What do the Nazi's and the alt right have in common? Well, aside from the obvious...they both hilariously describe themselves as being the protectors and defenders of white culture. And by white culture, we mean white Europeanism.
In case anyone has missed the irony here, the Nazi's are actually responsible for a great deal of damage to large portions of European culture and land and as I recall, tried to annihilate massive groups of other white persons, but I digress.
Often, I here the question "why is it okay for Black people to celebrate Black culture, but not okay for us to celebrate white culture?"
The answer is actually pretty simple here. Black culture is a thing, white culture is not. Allow me to explain. Let me take you back a few hundred of years (it's okay, you don't need to untuck your "white guilt".) In the midst of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, two things began to go missing for those unlucky persons who were removed from their African continent. 1. Their common language with those who were stolen along side them and 2. Their religions.
After decades of "your name is Toby!," being whipped for not speaking English and having limbs chopped off for practicing their own religions, their personal and group senses of individuality dissipated. Their only hope for community with one another was create their own new commonalities. Hence, African American culture as well as cultures that formed in the Caribbean and Central and South America, etc.
So, fast forward to today, there is a reason many Black American's worship at AME churches as well as communicate with one another using dialect or AAVE. They created their own culture in the new world and from there they have Rock-n-Roll, and Rap music, a palate for well seasoned food, cornrows and baby hairs, and the gifts ofthe *clap back* and the *twerk.*
Black culture is the culture we've created for ourselves intertwined with bits of culture passed down from the mother land.
Black pride is a movement that encourages Black people to celebrate themselves and embrace their black heritage while rejecting the dominant white ideology.
Now, why is it not okay for white people to embrace their own heritages, you ask? We'll it is okay. But white culture and white pride have nothing to do with white heritages.
Black people in the new world, Black Americans in particular generally have no way to trace their ancestral lines back to their original ancestors, let alone their African countries of origin, so sadly, the only culture they know started 400 years ago.
For white Americans, the story is very different. Many know exactly the parts of Europe their ancestors came from, which is why they are able to brag about being 12% Italian, 6% Polish and 2% milk. They are able to have EUROPEAN PRIDE, as well as, Italian pride or Polish pride or German pride or English pride...etc.
And white a Black American can say they have African pride, very few can pin it down to an exact country. And therefore, we lump our mixed heritages together to form a unifying Black pride in order to celebrate our unspecified Black cultures.
For anyone white to be able to say they are celebrating white culture, they must be speaking post 1600's, and therefore, the pride they include in this "culture" must include their habits of genocide, rape, pillage and slavery.
Today Black pride allows us to reminisce on the great thinkers and social justice warriors who pulled our ancestors through some of the words worst centuries - Harriet Tubman, W.E.B DuBois, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou.
This hypothetical "white pride" would allow white people to look up to who? Patty Cannon?
Another thing to note, although it has been said time and time again, Black pride is not white hate, although "white pride" could absolutely qualify as black hate. Black pride is a response to white supremacy whereas a "white pride" is a response to Black freedom.
This is why white supremacists tend to gravitate toward laughable religious affiliations (e.g. suburban Norse neo-paganism) and fringe philosophers. Their attempts to claim serious thinkers tend to be ridiculous, such as some white supremacists’ construction of a cartoon Nietzsche
- Nathaniel Blake
