tradeunionsupporter
15th April 2010, 19:35
If White Pride and White Racial Identity is wrong because the idea of a White Race came about during Slavery and European Imperialism I am aware of the fact that Roman and Greek European Imperialism and Enslaved Non White races happened before Arab Muslim/Islamic Imperialism but what about Asian Imperialism and Asian Slavery of other races and Arab Imperialism and Slavery of Black Africans and other races ?
What's so wrong about being proud of being white?
Two things are wrong with "white pride" or "white power:"
In particular, the definition of "white" first started to come about based on racial slavery and on European invasions and conquests of other continents and people. It has been reinforced in the U.S. and Canada by stripping "white" people of family histories, cultural links to specific nations and ethnic groups, in favor of identifying with a social group based on privilege. White privileges, like any privileges, are based on "good behavior," and can be taken away at any time. Wouldn't you rather have human rights than white privilege?
http://arastore.com/?page=faq
On White Pride and Other Delusions:
Reflections on the Rage of the Uninformed
By Tim Wise
May 23, 2007
"The price the white American paid for his ticket was to become white...This incredibly limited, not to say dimwitted ambition has choked many a human being to death here: and this, I contend, is because the white American has never accepted the real reasons for his journey. I know very well that my ancestors had no desire to come to this place: but neither did the ancestors of the people who became white and who require of my captivity a song. They require of me a song less to celebrate my captivity than to justify their own."
James Baldwin, "The Price of the Ticket," 1985
White Bonding as a Dangerous Distraction
But especially ironic is that by seeking to bond on the basis of whiteness, those pushing the concept end up ignoring the way in which white identity has actually harmed persons of European descent, by causing most of us to ignore our real interests, all for the sake of phony racial bonding. To understand why this is so, it might help to have some historical perspective on how the notion of whiteness came into being in the first place, and for what purpose.
Contrary to popular belief, the white race is a quite modern creation, which only emerged as a term and concept to describe Europeans in the late 1600s and after, specifically in the colonies of what would become the United States. Prior to that time, "whites" had been a collection of Europeans with little in common, and often long histories of conflict, bloodshed and conquest of one another's lands and peoples. The English, for example, did not consider themselves to be of the same group as the Irish, Germans, Italians, or French. While most Europeans by that time may have thought of themselves as Christians, there is no evidence that they conceived of themselves as a race of people, with a common heritage or destiny.
But the notion of the white race found traction in the North American colonies, not because it described a clear scientific concept, or some true historical bond between persons of European descent, but rather, because the elites of the colonies (who were small in number but controlled the vast majority of colonial wealth) needed a way to secure their power. At the time, the wealthy landowners feared rebellions, in which poor European peasants might join with African slaves to overthrow aristocratic governance; after all, these poor Europeans were barely above the level of slaves themselves, especially if they worked as indentured servants (9).
In 1676, for example, Bacon's Rebellion prompted a new round of colonial laws to extend rights and privileges to despised poor Europeans, so as to divide them from those slaves with whom they had much in common, economically speaking. By allowing the lowest of Europeans to be placed legally above all Africans, and by encouraging (or even requiring) them to serve on slave patrols, the elite gave poor "whites" a stake in the system that had harmed them. Giving poor Europeans the right to own land, ending indentured servitude in the early 1700s, and in some cases allowing them to vote, were all measures implemented so as to convince lower-caste Europeans that their interests were closer to those of the rich than to those of blacks. It was within this context that the term "white" to describe Europeans en masse was born, as an umbrella term to capture the new pan-Euro unity needed to defend the system of African slavery and Indian genocide going on in the Americas (10). And the trick worked marvelously, dampening down the push for rebellion by poor whites on the basis of class interest, and encouraging them to cast their lot with the elite, if only in aspirational terms.
This divide-and-conquer tactic would be extended and refined in future generations as well. Indeed, the very first law passed by the newly established Congress of the United States was the Naturalization Act of 1790, which extended citizenship to all "free white persons," and only free white persons, including newly arrived immigrants, so long as the latter would make their homes in the U.S. for a year. Despite longstanding animosities between persons of European descent, all blood feuds were put aside for the purpose of extending pan-Euro or white hegemony over the United States (11).
During the Civil War, the process of using "whiteness" to further divide working people from one another continued. So, for example, Southern elites made it quite clear that their reason for secession from the Union was the desire to maintain and extend the institution of slavery and white supremacy, which institutions they felt were threatened by the rise of Lincoln and the Republican Party. One might think that seceding and going to war to defend slavery would hardly meet with the approval of poor white folks, who didn't own slaves. After all, if slaves can be made to work for free, any working class white person who must charge for their labor will be undercut by slave labor, and find it harder to make ends meet. Yet by convincing poor whites that their interests were racial, rather than economic, and that whites in the South had to band together to defend "their way of life," the elites in the South conned these same lower-caste Europeans into joining a destructive war effort that cost hundreds of thousands of lives (12): their lives, in fact.
