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So what can we -those of us who recognize the emptiness of typical North American white culture- do to sate that desire for a cultural heritage we can be proud of, for a culture we -as progressives- can identify with? I guess I might need to clarify that I'm talking about something more than not hugging our kids here. I'm talking about the legacy of racism, colonialism, imperialism, genocide etc. And I'm certainly not talking about denying these parts of our past. I'm saying 1.) we have to recognize that part of the price we have incurred for what we have done over the years to our brothers and sisters we categorized as different "races" is that we now have a cultural heritage that is incredibly painful and hurtful and embarrassing (to say the least). And 2.) the way to respond to the realities of our culture and cultural heritage (that range from being spiritually empty and meaningless to a very real alienation from an enormous segment of the human population) is NOT to discover ways to dis-claim/deny our whiteness (find that Cherokee grandmother to erase your guilt) and appropriate other people's cultures/spiritualities but instead to recreate our own culture.
History is not over, folks. We white people do have a horrible past, maybe we have a horrible culture but it's not a finished product.
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Everytime you post on this blog or make a cell phone call or use a microwave, drive a car, etc., you are benefitting from 'white's people's culture' or whatever you want to call it.
You should be damn grateful for it's existence.
From: "barb howe" <http://email.email.secureserver.net/addressBookQuickAdd.php?contact=%22barb+howe%22+%3Cgotasdeagua%40lycos.com%3E>
Date: Fri, Mar 31, 2006 5:10 pm
To: NYMOM <http://email.email.secureserver.net/addressBookQuickAdd.php?contact=NYMOM+%3Cnymom%40womenasmothers.info%3E>
You're a moron.
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I posted the following excerpt from Lucky White Girl's blog and her subsequent email to me, not because it has anything to do with women in their roles as mothers, but because it was an interesting case study in how people use the blogosphere to distort reality.
The above woman entered a foolish post on her blog insulting all white people…then when she was righteous put in her place; she began attacking others for bringing attention to the post, instead of accepting responsibility for what she posted, apologizing and then making right what she did wrong. She chose to attack other bloggers claiming they were deliberately misreading her post and it was their fault, not hers.
She even went to the extent of erasing a comment I posted to her telling her that ‘her blog was as whitebread and boring” as she accused most white people of being. She then tried to claim she erased it because she didn’t allow personal insults on her blogs; although as you can see from the above email she sent she obviously started the insults first by calling me a moron.
Personally I loathe people like this. Who leech off the good western civilization has provided the world via our technological and other scientific achievements such as medical and agricultural achievements, transportation advances, communications breakthroughs including the telephone and even the internet, which has made it possible for much of the communication breakthroughs we see today bringing distant communities closer. Blogging inself is a gift from the boring white people that this person hates so much. Not to mention our form of representative government which is the model being sought for use by much of the rest of the world. Instead of celebrating all the good that 'white people' have created as represented by western civilization, instead she reaches back 200 or more years and comes up with an evil practice that every single civilization has lived through: slavery. Every single civilization has participated in this. We are no better and no worse then any other civilization. This person effectively tossed all of our other great achievements out the window labeling an entire race as boring, empty and meaningless...
I have a bi-racial grand daughter and I wish her to grow up being proud of BOTH of her heritages, not just one. As this racial bigot would like to see happen by being allowed to put out posts claiming white people steal other's culture because ours is so boring and empty...
Actually next week is Tartan Week in New York City and I'm going to bring my bi-racial grand daughter to an event where she can listen to some scottish music, see men dance in a kilt and dance herself in one I got her last month...because she has a heritage of Scotch-Irish/English and African-American roots. Hopefully I won't run into a hate-filled bigot there like this woman making comments about how people shouldn't be trying to 'steal' other people's cultures...
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