Why do white Americans think they have no culture?
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  Why do white Americans think they have no culture?
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Author Topic: Why do white Americans think they have no culture?  (Read 661 times)
wimp
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« on: June 19, 2021, 06:59:52 AM »

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WindowPhil
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« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2021, 07:28:21 AM »

Because what people refer to as "white culture"  is just mainstream American culture. Owing to the fact that nonhispanic white people make up 60% of the population and have historically been the group in control of U.S financial capital and mainstream consumerism. And there's no need to have a collective identity around being white since it's seen as the default in the United States.

Hip Hop is often seen as a "Black thing" while Hair Metal isn't really seen as a "white thing" (despite hair metal being heavily white). Because Black people are 12% of the population and haven't historically controlled financial capital. So something with a heavy concentration of Black people is seen as being outside the default. And white people who are outside of the American mainstream aren't seen as aspects of white culture. In that case, it's "Mormon culture" or "Southern Culture".

But that's not the only thing, American culture has been heavily exported around the world and has been seen as the global default for quite some time. Snobs in Europe ridiculously say America has no culture as they watch a marvel movie while wearing blue jeans.

So it's a combination of those. Being part of the default group of a country that's seen as the default country. Where non-mainstream white people aren't seen as white when they're outside the mainstream, but something else. While white people may have no culture based collectively around being white since they've always been a part of the American mainstream, that doesn't mean America has no culture or specific groups of white people don't have a culture.
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vitoNova
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« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2021, 09:07:41 AM »

Mayonnaise sandwiches is not culture, whyte people. 
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Del Tachi
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« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2021, 09:46:56 AM »

Mayonnaise sandwiches is not culture, whyte people. 

White people who convinced themselves they don’t like mayonnaise got duped when restaurants started calling it “aioli” lol
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Red Velvet
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« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2021, 10:03:32 AM »
« Edited: June 19, 2021, 10:07:25 AM by Red Velvet »

Because US is historically very segregated country and people were led to believe white US culture is just US culture, while other groups culture is seen as a niche thing that isn’t really American.

That goes back to minorities having to be always associated with their origins, because the white majority doesn’t really see them as Americans (Even if not intentionally, instinct constructed during years makes them see US as a white country).

That’s why Black Americans are often called AFRO-Americans, as if it was something that deviates from the standard, putting emphasis on the African origin as if they weren’t fully American (which again, is socially treated as a white country). Same thing for ASIAN-Americans. US Latinos aren’t even referenced as Americans even though US Latino culture is very specific to the US because of the specific immigrants experience INSIDE that country, which makes them more US Americans than Latin Americans.

But White Americans are never called EURO-Americans or something. Such notion would be treated as absolutely ridiculous by both the US (which sees itself as white and therefore, associating white Americans to Europe instead of US is offensive) and Europe (which culture is different from the one White Americans are socialized within and they don’t see Americans as Europeans).

So I don’t think it makes sense to associate US minorities to their origin, be it Asia, Africa or Latin America, because they most likely share little to no bond with those places even if they retain some cultural aspects like white ones do too. Black Americans have very different world views and customs than a Black African or a Black Brazilian for example. They are just Americans in my view and I would see them as gringos in the same way as White Americans are seen whenever they come here. Because they have more in common with the white Americans than with any of the Brazilians due to the country culture they grew up with.
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HisGrace
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« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2021, 03:33:11 PM »

There absolutely is white American culture. The problem is a lot of people think today that for something to be a "culture" you have to have the right to exclude other people from it (i.e, claims of cultural appropriation) which white people don't.
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💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)
peenie_weenie
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« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2021, 03:52:55 PM »

Not to disagree strongly with any of the above but I can't help but think about this classic 2004-era meme:



Context here was that in the wake of the Iraq War, conservatives took a position as hyper-patriotic and reflexively liberals took a very muted and often self-flagellating stance on patriotism and national identity.

