In an effort to, as far as I can guess, warn people about White Culture, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture has published a nifty little chart. It identifies the aspects and assumptions of Whiteness and White Culture in America.
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The page, which is labeled “Talking about Race”, outlines its definitions for “white privilege”, “white racial identity,” “white supremacy,” and “white nationalism” while promoting a variety of resources on how to address “white fragility.”
“Whiteness and white racialized identity refer to the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups of are compared,” the website reads. “Whiteness is also at the core of understanding race in America. Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America’s history have created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal.”
“Whiteness (and its accepted normality) also exist as everyday microaggressions toward people of color. Acts of microaggressions include verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs or insults toward nonwhites. Whether intentional or not, these attitudes communicate hostile, derogatory, or harmful messages,” the page adds.
I take the graphic below to mean that these things represent microaggressions (intentional or not), but the question we may want to ask is; if these are offensive, what assumptions does it make about non-white persons and why (drumroll) is none of these (or their opposites) racist?
I’m white, so I’m not supposed to have an opinion here, but since this is an opinion blog, you’re going to get my opinion either way.
This graph should offend every person of color descended from folks who a few generations ago, embraced most or all of these ideas as a way to free themselves from poverty. It should offend every poor white person. It ought to just be universally offensive. That the Smithsonian would infer that things like hard work, family, history, and scientific study are white traits and not just features of human curiosity or ambition.
This rhetoric appears to be political propaganda designed to deny generations of Americans the opportunity to embrace a culture and a system that has freed more people from dependence than any in history.
All of which are dismissed by passages like this.
“Facing your whiteness is hard and can result in feelings of guilt, sadness, confusion, defensiveness, or fear,” the page suggests. “For white people doing anti-racist and social justice work, the first meaningful step should be to recognize their fragility around racial issues and build their emotional stamina.”
Why the Smithsonian does not feel guilty is beyond me. Labeling any of these things or worse refusing to accept their interpretation as racist is, what, racist?
Human beings, regardless of culture, value personal and professional accomplishments built on the foundation of the nuclear family. To be free enough to choose their path to success. These are not white ideas; they are human liberty ideas.
They work in any culture that is committed to making them more important than cults of personality or the whims of an oligarchic ruling class. They allow individuals to decide their success or failure.
The alternative appears to be for people of color to put their faith in the class of political elites responsible for the poverty, crime, poor education, and general dependency that is the hallmark of the Left’s urban utopias. Places run by people who, ironically, embraced many of these so-called aspects and assumptions of whiteness to claim the right to rule.
If that does not tell you what is going on here, I’m not sure I can help, but at least I tried.
