As Chris Rock so blatantly put it, it doesn't matter where you come from. A white person is a white person.You could have arrived fresh off the boat from Romania, but you'd still be a white person.

The only distinction I have of white people are those who are mostly and openly racist and those who are only a little bit and closeted racists.

That's why I never understood why the KKK hated Jews and why Irish and Italians were hated back in the early days. How can one white person hate another white person? You're all the same in that 1) you'll always have an advantage in the world and 2) you don't know what it's like to be poor unless the stock market is in a negative state.

In fact, being white is so good that people should be able to buy whiteness. It'd be great to go into a store, or a racial brokerage firm and buy enough whiteness to live in the best neighborhoods, eat the best foods, get into the best country clubs, and all the other things that go along with white privilege.

Because "white" is an idea of recent invention, slightly newer that the scientific conception of race. WASPs did not think of themselves as belonging to the same group as Southern or Eastern Europeans, or the Irish, or Jews. There is nothing inherent about the idea of whiteness; the Irish became "white" when WASPs became more concerned about non-English-speaking immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Jews. Then those people, except for the Jews, got to be "white" when the concern was poor black migrants from the South; the hierarchies remained, however, and all whites were certainly not created equal.

And if you think that all white people are wealthy, let alone all the same in any other way, you really don't know very many white people. Being white doesn't get you a house in the best neighborhood, or a membership at a country club: having money does that.

citygurl104:

As Chris Rock so blatantly put it, it doesn't matter where you come from. A white person is a white person.You could have arrived fresh off the boat from Romania, but you'd still be a white person.

The only distinction I have of white people are those who are mostly and openly racist and those who are only a little bit and closeted racists.

That's why I never understood why the KKK hated Jews and why Irish and Italians were hated back in the early days. How can one white person hate another white person? You're all the same in that 1) you'll always have an advantage in the world and 2) you don't know what it's like to be poor unless the stock market is in a negative state.

In fact, being white is so good that people should be able to buy whiteness. It'd be great to go into a store, or a racial brokerage firm and buy enough whiteness to live in the best neighborhoods, eat the best foods, get into the best country clubs, and all the other things that go along with white privilege.

Wow! You sound just like a Kluxer! I wish I was rich as Michael Jordon, Michael Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey, and on and on and on.......

Good thing scientists have traced the origins of all humans back to YES! AFRICA! which reduces all of those 'racist' monikers to mere 'ethnic' monikers because we all have come from the same place. But I am considered "white" but I am really colored; pink skin with brown dots [the Africa that never left me] green eyes and golden hair. Two or three tone skin when I tan in the summer. And yes, I am a racist. I am an equal opportunity offender of all that is human and our odd and idiotic ways as well as our honorable and shining moments. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, thank goodness because I've learned to appreciate good food. But don't ever assume or say that all Italians are Mafia because you may walk away missing teeth.

And African blacks? I think that evolution scientists already know that they're the 'missing link' BUT not to apes but a more primitive human. And I would consider that an honor by the way, not an insult. Those humans who stayed in the motherland never really were forced to change by the harsher forces of mother nature in the colder or higher altitude climes. They didn't need to develop new tools to hunt game for effectively or build stronger, warmer shelter. They stayed in the tropics and equitorial regions so their skinned never lightened. They are what is closest to our earliest ancestors. And it does not make them lesser humans as history has proven that genius or exceptional achievement crosses all lines of ethnic variety.

Being an athiest I find the knowledge to be rather exciting. Almost as exciting as realizing that our bodies are evolved from the heavy elements created in exploding stars eons ago. We are the universe that has become aware of itself. Blows all of your god stories away. Because this is not a matter of 'faith' or 'belief'. No ones 'belief' is required to substantiate the facts.

Whiteness is steeped in privilege, but it doesn't guarentee you a great life.

Kit-Kat:

Because "white" is an idea of recent invention, slightly newer that the scientific conception of race. WASPs did not think of themselves as belonging to the same group as Southern or Eastern Europeans, or the Irish, or Jews. There is nothing inherent about the idea of whiteness; the Irish became "white" when WASPs became more concerned about non-English-speaking immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Jews. Then those people, except for the Jews, got to be "white" when the concern was poor black migrants from the South; the hierarchies remained, however, and all whites were certainly not created equal.

To develop this further, 1500 to 1000 years ago England had Saxons viciously discrimintating against the Celtic Welsh. Then about a thousant years ago you had the Norman conquerers discriminating against the Saxons.

In America about 250 years ago you had the mixed Norman/Anglo-Saxon Americans looking down on the low-class and more savage (and largely Celtic) Scots and Scotch-Irish who were then bringing their Hee-Haw lifestyle to Appalachia. (A lot of German and Scandinavian immigrants came over the centuries, but they largely blended in wherever they went.) About 150 years ago, the Anglo-Saxons joined with the Protestant Celts in mutual concern about the threat from the masses of Shantytown Irish Catholics coming in. This conflict lasted until the 1880s when the Irish and Protestants stopped worrying about one another to deal with the threat from Jews, Neapolitans, Sicilians, and others from Southern and Eastern Europe. By the 1960s Jews and Italians were considered "white enough" due to larger concerns about the arrival of massive numbers of black ex-sharecroppers, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans filling the cities.