Then during the growth of the labor union movement, white union workers barred blacks from apprenticeship programs and unions because of racism, encouraged in this by owners and bosses who would use workers of color to break white labor strikes for better wages and working conditions. By bringing in blacks and others of color to break strikes, bosses counted on white workers turning on those replacing them, rather than turning on the bosses themselves. And indeed, this is what happened time and again, further elevating whiteness above class interest in the minds of European Americans (13). The effectiveness of racist propaganda to unite whites around race, even if it meant overlooking economic interests was stunning. Nowhere was this phenomena better summed up than in the words of one white Texas fireman, who responded to the suggestion that the ranks of railroaders should be opened up to blacks by saying, "We would rather be absolute slaves of capital than to take the Negro into our lodges as an equal and brother (14)."
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/whitepride.html (http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/whitepride.html)
Transcript of Radio Debate between Jared Taylor and Tim Wise
The Infidel Guy Show May 11, 2005
TIM: Here's the problem. And, Jared, when he and I debated at Vanderbilt about a year and a half ago made this argument about loving your own family more than other families and he proceeded to say then though he didn't it now, I'm sure he still believes it, that in a sense whites are each other's extended family of sorts, or that one's race is one's extended family. I would just say this is all the proof you need of the fallacy of the white nationalist position for four reasons. Number one, since when have whites been one big family? Again, I would argue historically, that the concept of whiteness was artificially created for the purpose of collectively benefiting Europeans, who had previously hated one another, putting us all one the same team so as to subordinate others. So it's a false analogy. Secondly, this notion of family is fascinating because family is also socially constructed. It's not a matter of blood. That's what adoption proves, first of all. It's what extended family networks prove. It's what marriage proves. After all, we don't marry people, at least I don't, who are in my own bloodline. They're not members of our family until we wed them, then they become family. I love my wife, for example, more than anyone on earth, but we're not blood relatives. My children, who are blood relatives, I love them I suppose equally with my wife, but not more because they are blood relatives. So even the concept of family on the micro level is a socially constructed thing. I've never met an adoptive parent for example who loved their adopted children less than their biological children, because they have created them as family. They have brought them into the family. Third, it's a false analogy because even if I prefer my family, and I do frankly to anyone else's, that doesn't mean that I only want to be around my family members, which is what white nationalism ultimately proposes. Finally, I would ask Jared why in the world I as a white person should be quicker to consider the Croatian or other central European immigrant maybe has come to the US in the last couple of years, why should I consider them more family to me than black folks here in the South where I live and have always lived, who I have shared a common nation and a culture with, or my people have for hundreds of years? It just doesn't make sense.
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/taylordebate.html (http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/taylordebate.html)
What's so wrong about being proud of being white?
Two things are wrong with "white pride" or "white power:"
In particular, the definition of "white" first started to come about based on racial slavery and on European invasions and conquests of other continents and people. It has been reinforced in the U.S. and Canada by stripping "white" people of family histories, cultural links to specific nations and ethnic groups, in favor of identifying with a social group based on privilege. White privileges, like any privileges, are based on "good behavior," and can be taken away at any time. Wouldn't you rather have human rights than white privilege?
http://arastore.com/?page=faq
On White Pride and Other Delusions:
Reflections on the Rage of the Uninformed
By Tim Wise
May 23, 2007
"The price the white American paid for his ticket was to become white...This incredibly limited, not to say dimwitted ambition has choked many a human being to death here: and this, I contend, is because the white American has never accepted the real reasons for his journey. I know very well that my ancestors had no desire to come to this place: but neither did the ancestors of the people who became white and who require of my captivity a song. They require of me a song less to celebrate my captivity than to justify their own."
James Baldwin, "The Price of the Ticket," 1985
White Bonding as a Dangerous Distraction
But especially ironic is that by seeking to bond on the basis of whiteness, those pushing the concept end up ignoring the way in which white identity has actually harmed persons of European descent, by causing most of us to ignore our real interests, all for the sake of phony racial bonding. To understand why this is so, it might help to have some historical perspective on how the notion of whiteness came into being in the first place, and for what purpose.
Contrary to popular belief, the white race is a quite modern creation, which only emerged as a term and concept to describe Europeans in the late 1600s and after, specifically in the colonies of what would become the United States. Prior to that time, "whites" had been a collection of Europeans with little in common, and often long histories of conflict, bloodshed and conquest of one another's lands and peoples. The English, for example, did not consider themselves to be of the same group as the Irish, Germans, Italians, or French. While most Europeans by that time may have thought of themselves as Christians, there is no evidence that they conceived of themselves as a race of people, with a common heritage or destiny.
But the notion of the white race found traction in the North American colonies, not because it described a clear scientific concept, or some true historical bond between persons of European descent, but rather, because the elites of the colonies (who were small in number but controlled the vast majority of colonial wealth) needed a way to secure their power. At the time, the wealthy landowners feared rebellions, in which poor European peasants might join with African slaves to overthrow aristocratic governance; after all, these poor Europeans were barely above the level of slaves themselves, especially if they worked as indentured servants (9).
