Two weeks ago, I started off my series by writing, The Day I Realized I Was White. The purpose of this article was to show my white Brothers and Sisters that as white Americans, it is important to realize that we too have an ethnicity. For only when we become self-aware, can we have meaningful conversations about race. (Especially since nearly every other people group in America sees us as a group.) With this, I also mentioned that we have a White Culture, which will be the topic of this op-ed and the following one! A Short note to my dear friends of other ethnicities who are not ethnically White: these past two articles have indeed, been tailored to white people. With that being said, if you are reading these, I hope this gives you some insight into why we act the way we do when anything involving Race comes up and encourages you to have grace on us. We really do need it.

I get it. You look at the title of this article and think: Proud to be White? Is that Racist? Being proud of one’s heritage mustn’t mean that we forget about the horrible atrocities our ancestors have caused. White Pride does not equivocate to White Supremacy. I am here to hopefully persuade you that before you and I can have meaningful conversations about Race and try to understand others, we must realize the good and the bad of our ethnic heritage and our White Identity. We must acknowledge the bad lest we want history to repeat itself. However, let us also not believe the lie that we cannot be proud to be White. As a follower of Christ, I truly believe that God has placed amazing traits in each culture, including White Culture. Additionally, every culture also has some negative traits. I also believe that God can redeem those areas if we let him. (If you are Christian, do not worry. I will touch on more universal points to get to you. I, as every other human, just talk from what we know!) Now, when talking about cultures, I realize that these broad generalizing traits never apply to every single individual. In fact, some of different ethnicities reading this may, in fact, identify strongly with some of these traits. However, we do this because we find patterns in people groups.

I arrived at these cultural traits by having conversations with some of my White brothers and sisters in ODU InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, while also reading a wonderful book called: “Being White: Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World” by Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp. This op-ed will be Part One on White culture 101! Anyways, here we go:

Individualism

Us White folks often get confused when we are told that this is a value of our culture. After all, this is an American value! Everyone holds these values! Not so much. As stated in my previous article, as the majority, what is often White Culture we tend to think is simply American Culture. This cultural trait tends to be the reason that we find it hard to have conversations about race. White people truly believe that if you try hard enough, you can accomplish anything! We also tend to not acknowledge that others feel deep connections to their people groups and cultures. This also leaves no room for acknowledging our systemic racism that still exists today. However, now that I talked about the bad features of this trait, let’s switch it up and talk about the good qualities of it.

For starters, we often accomplish and go after our dreams due to this belief. The sky is the limit! From a young boy, I remember always wanting to amount to something. We are truly taught at a young age by our parents that that the individual can accomplish amazing things. This cultural trait also can lead to thinking outside the box. In other words, innovation. My Mom would always praise me when I didn’t follow the crowd in social situations.

Work Ethic

For this one, let us start with some of the positives of this trait. Growing up as a young boy, my Mom and Dad always worked long hours. I almost never heard my Mom or Dad complain about their work and even if they did, they would always take pride in the hard work they put in. To them, it was more than a job. It was a part of them. Growing up I was instilled with the same work-ethic. In High School, I worked on a Farm. I took pride in my work because, as I was taught, your work says a lot about you. I was also taught to be passionate about whatever you work on. So, even though I never worked on a farm before, I earnestly sought to learn from my boss about different things on the farm.

Now, let’s get to some setbacks of this trait! We tend to want to attach self-worth of humans to what they do and can accomplish. That is not a healthy way to view humanity and as a Christian I believe it is also not an accurate representation of what God made us for. Additionally, when looking at poverty or other social justice issues, we sometimes are tempted to believe that if people just worked hard enough, they could get out of the bad situations they were in; therefore, they do not need our help and are just asking for handouts. Unfortunately, one individual cannot always change their circumstances. I recall my freshmen year of college, going to a homeless Shelter in New York. There were many Veterans and other individuals who were homeless and could simply not find jobs. In fact, I recall one man who consistently went job searching every week. It is heartbreaking to hear, but it is true.

For those of you who are White and well on your ethnic journey, I hope this encourages you to keep pushing forward. Now, for those of you who are White and ashamed to claim your ethnicity, I hope this encourages you to be proud of your ethnic heritage and identity. Let me close by addressing this group who are ashamed to acknowledge their Whiteness by telling a personal story:

Last year, when I finally acknowledged my whiteness and the countless injustices my people have done to other people groups and still do, I was ashamed. Anytime anyone mentioned that I was White, I cringed inside. This self-hatred seemed to be the answer to the racial turmoil and white privilege. How could I alone make up for generations of slavery and oppression that my people have done? How could I account for the blind eye that many Whites in America seemed to have the racial tension going on then and still today? From this, I started disliking other White People. This might seem silly to you and if it does seem that way, great. No one should ever feel that way. I generally loathed hanging around some of my White friends who seemed ignorant of the problems that other ethnicities and groups faced in our societies. Oddly enough, it was my friends of different ethnic backgrounds than myself who encouraged me to be proud of my whiteness. It was them who encouraged me, knowingly or not, to look into what being White meant. This Bible verse has also helped me along the way: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Next week, I will write Part two of this op-ed and talk of additional values we have as White Americans. The following I will write on displacement. After that, I will focus on more on how Whites can work towards establishing a just society where white people are not in charge, but instead where white people and people of other cultures are actually dependent on each other. Because, as I will argue in my following articles, we need each other.