(no subject)

[serene]

Mine is a white ethnic blog.

That is to say, I recognize that when I am talking about anything here, I am talking about it from a white person's perspective. I have a lot of examined-and-discarded bias in my history, but don't doubt I have a lot of unexamined bias, too. I was raised in a racist environment in a racist country by racist people, and I can't possibly have escaped some of their thinking. I just want to acknowledge that here, and let you all know that if you ever wanna call me on that shit, I'm listening.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

My blog reflects a lifetime of passing for white despite being 1/4 Hun.

[kake]

I see where this (as in, the thing you linked to) is coming from, but it seems in a way that it's a bit of a cop-out, rather like men going "oh, yes, I'm sexist, I admit that", yet not changing their actual behaviour.

I'm too tired to go into this any more now, and have about fifteen tabs open of things to reply to, so may not be able to come back to this - I'm sorry if this seems rude, but I didn't want to let this pass without saying something.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

"White" isn't an ethnicity; it is something different that is more pernicious.

In saying that, of course, I have to acknowledge that I am white -- that is to say, anyone immersed in the discourse of American culture would instantly identify me as white.

Ethnically, I'm largely Anglo-American, 1/4 Irish, with a soupcon of Apache (by way of a great-great-grandmother).

"White" is a social construction, and who is considered white has changed over time. Jews in America became white sometime in the past century, for example.

I often make the mistake of treating "white" as synonymous with "Caucasian" -- which once led to a big misunderstanding in an anti-racism group I was in, when I confronted an Iranian woman in the group for identifying herself as a person on color. Yes, she's as Caucasian as I am, if not more, but try explaining that to the grocery store clerks who treat her like a potential shoplifter.