Here we have: Chinese New Year A Glorious Gay Pride Week (This one I went to) A Glorious Gay Pride Parade (Went to this too) Italian Heritage Day (formerly Columbus Day) Polish Heritage Day A Irish Heritage celebration on St. Patty's A small Middle Eastern celebration type thing that is mostly the dance troupes in the area African Heritage week Enough Greek, Polish, Russian, Italian and German food festivals than you can shake a stick at. Our stadium for the Pirates has Ethnic days for the main ethnic groups of the area. The colleges have a lot of Ethnic festivals. I'd have too look and see what they have. I know the slavic department at PITT has a Russian and Eastern European Ethnic festival and show films and such
I wonder if a Jazz heritage celebration counts here too?
Yeah, sounds like SF. :-) Mmmm, we have a Greek festival here.
I deliberately left off Eurocentric ethnic festivals, though, because in the discussion I referred to above St. Paddy's Day was being compared to Chinese New Year, and in my mind, in a predominantly white country, those can be two VERY different things.
Here with very large populations of Chinese who are just here for schooling and a strong, large group of Irish, Germans and Italians there are festivals here for European groups tend to be less commercialized if you can bear to leave the strip of bars in the one area and do something that doesn't involve drinking Guinness. Pittsburgh has a lot of immigrants (and I think this is true for most of the rust belt) that even after generations have held on to some of the ethnic traditions. Here we have several pubs that you can go to regularly to hear traditional Irish music, for example.
I wouldn't make that comparison but I don't think this being a white country makes a European ethnic festival any different than those from other continents or country provided they are not commercialized. I've been to some places where the Chinese New Years is like the commercialized St. Patrick's day for people.
Here we have several pubs that you can go to regularly to hear traditional Irish music, for example.
That's true of most big American cities, though. It's not like we lack them out here in SF, oh no. :-)
I wouldn't make that comparison but I don't think this being a white country makes a European ethnic festival any different than those from other continents or country provided they are not commercialized.
I strongly disagree. If someone is celebrating being Afro-Brazilian during Carnaval in, say, Boston, and someone tells that person to get out and go back home to where they came from - well, that's just not going to happen to a German or German-American person celebrating Oktoberfest in San Francisco because there is no racism being directed at European or European descended participants in a Eurocentric festival.
I guess I have a very different view being from a European ethnic group that is treated with racism here and abroad.
There is also plenty of ethnic racism directed at Germans and Jews and Polish and such here. We have large groups of people who think Polish or Irish or whatever should get the hell out and stop ruining the city... and I shall not even go into the racism from African Americans and Hispanics toward "whites".
I have seen the Ethnic groups clash here. God forbid a Pollock go to Oktoberfest. Sadly that racism does exist. I've seen it here and in Cleveland. I almost wonder if it is a hold over from back when people first arrived and certain ethnic groups were given certain jobs in mills and factories. It's very strange but it seems to exist in the rust belt.
There is also plenty of ethnic racism directed at Germans and Jews and Polish and such here. We have large groups of people who think Polish or Irish or whatever should get the hell out and stop ruining the city... and I shall not even go into the racism from African Americans and Hispanics toward "whites".Er...I call that "bigotry," not "racism." African Americans can be bigoted towards white people (and some most certainly are). Racism is a systemic, institutional, and all-pervasive system of oppression, and sorry, African Americans don't oppress white people the same way that white people oppress African Americans. The balance sheet is nowhere equal. I think we're going to have terminology disconnect here, and I urge you to do some reading in the current discourse on racism and how it's discussed, because every time someone calls African American people "racist" against whites, I want to hit them with a cast iron skillet
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That system of oppression does exist here. Seriously.. to the point where the "white ethnicity" of a political candidate can stop other whites from voting for them
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I am not arguing that there isn't oppression and bigotry and that there isn't inter-ethnic tension, discrimination, and that there exists prejudice against recent immigrants from Africa by ALL kinds of people.
But you and I are at diametrical opposites when it comes to terminology, and frankly, given how perceptions of racism have evolved, the concept and how it is used in everything from post-colonial theory to the blogsphere has evolved.
By definition racism is any indoctrinated belief in the value of another human being based on race, culture or ethnicity that is usually paired with the idea that one's own race is superior or right. Another very basic definition is hatred or intolerance based on race.
The textbook definition no longer holds currency for a large swathe of people. Concepts of power and access to power are now bound up with the definition of racism in a way that they weren't twenty or thirty years ago
( ... )
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Chinese New Year
A Glorious Gay Pride Week (This one I went to)
A Glorious Gay Pride Parade (Went to this too)
Italian Heritage Day (formerly Columbus Day)
Polish Heritage Day
A Irish Heritage celebration on St. Patty's
A small Middle Eastern celebration type thing that is mostly the dance troupes in the area
African Heritage week
Enough Greek, Polish, Russian, Italian and German food festivals than you can shake a stick at.
Our stadium for the Pirates has Ethnic days for the main ethnic groups of the area.
The colleges have a lot of Ethnic festivals. I'd have too look and see what they have. I know the slavic department at PITT has a Russian and Eastern European Ethnic festival and show films and such
I wonder if a Jazz heritage celebration counts here too?
Reply
I deliberately left off Eurocentric ethnic festivals, though, because in the discussion I referred to above St. Paddy's Day was being compared to Chinese New Year, and in my mind, in a predominantly white country, those can be two VERY different things.
Reply
I wouldn't make that comparison but I don't think this being a white country makes a European ethnic festival any different than those from other continents or country provided they are not commercialized. I've been to some places where the Chinese New Years is like the commercialized St. Patrick's day for people.
Reply
That's true of most big American cities, though. It's not like we lack them out here in SF, oh no. :-)
I wouldn't make that comparison but I don't think this being a white country makes a European ethnic festival any different than those from other continents or country provided they are not commercialized.
I strongly disagree. If someone is celebrating being Afro-Brazilian during Carnaval in, say, Boston, and someone tells that person to get out and go back home to where they came from - well, that's just not going to happen to a German or German-American person celebrating Oktoberfest in San Francisco because there is no racism being directed at European or European descended participants in a Eurocentric festival.
Reply
There is also plenty of ethnic racism directed at Germans and Jews and Polish and such here. We have large groups of people who think Polish or Irish or whatever should get the hell out and stop ruining the city... and I shall not even go into the racism from African Americans and Hispanics toward "whites".
I have seen the Ethnic groups clash here. God forbid a Pollock go to Oktoberfest. Sadly that racism does exist. I've seen it here and in Cleveland. I almost wonder if it is a hold over from back when people first arrived and certain ethnic groups were given certain jobs in mills and factories. It's very strange but it seems to exist in the rust belt.
Reply
Reply
Reply
But you and I are at diametrical opposites when it comes to terminology, and frankly, given how perceptions of racism have evolved, the concept and how it is used in everything from post-colonial theory to the blogsphere has evolved.
By definition racism is any indoctrinated belief in the value of another human being based on race, culture or ethnicity that is usually paired with the idea that one's own race is superior or right. Another very basic definition is hatred or intolerance based on race.
The textbook definition no longer holds currency for a large swathe of people. Concepts of power and access to power are now bound up with the definition of racism in a way that they weren't twenty or thirty years ago ( ... )
Reply
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