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Is "white pride" inherently racist?



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Sure feels like it.

There's a growing college group, Youth for Western Civilization, that, rather than being proud of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, or the Renaissance, likes to focus instead on "white pride" and "straight pride."  In my opinion, yeah, that's kind of racist.  The group argues, hey, there's Black Pride and Gay Pride, why don't they get their "pride" too.  It strikes me as a racist question, but at the same time, it's an interesting one that deserves an answer.

Why is Black Pride and Gay Pride okay whereas the other ones clearly set off our alarm bells?  To some degree, you'd have to ask a black person what they're "proud" of, and then think as to whether there's a similar "white" counterpart that doesn't come off sounding white supremacist.  Part of the problem is that I'm not convinced that American, for example, has a "white community."  We have white people.  They often live in the same community as other white people, but we don't define our community as "white."  We might attend the same church and define our community by our faith, we might define our community by our ethnic background - and be proud of both of those.  But I've never really thought of myself as a member of a white "community," nor been proud of it.

For example, I'm a member of the gay community and the Greek community.  I'm proud of my membership in both.  I define myself by my membership in both.  But I just don't think of being white the same way.  Clearly these guys do.

Having said that, gays certainly perceive the existence of a "straight community," even though straight people may not fully realize they're part of a specific community for being straight.  And I suspect that African-Americans recognize the existence of a "white community" even though most white people don't see themselves as a community simply for being white.

It's a complicated issue.  And I don't like saying that something is bigoted simply because it's feels that way.  But it does.

Thoughts?


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