The White Culture ! / ? / ...

[cindelius]

I'd love to hear your thoughtful opinions on this ...

What, if anything, is the white person's culture?

Is there a distinction between "white" and "American" culture in the United States?If you're interested in hearing about the conversation that spurred this, let me know, and I'll talk to you about it in comments or AIM. I realize that "white"

Comments

[cindelius]

Thanks for responding! Sorry, I've had finals and a bunch of other things piled on top of me lately, so I haven't really been on lj.

To me, present day American culture is unfortunately synonymous with good ole white, heterosexist patriarchy. So, no, I don't see a distinction between the two...or at least not yet.
Out of curiosity, do you see a difference between American culture and English culture or any other country in which the power is held by a white, heterosexist patriarchy?

This conversation initially started because of a series of comments that were made by a privileged white male student (he happens to be homosexual, but has had a very interesting experience within this identity due to his monetary and living circumstances) that led to a two-hour conversation. He was of the opinion that immigrants should give up their culture in order to live in the United States ("Which should be easy since white people are in charge and we have no culture.") and that they should know the language to a degree of near-fluency before moving. We delved into class, access, racial, and many other issues which he previously hadn't considered due to his position. He couldn't relate to the idea of having a cultural identity that you're proud of and don't want to abandon as a result of (possibly forced) living circumstances.

Culture, to most people, is something that you live with every day and don't really notice until you move outside of your cultural space or are taught to appreciate/be-ashamed of it. He insisted that we, as white Americans, have nothing that sets us apart from any other white population. Due to the agency of being a white American living in America, I haven't had to define my culture before, but surely it exists. My experience with culture as a child and growing adolescent was having friends tell me, "You don't have any culture. You're white." For some reason, however, I can't let go of the idea that there is some sort of very subtle distinction between white culture and American culture. In traveling to other white-dominant places, there is still some cultural-shock (to a degree) for white Americans.

I posted this question because, now that I'm aware of my view, I was really curious to see how other people felt about the issue. Thanks for sharing your view with me!