In 1676, for example, Bacon's Rebellion prompted a new round of colonial laws to extend rights and privileges to despised poor Europeans, so as to divide them from those slaves with whom they had much in common, economically speaking. By allowing the lowest of Europeans to be placed legally above all Africans, and by encouraging (or even requiring) them to serve on slave patrols, the elite gave poor "whites" a stake in the system that had harmed them. Giving poor Europeans the right to own land, ending indentured servitude in the early 1700s, and in some cases allowing them to vote, were all measures implemented so as to convince lower-caste Europeans that their interests were closer to those of the rich than to those of blacks. It was within this context that the term "white" to describe Europeans en masse was born, as an umbrella term to capture the new pan-Euro unity needed to defend the system of African slavery and Indian genocide going on in the Americas (10). And the trick worked marvelously, dampening down the push for rebellion by poor whites on the basis of class interest, and encouraging them to cast their lot with the elite, if only in aspirational terms.
This divide-and-conquer tactic would be extended and refined in future generations as well. Indeed, the very first law passed by the newly established Congress of the United States was the Naturalization Act of 1790, which extended citizenship to all "free white persons," and only free white persons, including newly arrived immigrants, so long as the latter would make their homes in the U.S. for a year. Despite longstanding animosities between persons of European descent, all blood feuds were put aside for the purpose of extending pan-Euro or white hegemony over the United States (11).
During the Civil War, the process of using "whiteness" to further divide working people from one another continued. So, for example, Southern elites made it quite clear that their reason for secession from the Union was the desire to maintain and extend the institution of slavery and white supremacy, which institutions they felt were threatened by the rise of Lincoln and the Republican Party. One might think that seceding and going to war to defend slavery would hardly meet with the approval of poor white folks, who didn't own slaves. After all, if slaves can be made to work for free, any working class white person who must charge for their labor will be undercut by slave labor, and find it harder to make ends meet. Yet by convincing poor whites that their interests were racial, rather than economic, and that whites in the South had to band together to defend "their way of life," the elites in the South conned these same lower-caste Europeans into joining a destructive war effort that cost hundreds of thousands of lives (12): their lives, in fact.
Then during the growth of the labor union movement, white union workers barred blacks from apprenticeship programs and unions because of racism, encouraged in this by owners and bosses who would use workers of color to break white labor strikes for better wages and working conditions. By bringing in blacks and others of color to break strikes, bosses counted on white workers turning on those replacing them, rather than turning on the bosses themselves. And indeed, this is what happened time and again, further elevating whiteness above class interest in the minds of European Americans (13). The effectiveness of racist propaganda to unite whites around race, even if it meant overlooking economic interests was stunning. Nowhere was this phenomena better summed up than in the words of one white Texas fireman, who responded to the suggestion that the ranks of railroaders should be opened up to blacks by saying, "We would rather be absolute slaves of capital than to take the Negro into our lodges as an equal and brother (14)."
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/whitepride.html (http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/whitepride.html)
Transcript of Radio Debate between Jared Taylor and Tim Wise
The Infidel Guy Show May 11, 2005
TIM: Here's the problem. And, Jared, when he and I debated at Vanderbilt about a year and a half ago made this argument about loving your own family more than other families and he proceeded to say then though he didn't it now, I'm sure he still believes it, that in a sense whites are each other's extended family of sorts, or that one's race is one's extended family. I would just say this is all the proof you need of the fallacy of the white nationalist position for four reasons. Number one, since when have whites been one big family? Again, I would argue historically, that the concept of whiteness was artificially created for the purpose of collectively benefiting Europeans, who had previously hated one another, putting us all one the same team so as to subordinate others. So it's a false analogy. Secondly, this notion of family is fascinating because family is also socially constructed. It's not a matter of blood. That's what adoption proves, first of all. It's what extended family networks prove. It's what marriage proves. After all, we don't marry people, at least I don't, who are in my own bloodline. They're not members of our family until we wed them, then they become family. I love my wife, for example, more than anyone on earth, but we're not blood relatives. My children, who are blood relatives, I love them I suppose equally with my wife, but not more because they are blood relatives. So even the concept of family on the micro level is a socially constructed thing. I've never met an adoptive parent for example who loved their adopted children less than their biological children, because they have created them as family. They have brought them into the family. Third, it's a false analogy because even if I prefer my family, and I do frankly to anyone else's, that doesn't mean that I only want to be around my family members, which is what white nationalism ultimately proposes. Finally, I would ask Jared why in the world I as a white person should be quicker to consider the Croatian or other central European immigrant maybe has come to the US in the last couple of years, why should I consider them more family to me than black folks here in the South where I live and have always lived, who I have shared a common nation and a culture with, or my people have for hundreds of years? It just doesn't make sense.
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/taylordebate.html (http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/taylordebate.html)