The Cuban immigrants have largely assimilated, but it's been going _much_ more slowly (and sometimes backwards) with regard to the Puerto Ricans and blacks. Other Latin Americans and Mexicans arrive in large numbers, and it looks like they'll get to choose whether they want to assimilate like the Sicilians and Cubans, or join the unassimilated blacks and Puerto Ricans. The threat is so large that "white" people have to find friends wherever they can. Racist ideas are being further weakened by the arrival of very educated and cultured people from India, China, Japan, and Korea. Even assimilationist blacks are starting to be accepted.

Things have gotten so complicated that white people simply can no longer afford to concern themselves with a person's melanin level, and will have to limit their concern to things like culture, habits and values.

We are actually approaching the vision of Dr. King in which Americans no longer care about the color of a person's skin -- and instead of that having large groups of people being thoroughly detested solely due their culture and the content of their charaters.

citygurl104:

The only distinction I have of white people are those who are mostly and openly racist and those who are only a little bit and closeted racists.

That's why I never understood why the KKK hated Jews and why Irish and Italians were hated back in the early days. How can one white person hate another white person? You're all the same in that 1) you'll always have an advantage in the world and 2) you don't know what it's like to be poor unless the stock market is in a negative state.

This is some of the most overtly racist writing I've seen in quite some time. All white people are racist according to you and, what's more, were all alike and were all wealthy.

Let me tell you sister that all white people are not the same nor are they all priveleged and members of the country club. I'll grant you that per capita income is higher among whites but that's just an average. There are quite a few people of every hue living in poverty in this country and that's where our focus should lie. It's a travesty that so much poverty exists in the wealthiest nation on earth. All of our citizens should have food, shelter and access to health care at a bare minimum.

As for your question "how can one white person hate another white person?" While I don't agree with you that all whites are racist (I'm not, for example) racism and prejudice is still a huge problem in this country.

Your simplistic statement that "you're all the same..." would be disputed by white people of different ethnic, cultural, economic and religious backgrounds.

Anthropologists will tell you that nearly any group views itself as "superior" to their neighbors and more often than not they even have different names for their group and all of the "others" out there. A good example is judaism where if you're anything other than a jew (white, black, asian etc.) then you are a "gentile."

Our nation is far from perfect but the fact that we have been able to function so well with so many ethnic, cultural and religious divisions is quite remarkable. There's staill plenty of room for improvement though.

What's wrong with being rich? People talk about being wealthy, as if it is something to be ashamed of. When I grow up, I would sure like to be filthy rich. Then I would fly around the world on my private jet, and spread awareness about the danger of global warming.

You know, the Lord's work.

universe is old latin for GOD creation

check this out in a martin luther dictionary

Kit-Kat:

Because "white" is an idea of recent invention, slightly newer that the scientific conception of race. WASPs did not think of themselves as belonging to the same group as Southern or Eastern Europeans, or the Irish, or Jews. There is nothing inherent about the idea of whiteness; the Irish became "white" when WASPs became more concerned about non-English-speaking immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Jews. Then those people, except for the Jews, got to be "white" when the concern was poor black migrants from the South; the hierarchies remained, however, and all whites were certainly not created equal.

And if you think that all white people are wealthy, let alone all the same in any other way, you really don't know very many white people. Being white doesn't get you a house in the best neighborhood, or a membership at a country club: having money does that.

Indeed, even today, we make a distinction between non-Hispanic whites and Europeans by way of Latin America.

Simply put, race is more cultural than genetic, and they're arbtirary labels to separate the powers that be from the "other". That's why the Irish weren't considered white until the WASPs decided they hated white people more, and Italians weren't white until well into the 20th Century.

White is basically whoever white people decide is their own.

Do bad Martin Luther had the wrong god: the jewish Angra Mainyu.

Give this man a check!

Hogwash.

Main Entry: uni·verse Pronunciation: \ˈyü-nə-ˌvərs\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Latin universum, from neuter of universus entire, whole, from uni- + versus turned toward, from past participle of vertere to turn — more at worth Date: 14th century

Actually, recent DNA studies have shown that the Brits are much more homogeneous than you state here. 

The Irish, Welsh, Scots, and English are basically the same. The Viking, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman invasions did not affect the gene pool of the majority of the British population. Only the upper classes were Norman, for example.

Google this on the NY Times website and you'll find the article. 

There is no such thing as a genetically "primitive" human. See the National Geographic/Genographic website. We're all cousins. 

Anthropologists no longer characterize other cultures as "primitive," since those cultures are very complicated in their own ways. 

You're confusing class and race.