problems will Japan have if they continue their current nationalism?
I don’t see why Japan should change course when situations in Sweden and Germany don’t seem to be going as well as the western academics thought.
The one I know is in Boston, It felt much more safe and affluent than the black areas but I admit I’m not an expert on China towns.
“As an immigrant, I don’t see the point of recreating a mini- old country in the new country. Why leave at all, in that case?”
As a non immigrant I also wonder the same thing.
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Nationalism has nothing to do with it. Let’s use terminology correctly.
Japan is a traumatized culture in decline. Their attitude to outsiders is a symptom, one of many.
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What is a better term?
Even if they are in decline I think they have some kind of a future. I can’t say the same for Sweden and Germany.
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Nationalism: advocacy of political independence for a particular country.
Source: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=nationalism
“As an immigrant, I don’t see the point of recreating a mini- old country in the new country. Why leave at all, in that case?”
It could be many of them don’t care about American, Swedish, or German culture and values, they are just here for better economic opportunities at best or worse to collect welfare, distribute drugs, or terrorize the host country .
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Mais look: in US since the Bakke case “diversity” is code for affirmative action. Affirmative action is and was about reparations for slavery / discrimination, i.e. was a mild form or reparations. It was called “reverse racism” and a form of discrimination and the defense became to discuss the positive value of “diversity.” That also permitted one to say one had a “diverse workplace” without taking affirmative action seriously. University diversity offices are often about making the university look non racist, not about actually combating racism or inequality. This is what “diversity” means (multiculturalism too, a grandes rasgos). If you don’t have a large population of non-voluntary immigrants, or refugees, etc., that you discriminate against systematically or have done, then you don’t need to do reparations / affirmative action and you don’t get exhorted to do so or appear to do so via veiled arguments about multiculturalism and diversity. Immigrants who self segregate, or areas that have been “homogeneous” for a long time and still are, are different cases. And re white pride, people do have it and used to have yet more of it. It was shameful to be of another race / color / ethnicity since these were inferior. Being white was an achievement and an honor, and many were very proud of it indeed. Black pride was a psychological cure to this: black people deciding they could be proud to be black instead of ashamed. Remember the James Brown song, it is 48 years old now, I am realizing, so people probably don’t know it, so it is worth teaching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say_It_Loud_%E2%80%93_I%27m_Black_and_I%27m_Proud
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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