Romany RE; reverse racism

My previous post refers to the fact that the author of the article said how proud he was when his child stood up in class and said "I'm proud to be Aboriginal." I asked "and what if a white child stood up in a class that contained some aboriginals and said "I'm proud to be white". This would be interpreted by Aboriginies as an example of declaring white supremacy or as racism.

This is reverse racism-: When its Ok for one race to make proud utterances and praise of their race but they call it racism when another race does the same thing. It means that they declare this sort of behaviour as racist on the one hand but call it the reverse(non-racism) on the other hand, when their race does it.

You declare you pride to be white every post Sharkfin, you're just not aware of it.

But I suppose for you thats is what its means to be white, ie, not really knowing what it means at all and never having to explain it beyond the color of your skin. Why? Because you don't have to, cos you think the world is a place where you don't have to explain your own racial background on a daily basis to people who are not white --and who are incidently the majority of the worlds population.

Reverse Racism you cry? LOL

Go figure!

Sharkfin, I think that there is a difference between saying "proud to be an Aboriginie" and "proud to be black". I had to think long and hard about it, but I do believe that there is a difference. I am proud of my heritage and the "races" that contributed to my gene pool, but not proud to be white. That said I dont have any hang-ups because I am white, its just that I dont see it as an identifying feature. I see myself as Australian, with a heritage of English, Scottish, Prussian, Polish and Jewish cultures, and I find it quite interesting exploring family history and the interaction of these quite different cultures

Rainier, I dont think that there is a majority of white in the world population, well at least not if you are comparing white against coloured, so I suppose it depends on your point of reference. I just look at the fact that between China and India you have a third of the entire population, then take into account Africa, South America and Arabia. You can then debate whether Greeks and Italians are white or otherwise. Certainly they are European, but different to the English, for example.

As a proud Anglo-Celtic-German-French-Australian ( and after six or seven generations probably qualify for being indigenous i.e. occuring naturally in a location) who usually comments on education posts, I am bemused that our Aborignal-Australian, who refers to African-Americans, although wallowing in victimhood, manages to regale us subtly with the fact that his children attend private schools! Being a victim can't be all soursobs and thistle then!

Victim hood? mmm? That's an easy way to avoid the facts of history or moral recognition that these facts usually elicit from people with high emotional intelligence.

I see absolutely no lack of integrity or character in pointing out this history, me a victim? walk a mile in my shoes and see if you can keep up with me.

Whiteness as you explain and understand it emerged as "pan-ethnic" category, as a way of merging a variety of European ethnic populations into a single "race," especially so as to distinguish them from people with whom they had very particular legal and political relations -- Africans, Asians, American Indians, Aborigines -- that were not seen and intellectually equal to their relations with one another as "whites."

ie, Whiteness was invented first, then you invented the rest of us to protect yourselves against us.

When you understand the benign and covert effects of racism then by all means declare what you want.

But from my angle you've got a long way to go.

Anyone being proud of "their" race has always seemed a little odd to me. It's not like I helped Ludwig Van write any of his famous symphonies, or as though I had a hand in helping Fleming or Florey discover the miracle mould, and so on. Thus, it seems a bit odd when non-white people also try to lay claim to "their" cultures.