This is not a long-history view, but in recent decades as the right has adopted a more (ethno-)nationalist stance, the left has moved towards a more cosmopolitan stance that erases (or negatively distorts) American culture in a way that

(1) creates contrast with nationalist conservatives
(2) glorifies other nations (in the early 00s it was Europe and Canada, now it's generally cosmopolitan global cities) as the only "truly" cultured places
(3) caters to the changing demography of the party that has been increasingly non-white and college educated
(4) generally tracks a growing strain of liberalism that sees much of US history and contemporary America as a series of struggles and inequities that should not be enshrined, and associates contemporary American "culture" with these struggles
(5) due to demography is over-represented in many institutions, especially elite institutions outside of the corporate world

The result is a view that white American culture either does not exist, or it should not exist.
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Ferguson97
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« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2021, 03:53:47 PM »

Because "white culture" is a meaningless term, just as "Latino culture" and "Asian culture" are meaningless terms because of just how many countries that could mean. Italian vs Irish, Mexican vs Puerto Rican, Japanese vs Korean... extremely different cultures.

In an American context, "Black culture" has a very specific meaning because the overwhelming majority of Black Americans are descendants of slaves and may not know what country their ancestors were taken from. It could be Chad, it could be Senegal, it could be Nigeria. They don't know.

Most white Americans do know where their ancestors came from. Mine came from Ireland, England, Scotland, Italy, Wales, and Canada. I have an interest in my Irish ancestry and usually answer "Irish" when someone asks my family's background.

So "white culture" is sort of a meaningless term.
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Damocles
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« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2021, 09:20:26 PM »

Because the very idea of an overlapping “White” culture is a falsity. I myself have ancestry from Czechia on my dad’s side and the North of England on my mom’s side, and I was raised in a rural Pennsylvania town which was originally colonized by Germans (where German language and culture experienced something of a contemporary revival).

Identity and individuality are all delicate subjects. Groups of immigrants may shift language or religion over time, and their children generally assimilate, but to differing degrees. This results in a rich cultural tapestry in which many different things can be American, but where they are all bound together by the Enlightenment values originally created in eighteenth-century Great Britain.

The idea of “White” as a radical, racialized, reductionist identity only makes sense in the context of the highly authoritarian South, where one’s position in the antebellum world was measured mainly by their proximity to the slaves. The whiter you were or were perceived to be, the greater social prestige you had. The institution of a “White” identity was always a defensive reaction to “Black” cultural solidarity and can only be understood in a reactionary context.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2021, 09:38:55 PM »

Whites do have a culture it's divided into Irish Celtic, Jewish Culture and Anglo Saxon, everyone is related and The Little people are in all cultures

Asians have little people, whites have little people, LATINOS have little people and blacks have little people we are primates coming from a junior chimp

Heavy Metal is an Anglo Saxon tradition music genre and so is Thor whom represents Zeus and Loki as Satan

Every race have a culture
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World politics is up Schmitt creek
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« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2021, 11:44:29 PM »

Race scientist OC is worst OC.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #11 on: June 20, 2021, 03:09:22 AM »

Reggae and Creole Culture is Afro Americans, just like Heavy Metal and Rock.is European culture and playing bagpipes at police funerals and wearing kilts that British, Scotts and Irish wear

We use to have Michael Jackson pop but he is dead
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Samof94
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« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2021, 06:40:48 AM »

Canadians (minus Quebec) Australian and Kiwis are similar
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Mr. Morden
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« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2021, 10:14:24 AM »

We use to have Michael Jackson pop but he is dead

I never realized that before, but I just did a quick fact check, and I can confirm your story: He is dead.
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If my soul was made of stone
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« Reply #14 on: June 20, 2021, 10:18:19 AM »

We use to have Michael Jackson pop but he is dead

I never realized that before, but I just did a quick fact check, and I can confirm your story: He is dead.



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Alben Barkley
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« Reply #15 on: June 20, 2021, 11:12:38 AM »

We use to have Michael Jackson pop but he is dead

I never realized that before, but I just did a quick fact check, and I can confirm your story: He is dead.


That’s what they want you to think.
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