…identifying as “white” strips us of our heritage. By calling yourself white, and setting yourself against, or at least apart from, anyone not white, you’re unilaterally expanding your tribe to encompass anyone who looks like you. You end up trading the security of tradition, for mewling masses who do not share those bonds of tradition. You go from being able to identify your own, to not knowing Tom, Dick, or Harry is out to hurt your family because he has no loyalty. You trade the reasoned discussion among a small trusted cadre, to the unyielding fear of the herd. How many of us, americans specifically, know the traditions, and stories of our own people? I didn’t grow up on stories of Saxon Heroes, Gaelic Maidens, or Modoc warriors. I grew up on Power Rangers, RugRats, and Jesus. There is no secret conspiracy at play here, but rather generations of expanding “whiteness” erasing and rewriting our heritage from a varied and diverse menagerie into a bland, monocolor, mass monoculture. Of all the European cultures to make their homes on this continent few have retained their individuality, and of those only the Amish are well known. The English, Irish, Dutch, Swedish, and Spanish traditions that were brought to these shores have been blended and washed away under the idea of “whiteness.”
